Follow the Bouchercon money

Want to know how much is taken in and spent at a Bouchercon? Al Navis and the folks who ran BCon 2004 in Toronto have released some financials, available at Jon Jordan's Central Crime Zone. Bottom line? Revenue, in the form of memberships, banquet tickets, program advertising space, dealer room space rentals & auction proceeds totaled $302,729 CDN. Expenditures totaled $272,729 for a cool $30,000 surplus.

A surplus that was then donated to various literary groups in Toronto. Specifically, 25 grand to the Frontier College Foundation and $5K to Parkdale-Project Read, a 30 year old literacy program.

And to quote from the press release - since they say it better than I could - "by running a totally transparent convention, financially speaking, and by donating all surplus funds to legitmate charities, it is the fervent wish of the Toronto Committee that past Bouchercons who haven’t yet made their financial positions clear, do so now and that all future events operate in a likewise transparent manner."

A manner that will be repeated for the 2008 Bouchercon in Baltimore, and hopefully, those that follow thereafter. And maybe the release of public information will serve as a good kick in the butt for those who ran past BCons and haven't anted up any info of their own....

Comments

[Patricia]

I am so proud to have been a member of the great team that put on the Toronto Bouchercon 2004. The highlight was in the handing over of those cheques last November, it made all the hard work worth it. Let us hope that this can become a model for future Bouchercons

[Elaine Flinn]

I'm so glad to know that honesty is alive and well - and still a practiced virtue. And to echo Patricia's post - it WAS a great team and a super conference.

[Jan Burke]

It's so refreshing to see this needed transparency.

The members of the mystery community should stop to think about *all* the events and organizations for which they annually writes checks, and ask if they really know where that money is going, who decides where it's going, what the levels of openness and accountability are in those organizations.

Seriously, think about it. They're your hard-earned dollars. Do you know how they're being spent?

Thanks are due to the Toronto volunteers, not only for the tremendous amount of work, but also for their openness.

[Stacey Cochran]

I agree. I think it should be SOP to release financial/budget information for conventions like Bouchercon. As members, we have a vested interest in knowing where our money went and whether the convention was a success financially.

SC

[Andi]

For the record, the standing rules of Bouchercon do require this accounting (see http://www.bouchercon.info/)
"# At the business meeting, the Conference Committee Chair must provide The Standing Committee members with an accounting of the projected finances of their Bouchercon.
# Within ninety days of the end of each Bouchercon, the Conference Committee Chair must provide each Standing Committee member with an accounting of the finances of the Bouchercon.
# Within ninety days of the end of each Bouchercon, the Conference Committee Chair must pass on the membership list from the previous Bouchercon to the Chair of the Standing Committee and the next three Bouchercon Conference Committee Chairs."
The catch is, of course, that if it's not done, there is no "enforcement" to be used against someone who does not abide by the rules.

[Patricia]

Right you are Andi, but to date (at least in the last few Bouchercons) there have never been any financial statements turned in...of course the Standing Committee does not have the means to compel any of the host cities to provide the statements either, which is why I hope that the trend will not stop with Toronto but will continue on with Chicago, Madison and Baltimore and any other future Bouchercons

[Al Navis]

To Elaine and Jan...thanks, but without the authors, we'd have empty halls.

To Andi...a suggestion to amend the rule for future Bcons. Ninety days is practically unattainable. It took us almost a year to get all our receivables in. And then there was the levels of government as we were registered as a not-for-profit organization. Only a couple days ago I got a cheque from the Canadian govermnent for $28.00!!! So even 19 months after the event, there are still things happening.

But the bottom line is that Vegas and Chicago should release financials. I don't care if Deen Kogan made money. If she did, great, just be up front about it. She's done so much for the mystery community in the past that there are very few people who would begrudge her making a bit of a profit from Vegas and Chicago to cover all those Mid-Atlantics that she ran where she may not have broken even...just tell us!