We have a Sydney Testers evening with James Bach coming up soon and you might be curious to know why we are charging $5 for it when it seems we have a sponsor for the event (Campaign Monitor). There are actually a few reasons to try this model that I will explain in detail.
Ongoing costs
Meetup charges US$14.99/month for any big meetup and the organizing committee often foots the bill for this. There were times we were buying name badges and accessories for events. There’s been a few occasions when the organizing committee have footed the bill for food (I paid for the pizza for Michael Bolton’s talk expecting to be able to claim it back later but couldn’t). Sometimes we have sponsorship for food scrape through at the last minute. For example our bug bounty discussion panel at Prospa, Prospa did an awesome job of hosting us but didn’t have the budget for food and drinks. We had Bug Crowd confirm the day before the event that they were able to sponsor food and drinks. It would be nice to have some buffer of money/sponsorship so these moments aren’t as stressful. Our average meetup generally costs our sponsors anywhere from $200 to $500.
Turn out rates
The meetup average drop out rate is around 50%, plus or minus 10% depending on things like the weather and location of the event. This can have an impact on food budgeting and moral. With a paid event the drop out rate is expected to be around the 20-30%. It makes it easier on organizers who are catering food to organize if the RSVP numbers match up to reality. We also get a better vibe. Imagine expecting to turn up to an event where 100 people RSVP’d and only 40 people turned up. You’d feel a little disappointment with the turn out. As an organizer it would suck your motivation for running future events too.
Lost funds
The previous committee had a paypal account set up and linked to Meetup but when the organizer left, the paypal account left with them and that means any previous funds we had raised (like when Michael Bolton came to Sydney and we charged $10 per person for) we actually never saw that. Which is a sucky situation to come to terms with but it’s the current situation. That’s why we haven’t charged for anything since then because we wanted to try and sort it out. This time we’ve just started from scratch with a write off for the previous balance.
Paypal setup
Paypal takes a 4.4% cut out of every transaction so for every $5 ticket sold we get $4.57. Currently I re-jigged an old business account I had set up for my tutoring services. The account has been shared with the committee so if one person leaves existing members still have access. You might see Sam’s Tutoring on your receipts until we update the details.
Free events
We will continue to run free events that benefit members, if you want to help organize any or have ideas for events that you’d like to attend hit us up. We are always open for ideas. The CV clinics we’ve been running this month came about from discussions in the pub. So please, suggest your ideas, we’d also appreciate if you helped with an event or two.
Any profits will be donated to charities
For James Bach event, Campaign Monitor has selected the drought appeal where profits will be contributed. You don’t need to worry about me profiteering from this event.
Investing in your education
Isn’t it worth spending a few dollars to support the community, your education and the drought appeal? These are just our first steps towards managing this meetup just a little better. We are always open to suggestions.