G’mornin’ everyone,

Hope the coffee was strong and life is good.

I want to let everyone know what was decided regarding membership fees and restructuring of fees for ArtsConversation and membership for our agency members at last week’s annual meeting. I know a lot of presenters heard the conversation last winter at Sewanee; as you’ll recall, we came to no conclusions then and decided to ponder the situation and come to an agreement at the annual meeting.

Given that we have been operating on the original membership categories and fees since our incorporation in 2007 and that our experiment with combining agency membership with ArtsConversation registration wasn’t working as well as hoped, we elected to go back to the original method of having annual membership fees for all members and having a single fixed price for all members attending ArtsConversation conferences going forward. That price, as always, is based on our actual expenses.

So here’s the fee schedule that you’ll see reflected in your membership invoices that will hit you inboxes later this month, closer to July:

Presenters:
Memberships for those with artist fee budgets of $25K and under will remain the same at $50/year.
Memberships for those with artist fee budgets of $50K and under will increase to $100/year from $75.
Memberships for those with artist fee budgets of $100K and under will increase to $150/year from $100.
Memberships for those with artist fee budgets over $100K will increase to $200/year from $150.

Artists:
Membership fees remain unchanged at $100/yr

Agencies (we reduced the categories from 3 to 2):
Membership fees for those agencies will total billings under $1M will be $150/yr.
Membership fees for those agencies with total billing of $1M and up will be $250/yr.

Alumni Tax-Deductible Contributions will be suggested at $125 as last year thought we are open to any and all contributions from members over and able the organizational fees. Remember - we are a 501 (c) 3, which means you can deduct the contribution from your income taxes…

As you can see, we’re trying as always to help our smallest members in this effort while still balancing the fact that we’re currently operating a little too close to the financial edge to provide ongoing sustainability.

In other news, ArtsConversation prices will increase to $500 this year for the all-inclusive conference: registration, lodging, meals, and (for out of town air travelers) airport shuttle service. Remember, what this fee buys you, in addition to the signature close-knit, conversational experience, is no sales taxes on your rooms or food, plus free parking at Montgomery Bell State Park. But the folks in our state parks system have awakened to the revenue potential of conferences such as ours so not only are contracted room rates increasing, they are now in the alcoholic sales business at our reception and dinners. All that has driven our per person costs up beyond our previous $400 all-inclusive price.

Finally - and I’m thinking out loud here - given the all-inclusive bargain that is AC16 attendance, there should perhaps be a $550 or $600 registration fee for non-member agencies if they don’t opt to join TNPR at registration. The board will need to decide if it's $550 or $600 for non-members but if anyone would like to suggest one or the other and why, please email me your thoughts. They will become a valuable part of our discussion when the board convenes online in July to decide.

Thanks once again for your friendship, collaboration, and membership. This truly is a great bunch of folks to hang around and work with. If you have any questions, please email me or call.

Regards,

Bob


Robert Boyer
Executive Director
Tennessee Presenters
www.tn-presenters.org