Balancing a budget
August 29, 2009
I thought I would share my own experience with the loss of our Gaming funding. The goal here is to minimize the impact in order to allow us to continue providing programing and professional development to our community. Both the queer community and the community at large. We were already operating on a shoe-string budget, but I will give it a try.
In order to cut the $10,000 we lost in Gaming funds (gambling profits the province siphons from various casinos, bingos and lotteries in BC) I have to cut all staff, the phone line, dramaturgical operations that we provide to local playwrights, the web hosting service, all office supplies and postage. That leaves our accountant. But then I guess we won’t need an accountant since there is no one to answer the non-existent phones that are being used to coordinate non-existent shows. Yeah, it’s balanced!
And we get to reapply for non-exsistent funds next year. But who is going to write the grants? Once we find volunteers to write the grants, who is going to produce the shows we manage to raise meager funds for? Who has the expertise to pull this off on next to nothing? Oh yeah, experienced staff. But we can’t afford staff anymore, so everybody should just work for free. Let’s see how Equity feels about that shall we? Oh, why did I leave steady employment again?
The worst part of it all is the projects dear to my heart that now hang by a thread. I honestly believe that Screaming Weenie is an invaluable creative force in Vancouver. We will continue to search for answers to our funding needs. Good luck to all my comrades out there dealing with much the same thing.
