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Presentation Notes
Thank you for joining us for this session where we will discuss “The Efficient Event” This session is suppose to be an interactive session. Your best resource for what works best are those sitting around you. What I have found is there are organizations support Directors of M&O, IT, BO’s and Supers (APPA, School Plant Managers, the ASBO’s, COSN)but I have not found an organization that supports what those of you in this room do every day.
Cost Recovery StudyAnalysis of 1,000+ school districts, colleges
and private schools, including interviewsFocused on how educational professionals are
coping with– Demand for community use of school facilities– Financial burdens on budgets and operating
staffs due to the growing use of school facilities by the community
– Sentiment that school facilities should be used more frequently because taxpayers and other stakeholders have invested billions in these assets
RECOVERING COSTS FOR THE COMMUNITY USE OF OUR SCHOOLS:
A White Paper Examining the Successful Implementation of Cost Recovery
Programs in our Schools.
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Presentation Notes
Part of the Data we will talk about data came from SchoolDude’s community facility use cost recovery study. It’s a great resource to help you justify the need for a cost recovery program that protects your budget and mission of educating students, while still serving the community with well maintained facilities at affordable rates. We will be giving you information at the end how you can get a copy of this survey.
Event Scheduling is Complicated!
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Why do you need that support? That is because Event Scheduling is Complicated, It is Political and without a good process in place it can be very in efficient. Nationally After-hours facility use requests are on the rise. Almost 24/7. And most organizations want to accommodate the rising needs of their community. This leaves you with limited resources and shrinking budgets to meet the growing demand. Also, the event request and facility scheduling process involves a lot of people. Internally, you might have to coordinate with building administrators, facility rental personnel, the business office, department heads and faculty, as well as the custodial, technology, energy management, maintenance and food services department. And coordinating with all the external organizations and community members who use your facilities after-hours.
Is Your Process Efficient?60% of schools experience time wasted related to event management coordination and communication problems.
– Interruptions – phone calls, emails, drop ins– Paper forms and calendars– Keeping all parties informed about event approvals and schedule changes
– Coordinating internal event resource personnel– Data entry and manually generating invoices
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Having to do this coordination leaves you little time to do the other jobs you are responsible for. Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. You don’t want to get caught in that trap. Inefficiencies can be found everywhere, and a good chunk of them are pretty easy to fix. For example, interruptions eat away at time. Your event scheduling team gets a lot of inquiries in the form of phone calls, emails, or in person questions about available space, costs and event approvals. Think about how much time you can get back by streamlining the process?
It is also very Costly!
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These are your budgets right? 98% of schools lose money on the scheduling of outside events. What does it cost your organization every year to allow these events? What does it cost your individual budgets? Before we can calculate the costs you need to know how many events you do a year? Anyone have an idea? What are the costs? Paper forms? What does a paper form cost? Time? Scheduling the event, checking to see what is available, contacting the support staff, supporting the event with setup or watching over the event, What other costs are there? Utility costs? Wear and tear on the building?
What does it Cost?
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Would anyone want to see your costs with national numbers.
What measures are schools taking to offset the impact of rising costs?• Implementing energy conservation measures• Restructuring transportation programs such as bus
routing or cutting back on student and staff trips• Cutting supply and textbook purchases• Hiring freezes or eliminating positions• Eliminating or modifying athletic events and offerings
Source: AASA Survey
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We just saw what it costs but what are you and organizations doing about this? In 98% of schools it’s a reality. They lose money! We have been facing some pretty challenging economic times. Does any of this sound familiar to you? Have you had to do any of these things to offset rising costs? You all have a choice.. What are you going to do? Make your event scheduling process more efficient and cost effective or elimination positions, cut services, steal from other budgets to pay for it are all examples. This is like what my kids say duhh
Community Use getting press…Newspaper Publisher’s opinion:“While many are making the argument that the school district is robbing Peter to pay Paul, we believe it is fairer to charge those actually using the facilities more than to spread the increasing cost of facility use across the community through taxation.
With teachers having to pay out‐of‐pocket for classroom supplies, schools not having enough money to purchase necessary books and the school district more heavily relying on the fundraising efforts, it is no longer feasible for groups not affiliated with the schools to use district facilities without paying enough.
We do encourage the school district to be sensitive to community groups' needs and just recover the costs of facility use, not make a profit.”
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As you can see from this newspaper article…there is growing sentiment that charging fair rates for community use is essential to your school’s success. This opinion is echoed by many of your peers and even by the community itself. Every dollar “donated” to the community in free facility use is siphoning away funding needed to ensure the quality of student education.
Good News!
Excellence In Event Management is Achievable
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Good News as you look around the room you have people with the same issues and we will discuss how they worked thru these issues.
Best Practices
• Identify an Advocate• Create a Policy• Start Small and Gain Buy‐in • Automate Processes• Identify Potential Risks• Recover Your Costs*
We are going to talk about some best practices but feel free to talk about somethings you did that we don’t have listed. Advocate – Helps decision making, Speeds up the process, executive buy-in, prevent loop holes in policy Leadership is key – Goals, All must agree to support policy, agree on invoicing philosophy and fees Start small & Gain Buy-in – how do you get started? Build support with Site Contacts – How do you do it? Distribute Event Management – balance between what can be centralized and distributed Establish Presence at event – Do you do that now and why should you do it? Recover your cost – What are your neighbors doing. Know your costs. Do you require advance payment or after the event Develop a tiered fee structure – Simple, What you are going to charge certain types of organization and areas – Charge types – no gypsy charging Improve Invoice Management – Be Consistent, Provide a quote up front, follow-up w/ invoice that reflects the quote, pleasantly persistent on collecting past due payments.
Advocate: A Lot To Think About
• Is your building policy up to date?• Is your building policy working?• Are you recovering the costs of events?• Are the correct people involved?• What is your relationship with the community?• Are events a drain on your already limited resources?
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Who here is their organizations Advocate? and even though scheduling events is generally pretty complicated, you must step up to those challenges by making them as efficient as possible. Would anyone in the room want to talk about what they did when given this challenge? Here are some things to think about in regards to events. This list doesn’t even begin cover everything. Facility Scheduling can be one of the most political things any educational institution can deal with on a daily basis. Who should be allowed to use your facilities? When? Where? How much should they pay? We have seen lots of situations where the “good ole boy” system is still being used. Some schools may have a policy but they don’t stick to it. How much good is doing anything if a board member’s cousin always gets their fees waived when they want to use the auditorium? Or the superintendent’s brother has a key to the gym and ignores the approval process? Because there is so much to think about when trying to develop a facility use policy- some schools just give up.
Best Practices
• Identify an Advocate• Create a Policy• Start Small and Gain Buy‐in • Automate Processes• Identify Potential Risks• Recover Your Costs*
We are going to talk about some best practices but feel free to talk about somethings you did that we don’t have listed. Advocate – Helps decision making, Speeds up the process, executive buy-in, prevent loop holes in policy Leadership is key – Goals, All must agree to support policy, agree on invoicing philosophy and fees Start small & Gain Buy-in – how do you get started? Build support with Site Contacts – How do you do it? Distribute Event Management – balance between what can be centralized and distributed Establish Presence at event – Do you do that now and why should you do it? Recover your cost – What are your neighbors doing. Know your costs. Do you require advance payment or after the event Develop a tiered fee structure – Simple, What you are going to charge certain types of organization and areas – Charge types – no gypsy charging Improve Invoice Management – Be Consistent, Provide a quote up front, follow-up w/ invoice that reflects the quote, pleasantly persistent on collecting past due payments.
What is Your PolicySample from: http://www.schooldude.com/resources/
• Community groups may be permitted to use School District facilities for educational, cultural, civic or athletic purposes when such use will not interfere with school programs and is not dangerous or detrimental to the public welfare. • A facility user or rental fee, approved by the Business Manager of School District, will be charged to help defray the cost of using School District facilities and to preserve the education budget. • The priority of building use is set forth below with Group A having first priority and Group D having last priority.
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Because there is so much to think about when trying to develop a facility use policy- some schools just give up. Would anyone want to talk about the creation of their policy? Who was involved? What is in it? Facility Scheduling can be one of the most political things any educational institution can deal with on a daily basis. Who should be allowed to use your facilities? When? Where? How much should they pay? We have heard of situations where the “good ole boy” system is still being used. Some schools may have a policy but they don’t stick to it. It gets frustrating if a board member’s cousin always gets their fees waived when they want to use the auditorium? Or the superintendent’s brother or a coach has a key to the gym and ignores the approval process?
•How do you get started?• Build support with Site Contacts – How do you do it? Which site do you start with?• Distribute Event Management – balance between what can be centralized and distributed• Establish Presence at event – Do you do that now? Why do it?
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Would someone like to talk about how they got started? Did you start at one building/school? Did you centralize the process or allow the sites to control their buildings? Do you have a presence at all events?
Automate RequestsWho can make a request? • Internal Users
– Faculty/Admins.
– Teachers/Professors
– Athletics• External Users
– Community Groups (via CommunityUse)
Automating EMS Settings• Automatically set rooms to occupied status
• No longer have to gather a calendar and do overrides!
Identify Potential RisksPublic Relations
– Inconsistent practices/procedures/policies– Double booking– Failure to notify school staff of event– Canceling an event due to maintenance issue– Making it difficult to use school facilities– Failing to communicate expectations– Not knowing who is in the buildings
Identify Potential RisksPersonal Injury
– Activity not appropriate for area being used– Inadequate supervision– Equipment / area poorly maintained– Infrequent inspection of areas
Identify Potential RisksProperty Damage
– Activity not appropriate for area being used– Inadequate supervision– Equipment / area in poor condition– Infrequent inspection of areas– Knowing when the damage occurred– Inadequate insurance coverage
If there’s one giant take away from this presentation, it would be to recover your costs. The previous best practices all lead up to this. What are your neighbors doing. Know your costs. Do you require advance payment or after the event
Develop Tiered Fee StructuresEstablish a simple fee structure:–What type of group? (Non‐profit vs. For‐profit?)
–What type of area? (Gym vs. softball field?)
–What type of facility? (Elementary school vs. arts center?)
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Develop a tiered fee structure – Simple, What you are going to charge certain types of organization and areas – Charge types – no gypsy charging Improve Invoice Management – Be Consistent, Provide a quote up front, follow-up w/ invoice that reflects the quote, pleasantly persistent on collecting past due payments.
So what’s the opportunity?• Average $15.65/student – Cost Recovery
– Top 10% > $28.62– Bottom 25% < $1.52
$15.65
$0
$50
$100
$150
$200Invoice/Student (2009)
Total
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On average, a school using Schooldude’s facility scheduling program is recovering $15.65 per student/per year (some as much as $300). Are you recovering this much? The truth is though- this is just the tip of the iceberg. Even if you’re getting the $15.65 average, that’s probably not enough.
How much $$$ could you be recovering?
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When you take the average cost recovery rate per student and the 90th percentile cost recovery rate of $52.39 into account, you can easily estimate what your average cost recovery income could be, based on your number of students, as well as how much money you could be recovering with very diligent cost recovery program. A typical school or district with 3,000 students could easily be recovering nearly $40,000 a year!
Cost Recovery Over Time
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The study also showed that once you start a cost recovery program, the dollar amount you are able to invoice and recover tends to improve year over year, although most of those interviewed said they were making progress but not recovering all of their costs.
The Costs?A minimum of $106,000The average 3,000 student institution would charge less than $40,000
How would you translate this?– Equals a cost of over $50/student
– How many salaries could this fund?
– How many textbooks could this have provided?
– What programs or services could this have saved?
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You can see from that example, which probably doesn’t include all the related costs you could think of, the costs are significant and really add up. And the typical school isn’t charging and recovering anywhere close to the costs they’re incurring. The impact is significant when you consider the cost in terms of dollars that have been siphoned away from funding student programs, buying textbooks, paying salaries for teachers and school staff. And who wants to be forced to make those sacrifices when a simple cost recovery program could help protect your budget?
ResourcesSchoolDude’s Whitepaper:
Recovering Costs for the Community Use of Our Schools
Don’t miss these webcast archives:– Roadmap to a Successful Event Management Program– More Efficiently Manage Community Facility Requests– Find Savings by Integrating BAS and Facility Event Schedules
Don’t miss these helpful tools:– Sample facility use fee structures– Sample bill rate sheets– Sample facility use agreements / applications
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For additional resources, we encourage you to go to www.schooldude.com/resources/facility-use where you’ll find more resources such as additional presentations on event management, articles and files on event scheduling best practices, and links to related websites.
Cost Recovery StudyAnalysis of 1,000+ school districts, colleges
and private schools, including interviewsFocused on how educational professionals are
coping with– Demand for community use of school facilities– Financial burdens on budgets and operating
staffs due to the growing use of school facilities by the community
– Sentiment that school facilities should be used more frequently because taxpayers and other stakeholders have invested billions in these assets
RECOVERING COSTS FOR THE COMMUNITY USE OF OUR SCHOOLS:
A White Paper Examining the Successful Implementation of Cost Recovery
Programs in our Schools.
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Today we have talked about data from SchoolDude’s community facility use cost recovery study. It’s a great resource to help you justify the need for a cost recovery program that protects your budget and mission of educating students, while still serving the community with well maintained facilities at affordable rates.
