VP Alaniz has gone and set the Richardson rates in a very unprofessional un-business like manner
I was told that the first event for the new Richardson Performance Hall was being promoted via mailings. I went to the DMC WEB Site and than the Foundation page to find a posting of the event set for November of 2006.
It appears that VP Alaniz has gone and set the Richardson rates in a very unprofessional un-business like manner, showing, no surprise, his incompetence has no limits.
I recently had the opportunity to check out the Richardson ecch "Performance Hall" home page if you can call it that. "Performance Hall" has a stuck up attitude to it. It must really sound good to those high and mighty academics and wealthy foundation types at Del Mar College who walk around with their noses in the air. Certainly the new fees will eliminate the lower classes from most performing arts events. The name really belongs more to a private university or four-year college. I had always favored the usage of "performing arts center" myself. Richardson Auditorium Performing Arts Center as opposed to Richardson Performance Hall.
Anyhow, the home page is a little lean but it does list the current price for usage as $1,800 for a For-Profit/Commercial event and $1,500 for a Non-Profit event. In order for a non-profit event to pay the bill they would have to sell 1700 seats at a minimum of $1.20 per seat. Not to bad if you sell that many seats? Since most non-profit events don't sell 1700 seats, a more realistic estimate would be for events selling 200 seats at $7.50 per seat, 400 seats at $3.75 per seat, or 800 seats at $1.88 per seat. As you can see this is why professional public assembly facilities operating to acceptable business standards have sliding scales, lower up front fees, and a percentage of ticket sales to a maximum fee. The only reason I can see for these new fees is to discriminate against the Corpus Christi non-profit community. Beyond that there are new labor fees, equipment fees and something new a "$1.50 per performance for tables, chairs, music stands, platform risers". This fee statement is poorly written, possibly purposely, so that it is not clear if this is a per item charge which in the case of a musical event could get pretty expensive for equipment the College offered inclusive in the rental fee in the past. On top of the fact that the "Haalll" is requiring an additional fee of 20% as an "administrative fee." Considering that many non-profit events in the past charged $10 a ticket to meet their expenses, ticket prices will have to go up, at least for events that don't bring in large crowds. Wouldn't want to bring those "lower classes" into a brand new upholstered and painted "Haalllll."
Then in a smoke and mirrors false advertising worthy of the small print on credit card contracts, the "Facility Usage Guidelines" lists an added fee of eight percent per ticket for "all events in which an admission is collected". It claims to cover "administrative expenses." In a little twist of terminology, this 8% may be deducted from "all revenue generated as per the Rental Rates". How about some straight talk? Which is it? If the eight percent exceeds the rental fee does the College keep it as an administrative fee? Is it only to the maximum stated rental fee? Then wouldn't it be the rental fee not "administrative expenses?" It appears that there has been some plagiarism going on here? I suspect that this document may have been copied from some other facility where the rental is referred to as "revenue" as opposed to Del Mar College where it is referred to as "Rental Fees?" Of course they could just be incompetence or purposely deceptive? This shows a lack of public facility management business sense. Why not just be upfront about it all? Or is there some ulterior motive here to bill enemies differently than friends? Then there is another additional charge of $2.00 per ticket for a facility use fee that must be included in the ticket price and a $4.50 additional charge to the ticket buyer if they don't buy the ticket at the door. For a small event in the 200 seat range this brings the base price before the expense of the performance for the non-profit to $9.50 per ticket and the minimum base price to someone buying the ticket on the WEB or telephone to $14.00 before the actual cost of the performers is considered. .
I have checked the DMC choice of on-line ticketing and it is disappointing. But considering the way they are sticking it to groups who would rent the auditorium, it is not surprising that the ticketing software would be so consumer unfriendly, particularly when their first event is asking $200 for orchestra seats. For a community college there appears to be little sense of community here. The on line ticketing software does not provide a seating chart or as some more sophisticated ticketing software provides, a view of the stage from the seats you have chosen. I checked the link for this software company and they don't appear to have very many users although they show a map of the USA. Click on a state and I couldn't find more than four or five users each in Texas, California or New York.
Concerning this "Facility Usage Guidelines" document. I suspect that if the current manager insists on following these guidelines, he will continue to make a lot of enemies in the Corpus Christi Performing Arts Community. Most non-profits are not well organized and do not have the funds to pay employees to plan these events in the detail the Hall Manager requires. What is he going to do when some one needs a table or music stand at the last minute? There has to be some flexibility? There will be a great deal of room for favoritism for those groups who are friends of DMC regents, administrators and faculty. Too bad if your not on the A list.
In my proposal I included all the rules in the auditorium contract. Everyone, including the Foundation, and faculty would sign the same basic contract. I proposed a much fairer system, which would favor local community non-profit groups, make their expenses deductible from their fees and make additional funding available to them if the auditorium were used to its fullest potential. I also proposed a superior ticketing software to what was chosen. It including a seating chart and views of the stage form the seats chosen. In the past, all Auditorium revenue went to "auxiliary funds". Under questioning by ex-Regent Dorothy Spahn, the VP of Business and Finance claimed that a percentage of "auxiliary funds" were used for student scholarships. I never heard any explanation for what was done with the "auxiliary funds" that were not used for student scholarship. As VP Alaniz never offered the information, even under Regents questioning I can only assume the answer would embarrass Mr. Alaniz and the College. The only benefit of all these fees would be if the income went to the facility and could be used to book additional events for purposes of profit to help offset non-profit events. Even so the ends do not justify the means. An expression that should be the first line of DMC Policy, as it seems to be the excuse for most of the evil committed at the College. It now appears that the days are gone when local community groups could depend on Richardson Auditorium being available to them and that was never my intention when I fought so hard to make the auditorium a safer, healthier and performance friendly environment for all of us. This is truly a shame as the arts are a major factor in the growth of a community like Corpus Christi. Beach resort developments make the rich, richer and the poor, poorer (apart from increasing our insurance rates.) The arts, theaters and galleries can make everyone richer.
Howard Karsh, retired Richardson Auditorium Manager, Candidate for DMC Regents, District 5
It appears that VP Alaniz has gone and set the Richardson rates in a very unprofessional un-business like manner, showing, no surprise, his incompetence has no limits.
I recently had the opportunity to check out the Richardson ecch "Performance Hall" home page if you can call it that. "Performance Hall" has a stuck up attitude to it. It must really sound good to those high and mighty academics and wealthy foundation types at Del Mar College who walk around with their noses in the air. Certainly the new fees will eliminate the lower classes from most performing arts events. The name really belongs more to a private university or four-year college. I had always favored the usage of "performing arts center" myself. Richardson Auditorium Performing Arts Center as opposed to Richardson Performance Hall.
Anyhow, the home page is a little lean but it does list the current price for usage as $1,800 for a For-Profit/Commercial event and $1,500 for a Non-Profit event. In order for a non-profit event to pay the bill they would have to sell 1700 seats at a minimum of $1.20 per seat. Not to bad if you sell that many seats? Since most non-profit events don't sell 1700 seats, a more realistic estimate would be for events selling 200 seats at $7.50 per seat, 400 seats at $3.75 per seat, or 800 seats at $1.88 per seat. As you can see this is why professional public assembly facilities operating to acceptable business standards have sliding scales, lower up front fees, and a percentage of ticket sales to a maximum fee. The only reason I can see for these new fees is to discriminate against the Corpus Christi non-profit community. Beyond that there are new labor fees, equipment fees and something new a "$1.50 per performance for tables, chairs, music stands, platform risers". This fee statement is poorly written, possibly purposely, so that it is not clear if this is a per item charge which in the case of a musical event could get pretty expensive for equipment the College offered inclusive in the rental fee in the past. On top of the fact that the "Haalll" is requiring an additional fee of 20% as an "administrative fee." Considering that many non-profit events in the past charged $10 a ticket to meet their expenses, ticket prices will have to go up, at least for events that don't bring in large crowds. Wouldn't want to bring those "lower classes" into a brand new upholstered and painted "Haalllll."
Then in a smoke and mirrors false advertising worthy of the small print on credit card contracts, the "Facility Usage Guidelines" lists an added fee of eight percent per ticket for "all events in which an admission is collected". It claims to cover "administrative expenses." In a little twist of terminology, this 8% may be deducted from "all revenue generated as per the Rental Rates". How about some straight talk? Which is it? If the eight percent exceeds the rental fee does the College keep it as an administrative fee? Is it only to the maximum stated rental fee? Then wouldn't it be the rental fee not "administrative expenses?" It appears that there has been some plagiarism going on here? I suspect that this document may have been copied from some other facility where the rental is referred to as "revenue" as opposed to Del Mar College where it is referred to as "Rental Fees?" Of course they could just be incompetence or purposely deceptive? This shows a lack of public facility management business sense. Why not just be upfront about it all? Or is there some ulterior motive here to bill enemies differently than friends? Then there is another additional charge of $2.00 per ticket for a facility use fee that must be included in the ticket price and a $4.50 additional charge to the ticket buyer if they don't buy the ticket at the door. For a small event in the 200 seat range this brings the base price before the expense of the performance for the non-profit to $9.50 per ticket and the minimum base price to someone buying the ticket on the WEB or telephone to $14.00 before the actual cost of the performers is considered. .
I have checked the DMC choice of on-line ticketing and it is disappointing. But considering the way they are sticking it to groups who would rent the auditorium, it is not surprising that the ticketing software would be so consumer unfriendly, particularly when their first event is asking $200 for orchestra seats. For a community college there appears to be little sense of community here. The on line ticketing software does not provide a seating chart or as some more sophisticated ticketing software provides, a view of the stage from the seats you have chosen. I checked the link for this software company and they don't appear to have very many users although they show a map of the USA. Click on a state and I couldn't find more than four or five users each in Texas, California or New York.
Concerning this "Facility Usage Guidelines" document. I suspect that if the current manager insists on following these guidelines, he will continue to make a lot of enemies in the Corpus Christi Performing Arts Community. Most non-profits are not well organized and do not have the funds to pay employees to plan these events in the detail the Hall Manager requires. What is he going to do when some one needs a table or music stand at the last minute? There has to be some flexibility? There will be a great deal of room for favoritism for those groups who are friends of DMC regents, administrators and faculty. Too bad if your not on the A list.
In my proposal I included all the rules in the auditorium contract. Everyone, including the Foundation, and faculty would sign the same basic contract. I proposed a much fairer system, which would favor local community non-profit groups, make their expenses deductible from their fees and make additional funding available to them if the auditorium were used to its fullest potential. I also proposed a superior ticketing software to what was chosen. It including a seating chart and views of the stage form the seats chosen. In the past, all Auditorium revenue went to "auxiliary funds". Under questioning by ex-Regent Dorothy Spahn, the VP of Business and Finance claimed that a percentage of "auxiliary funds" were used for student scholarships. I never heard any explanation for what was done with the "auxiliary funds" that were not used for student scholarship. As VP Alaniz never offered the information, even under Regents questioning I can only assume the answer would embarrass Mr. Alaniz and the College. The only benefit of all these fees would be if the income went to the facility and could be used to book additional events for purposes of profit to help offset non-profit events. Even so the ends do not justify the means. An expression that should be the first line of DMC Policy, as it seems to be the excuse for most of the evil committed at the College. It now appears that the days are gone when local community groups could depend on Richardson Auditorium being available to them and that was never my intention when I fought so hard to make the auditorium a safer, healthier and performance friendly environment for all of us. This is truly a shame as the arts are a major factor in the growth of a community like Corpus Christi. Beach resort developments make the rich, richer and the poor, poorer (apart from increasing our insurance rates.) The arts, theaters and galleries can make everyone richer.
Howard Karsh, retired Richardson Auditorium Manager, Candidate for DMC Regents, District 5
posted by Jaime Kenedeño @ 1:31 AM
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