Following our appeal last Wednesday asking for information (with no reward) about the latest user numbers for the White Elephant Enclosure we found a screwed up and dog eared piece of paper on the office doormat when we arrived for work yesterday morning.
We smoothed out the creases and passed it on to local mathematical genius, Karen Vorderbum for comment.
Karen has confirmed that the usual five regular groups who use the WEE to meet hasn’t changed,which means a massive estimated 160 people used the WEE over the last two months.
There were ten performances scheduled at the WEE during this two month period, so that’s roughly one a week.
Turning to these events individually The Woodworkers musical night was a direct hire, and 113 tickets were sold, netting a total of £2655. The WEE accounting system allows for all ticket sales and the hire charge to be included in full as income.
Of this figure £1699.74 was paid out to the promoter of this event, leaving the WEE with £955.76 to cover the hire charge of £480, box office fees and a couple of extra amounts the WEE staff thought up on the spot to cover the fact that they can’t use a calculator. The payment out will not appear as an entry in the expenditure column.
Two sessions of the bought-in event aimed at children ‘It’s a Smalltown World’ attracted a mere 15 attendees across the two shows, despite being free to attend. Obviously this wasn’t expected to result in any income for the WEE but can still be declared a ‘roaring success’.
There is no mention of the scheduled Theatre National Live Screening of popular comedy ‘Ratbag’, two tickets were sold, so it wasn’t exactly popular. However it has now been confirmed that the Blitz Cinema are going to be screening live performances from the Theatre National and, as the WEE can’t compete with the cheaper ticket prices and more comfortable seats, there will be no future events of this type at the WEE. So that’s some money saved.
Smalltown’s Mystic Mick’s rival Haig Norris hired the WEE for an evening of spirit stalking. 84 tickets were sold, meaning that the WEE was able to add £1260 to income. Mr Haig was paid £511.36, leaving the WEE with £748.74 to cover the £480.00 hire fee and as many extras as the WEE staff could dream up.
Another direct hire of the WEE was for a Dance Workshop aimed at children. 143 children attended bringing a further £858 pounds into the ‘Box Office Revenue’ income column. This should result in a payment of £378 to the organiser, but as yet nothing has appeared in the accounts.
The WEE had success with the Whinge and Racket Drag act, which took place in late July. This was organised on a 70/30 split which should have seen the performers net £1200 and the WEE £540, an additional £60 over the usual direct hire cost. The performers did see an eventual payment £672.75 – based on ticket sales less hire charges, a payment of £345.00 to the in-house compulsory theatre technicians, box office fees, cleaning costs, elephant feed, and a compulsory donation to Dictator Dullard’s hairdressing costs
The Timmy Hooper comedy tribute was cancelled by the promoter due to lack of ticket sales. It is unclear if the WEE received either a deposit or full payment for the hire.
Despite claims in the media that ’50 people’ attended the Comedy Night event, only 46 tickets were sold, which would mean income of £598. The full cost to the WEE of hosting these evenings has not been revealed, but two deposits of £650 have been paid out, a total of £1300.00.
There’s no doubt that the new accounting system, which counts all ticket sales as income, even if the money is paid out again, certainly makes the figures look good. Not including the amounts paid out to the various performers and promoters as expenditure is a masterstroke of genius.
Unfortunately this does mean that the figures promoted to illustrate how much of a success the White Elephant Enclosure is, doesn’t equate to money in the bank. Not to worry, former Councillor Fencesitter, Deputy Dictator Sherry, Squire Teflon, the Smalltown Administration Guru et al don’t see a problem.