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Finances and Forensics |
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Updated June 20, 2005
Prepared by Jim Hanson
1. Ways to Lower Fees at Tournaments you Host 2. Ways
to lower the cost of Research 3. Reduce Costs of Travel to Tournament TOURNAMENT
DIRECTORS--LOWER THE COST OF TROPHIES o
Get
bids for low cost trophies. Send out an RFP (Request for Proposals) itemizing
the desired trophies and asking local vendors for binding bids. Choose the
lowest bid. o
Use
local art for trophies. Consider encouraging students in your school's art
department to do projects to make trophies. o
Use
ribbons, certificates, flowers, old trophies, typewriters for awards o
Use
less expensive trophies like less wood and marble, more glassware, toy
animals, pottery, and t-shirts TOURNAMENT
DIRECTORS-HELP NEW, POORLY FUNDED PROGRAMS o
Waive
or reduce fees for new programs and programs with small budgets o
Include
a statement in your invitation that explicitly requests poorly funded
programs to contact you about fee waivers. TOURNAMENT
DIRECTORS-LOWER THE COST OF JUDGING o
Try
to get volunteer judges; encourage local business leaders to judge and write
letters for their efforts o
Require
teaching assistants, including those not in the speech-debate program, to
judge rounds for the program. Make it part of their job; it helps you and
gives them something to put on their Vita. o
Encourage
alumni judging as a "donation" to the program o
Make
a requirement in an undergraduate class (basic public speaking; argumentation
and debate class) to judge at your tournament (especially your high school
tournament). You can also give extra credit for judging or establish an
assignment in an undergraduate class to write critiques of public
presentations and let the students do judging at the tournament to fulfill
the requirements of the assignment. TOURNAMENT
DIRECTORS-GET SPONSORS FOR YOUR TOURNAMENT o
Look
for sponsorships for the tournament; have them pay for trophies, ballots,
etc. TOURNAMENT
DIRECTORS-LOWER TRAVEL COSTS FOR PARTICIPANTS o
Offer
discounts for long-distance travelers o
Offer
free lodging in residence hall rooms, student rooms, gyms, etc. o
Provide
transportation from the tournament hotel to the tournament site and from the
airport to and from the hotel. This reduces the need for expensive rental
vans and cars. You can save programs hundreds of dollars by doing this. o
Design
your schedule so that other people need to spend the least number of nights
at a hotel. This can save programs hundreds of dollars in hotel and food
costs and it means students and coaches spend more time at home. As you do
this, maintain concern for safety for when people travel to and from the
tournament. For example, start your tournament Friday evening and end mid-day
Sunday. o
Arrange
group rates with airlines that fly into your city or area. o
Arrange
discount rates at hotels for your tournament, especially if you have a
tournament hotel o
Work
with other schools to offer swings to provide most the rounds for the buck.
Consider hosting two tournaments at your school during one weekend. For
example, maybe a short IE tournament on Friday before you begin your regular
tournament on Friday evening. TOURNAMENT
DIRECTORS-IDEAS AT THE END OF YOUR TOURNAMENT o
Send
portions of profits to groups supporting debate like the IMPACT coalition,
the Soros foundation, the Urban Debate League, and Daniel Webster foundation. o
Send
letters to the administrations of programs who participated at your
tournament and laud the achievements of the students and coaches at the
program. This builds up support for the program. 2. LOWER COSTS OF RESEARCH AND PREPARING BRIEFS COACHES--ALTERNATIVES
TO LEXIS
COACHES-LOWER
PHOTOCOPY COSTS o
Encourage
students to do more research on-line. Even consider a scanner with an OCR
program to turn scans into text documents. You'll save money by printing
instead of photocopying and have easier access to the files than in huge
cabinet files. o
Soon
you will be able to promote electronic evidence read off of student portable
computers. o
Encourage
students to put more evidence on each page to reduce photocopying costs 3. REDUCE TRAVEL COSTS TO TOURNAMENTS COACHES-FIND LESS
EXPENSIVE HOUSING/HOTELS o
Share
hotel rooms. Be sure to check your school's regulations concerning this o
Get
roll-aways for hotel rooms so you can fit 5 in a room o
Request
discounts from hotel chains that you frequently visit. o
Try
discount hotel websites such as www.expedia.com
and www.priceline.com o
Request
discount rates, AAA discounts, corporate rates, special rates, government
rates, etc. o
Stay
at cheaper tournament motels and hotels like Motel 6's etc. o
Drive
an RV on long trips. Watch movies on the way to nationals, eat without
stopping, and sleep in a bed. o
Stay
at homes of alumni, students, parents, etc. o
Stay
in residence hall rooms, a gym, etc., at the tournament you attend. COACHES-REDUCE
THE COSTS OF FOOD o
Buy
an ice chest and fill it with sandwiches and cold drinks. o
Pack
lunches for the drive instead of fast food; it is healthier and cheaper. o
Buy
groceries instead of eating out all the time o
Go
to cheap food, fast food. Remember, as a coach, you may have more disposable
income than students o
Students
with food plans on their home campus can get meals packed to take along, at
least for the first day. o
Request
free food at tournament schools with meal plans from the same food service
company. COACHES-REDUCE
TRAVEL COSTS o
Drive
your own cars and have students drive their own cars to tournaments. o
Share
vans or rent a bus to tournaments. Have one coach in the area work out the
logistics and then other schools should cooperate. o
Note:
Be careful about driving personal cars and sharing vans among schools due to
liability concerns Some schools have insurance regulations that prohibit such
transportation from happening. COACHES-GENERAL
TOURNAMENT COST REDUCTIONS o
Choose
less expensive tournaments and tournaments with lower fees o
Go
to tournaments that are closer. COACHES-LOWER
AIRFARE COSTS o
Order
tickets during air wars. o
Make
links in your web browser to cheap airlines. o
http://www.southwest.com/ Southwest
Airlines o
Buy
a national paper like USA Today, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and keep
up with the lowest ticket prices. o
Work
with travel agents to reduce fees o
If
you live in a smaller town, consider driving to a nearby major city to fly as
fares are often much lower. Questions or Comments? Send mail to Jim Hanson at hansonjb@whitman.edu. |
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