gav8298 Posted February 24, 2008 Share Posted February 24, 2008 Hi all. This is my first post on what looks like a great forum- I'm sure I'll be making many more! I work as a stage technician for an upper school/arts college and am about to embark on an overhaul of our auditorium. Currently in a poor state, the 12m x 8m stage is supported by only 30 sockets on 3 bars (including FOH) and 12 dimmer channels controlled via analogue by a tempremental Pulsar Masterpeice desk. Please don't ask, none of this was my doing... It's an embarassment sending my spec sheets to companies wishing to use the space as the infrastructure is so out of date. I've gone ahead and received quotes to modernise with double capacity, DMX, new desk etc and am looking at around 20k which the school is obviously refusing to pay. I notice that many of you are technicians in schools and would be interested in hearing whether any of you have succesfully raised money for this type of thing before? Is there any advice you can offer? also I apologise to the moderators if I have placed this question in the wrong topic area- seemed the most relevant to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted February 24, 2008 Share Posted February 24, 2008 Not answering your question <_<, but can I recommend the School Theatre Support Group http://www.stsg.org.uk/ who have an active private subforum here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gav8298 Posted February 24, 2008 Author Share Posted February 24, 2008 Thanks Bruce. I've found more support bodies in the past 2 minutes than I ever did in the past 2 years! It's great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ83 Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Some things to look at to get the school governors and senior staff on your side:How can the space be used to benefit the whole school?- Is the auditorium used for assemblies, enhancing staff training days, hired out to bring in some extra ££?Can it be used to enrich the students learning?- Are you able to run a technical club where students can use this new equipment and learn new skills ("value added learning" I think are the new buzz words). Also, does your school have the Arts Status or some other outside funding you could use? A creative accountant is always bonus. <_< If you already have some quotes is there anything on those that you could do in-house to save some money? Leave power and structural things to qualified people but bits like wiring up your own DMX or audio patches could save you some money. Edit: laptop/user error - pressed Post by mistake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Not really a short-term fix, but make the facilities work for the budget-raising.Get the school involved in producing some fund-raising activities which can be directly attributed to the project - ie not swallowed up back into general school funds. If the school already run performances of ANY kind, look at a year's worth of events and decide on a reasonable hire-in kit list and a cost for each one. Present this to the governors as a yearly total, outlining how much better it would make the puils and the school look with better facilities, and demonstrate how for certain items purchase can be cheaper than regular hire. Either way you'll have to do some serious selling! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Well, 20K is a tiny sum in their overall budget, but you need two things. A supportive head and Chair of Governors. And... a year. Everyone figts for their share of the pot -it's a really big pot - but you could have the caretakers asking for 100 grand for new heating or a car park re-surface, the kitchens needing new kit for H&S reasons etc etc and your 20K fights against them. You also need support - as your bid and all the others get discussed when you are not there - and let's face it, most other departments don't think much of the 'use' of arts subjects. So a good plan, showing the benefits is critical for NEXT year - and one tip. Make sure the quote is capable of being shrunk. Always make certain there are some swish items in it that can be cut. It's frequent to be told your proposal has been approved but only for 80% - so you need to build this in, to cut things without ruining it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
congoblues Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 All great advice so far, and if I can chuck in my 2p worth... I'd really hammer the "enrichment to the whole school" and "future revenue" approaches - think about all the possible uses for the space once it's finished such as visiting theatre, TIE, dance companies and even conference facilities for hire. Another thing you could suggest is that parents/governers/public could sponsor rooms and/or kit once it's done to recuperate some of the finances. The recently refurbished school I work at has sold all of it's seats at £150 each and two of the five "rooms" that make up the theatre within the first few months. You could also appeal to parents for help in other ways - you never know! One of the parents here owns a small sound/light company and has made a few small donations. I would look at companies that run schemes to support educational establishment such as Zero88 or Selecon. It might also be worth looking at schools of similar standards to see what facilities they have for comparison - especially if your school is in direct competition with another local school that has better facilities! Hope this helps and good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingjohno Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 One big thing I can recommend is the 'technical group' club idea. The 'lighting technician' at our school is a teacher who works at a theatre in his spare time, however he's very good at his job. He began a 'lighting and sound club', teaching how to use the various pieces of equipment, as well as the club being incharge of the technical sides of the school play and concerts. Now the school are about to spend a large amount of money based solely on this club and the work of the drama and music department, in refurbishing the school hall. They are also thinking of introducing a qualification course based solely on the technical side of things (is it Btec?). I'd makes sure you do a few things before approaching the governors: - Start a 'technical' club- Draw out a five year plan, of how you could use the equipment over 5 years, and the benefits it will have to the school.- Show them whether you could in the end profit from renting the hall, and the potential income it could provide. As well as what it could be spent on with further equipment for technical, as well as for helping all students in 'Performing Arts'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gav8298 Posted February 25, 2008 Author Share Posted February 25, 2008 All great advice, I can see I've got a lot to work on. Thank you all. Congo, I'm interested in this "buy a seat" thing, could you explain a little more on how it works? What do people get when they "buy a seat"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnno Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Our school has some old boys and girls who like to come to our shows and who are willing to cough up the odd couple of grand every now and then. I write the begging letters and have just re-draped the stage at their expense. Probably no use to you at present but worth bearing in mind. PS. Join us on the STSG forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Congo, I'm interested in this "buy a seat" thing, could you explain a little more on how it works? What do people get when they "buy a seat"?We did the same when we re-equipped the auditorium a few years back, though we still haven't sold them all... You send a letter out (via the school office) to every child inviting parents and friends to buy or sponsor a seat for x pounds, then slap an engraved nameplate on a seat that hey can then go in and look at to say "We bought that one" Simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
congoblues Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 Gav, Just as Ynot says you could either put a small plaque on the seat or I believe we'll be going for a display in the foyer of the seating plan with the name of the sponsor on each seat. A letter to all parents would be a great idea and if your school has a newsletter, publication or website then you could put something in that too. And of course a very polite thank you letter to anyone that does donate would go down well. One more thought - I know of one school that works with a decent local amature dramatics company... The school allows the company access to the theatre for five to six weeks (three shows per year) outside of term time in return for finances to cover costs and then a percentage of ticket sales. The company also makes donations for new items of equipment from time to time to cut down on their own hire costs. This may be worth looking into not just for the possible finances but the local contacts that may be made through the company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 Consider buying into the dark and dirty side first! Things like Power supply and rated bars to hold lamps. That way you can always hire the latest gizmo and have somewhere to put it and something to power it from. Having a bar full of lanterns with no power is no use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 Hire is a big problem for many schools and colleges - the odd way their budgets work means that sometimes hire is out of the question because it won't end up on the asset list - it kind of becomes a 'running cost' and vanishes from the department budget to the general budget, usually controlled by somebody who thinks the arts should have been scrapped years ago. Schools rarely have proper business practices, just what they've been told to do by the local authority. My sons old school had a new lift put in when the DDA came into being, but hadn't budgeted for the replacement cables and other consumable items required at the service points - so their running cost budget had to pay, so no lighting hire for their end of year show, as in previous years, just because they'd had a lift! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ83 Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 It makes me very grateful that my school has a business manager who is quite flexible with the funds. I've never had any problems with hiring equipment when needed (lighting/stage hire is always put in the budget at the start of the year). If he see's us repeatedly hiring the same things he's normally the first to say "I'll see what we have left at the end of the year if we can buy them" (within reason of course, a couple of floods or Fresnel's a year). Unfortunately my 5 year plan is something like:Year 1 - continue trying to use existing equipment to the full.Year 2+3 - watch the hall and the rest of the school get demolished thanks to BSF (building schools for the future). Pray that the new building has taken some notice of acoustics and stage design into consideration.Year 4+5 - If I haven't left by this time get back to putting shows on and enjoying my work! I think any secondary schools planning new installation work should be mindful of BSF and when it will hit their site (sometime in the next 10 years). Some equipment will be transferable but not everything will be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.