Your new Board of Directors has kicked off the year with many important tasks on their plate. Valerie Cornejo, our CBA Treasurer, formed a “budget committee” made up of new and returning Directors at the October meeting and the committee presented their findings at the November Board Meeting. The goal for this new Board is to look very carefully at each and every one of our events to maximize our funds and to hopefully make budgeting easier for members producing events in their geographic areas.
We continue to utilize QuickBooks as our financial tool and the budget committee presented four years of historical data plus 2018 budget projections in an easier to use format. We have always been very careful with our finances since we have such a small margin but the new format makes things easier to visualize.
EVERY expense for our festival and other activities has gone up except radio rental and postage. The use of personal cell phones and the Internet has decreased radio and postage costs. Everything else: fairground and venue fees, portapotties, licensing/permits, insurance and ASCAP and BMI expenses and cleaning expenses have gone up each year. We now have a better way of closely looking at all our income and expense and projecting into the future.
Our involvement at the IBMA World of Bluegrass is funded by our instrument raffle and donations. The CBA Youth Program is separately funded. Every other “program”: Administrative (includes Mercantile, membership, Bluegrass Breakdown and website for example), Campouts, Concerts (Including the Sonoma County Bluegrass and Folk Festival), Great 48, Music Camp, Old Time Campout, etc. is managed out of our general funds. As the number of our activities grow, it is more important than ever to be able to look at how our “bottom line” is impacted.
We see an immediate need for someone to step up and help us increase our advertising and sponsorship. The CBA will pay a percentage of any income to that talented individual who can reach out to increase our number of advertisers. If you are that individual please contact Geoff Sargent, our new Chairman. We have printed tools and historical data available to help you.
Our CBA “branding” project is well underway and hopefully there will be visible results seen after the Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival. The Board selected a CBA Member professional to develop a new logo and new “advertising” tools. The CBA recognized that we needed to update our public presence as society has moved from paper to electrons and as our membership demographic is changing from majority Baby Boomer to Gen X and Millennial. This project will impact everything our “public” sees: logo, advertising, and correspondence. (I am moving from CBA stationary and stamps to electronic tax deduction letters for example).
2018 will be a year for the CBA to strategically plan for the future so we can continue to fulfill our mission. We have a positive 40+-year track record of keeping the music alive in California and we plan to be viable for the next 40 years.
