I have seen a few posts online of late ripping into show organisers and criticising costs. The ones I have seen have been written in such a way they are insinuating that show organisers are over inflating costs. For what purpose that would be, I’m not sure.
As a person who has been on many OC’s and has put in 100’s and 100’s of volunteer hours, this feels like a bit of a kick in the teeth. The posts and comments have clearly come from people that have zero idea of what goes into organising a show and the costs involved. They scream I want to complain but I haven’t bothered to ask questions to find out what fees and charges cover, I’ve never been on an OC to try understand what goes into shows, I’ve never offered to help, but I’m going to bag those that put on shows for me to ride at.
It's not ok so I have a wee challenge for you when you see these type of comments and posts. Call them out! Ask questions and educate them.
These type of posts and comments do damage. Its bloody hard putting on a show and these are done by a handful of people who put in 100’s of volunteer hours each. Not in total across those on the OC, for some shows, it is each! These people have to fit all of this in around their other commitments, their jobs, their studies, their families, their own horses, all of those things. We are so desperate for volunteers and these type of posts and comments make people wonder why they bother and in some cases, walk away.
People don’t know what they don’t know so its absolutely fair enough when questions are asked, how do people learn otherwise? However, asking questions can be done is such a way that they aren’t pointing fingers. The posts and comments I have seen aren’t trying to understand, they are bagging those that work their arses off. Constructive feedback is always welcomed, bitching, moaning and complaining is not.
So that being said, lets dive into a few of those common costs questions and see if I can’t help with better understanding of just where the money you pay goes and dispel a few myths and misconceptions that seem to be about.
I know about dressage shows run under ESNZ rules so this has been written from that perspective. Other disciplines will be similar but might have different costs. This is MY understanding and these are MY views. They are not gospel and this certainly isn’t an exhaustive list of expenses involved with running a show, just what has come to mind when writing this and I’m sure I have missed a heap!
Venue fees and yard fees
These can be two separate fees or sometimes bundled into one depending on the venue used.
Most venues now have yarding as compulsory due to health and safety requirements. One venues fees cannot be compared with another as they are all different so comparing them is not comparing apples with apples and is not fair.
Your yard fees will cover things like yard maintenance, spraying, repairs, shavings and paying someone to perform these maintenance tasks where required.
Facility fees cover things like surface maintenance, mowing, grooming, driveways, fencing, water, power, internet where Wi-Fi is available, office maintenance, toilets and cleaning, maintaining cross country jumps, dressage arena poles, show jump poles and stands and often paying people to do all of these things.
Gone are the days the facility maintenance was all done by volunteers, there now aren’t the volunteers available to do these things in a lot of areas. Want to try and keep these fees down? Next time your local venue asks for help in the form of working bees, pop along and offer your time. If no one puts their hands up, people have to be paid to do it.
Admin fees
One of my favourite comments I saw recently, ‘Why are there admin fees when everything is done online?’. Here are a few things your admin fees cover.
- Paper – dressage score sheets, results lists, draws, stewards lists, judges lists, timetables all need to be printed. Printing numbers for people who don’t have their own ESNZ numbers.
- Office equipment – normally a printer, a lot of office people use their own laptops for scoring etc. Bins to store and transport what is needed to run the office. Whiteboards, and/or cork boards. Sticky tape and blue tack. The list goes on!
- Consumables – printer ink, staples, paper clips, pens, drawing pins, pins for numbers for saddle pads, whiteboard markers,
- Internet fees where no Wi-Fi is available so hot spotting is needed
- First aid kit items where a separate medic fee is not charged
- Cleaning supplies
- Tea and coffee supplies for judges and officials
Class fees
Your class fees only cover a portion of what it costs to put on your class. Sponsorship covers the rest. Sponsors are absolutely VITAL. Without them, very few shows would be able to run and very few people would be able to afford the entry fees for the ones that could run.
- Ribbons/sashes/garlands
- Prize money in the cases it is offered. More often than not its not offered now because shows can’t afford it.
- Judges – their costs to get to the event need to be covered and in the case of a multi-day event, they need somewhere to stay. There are not enough judges in each area to cover what is needed so in some cases they need to be flown to where they need to be.
- Food – judges need feeding, as do volunteers. This is sometimes done in the form of people bringing plates. Bigger shows will pay for catering for their judges and volunteers as the numbers are too big to be covered by plates.
- Volunteers – writers in particular for dressage shows. There aren’t enough people who are entering the show putting their hands up to help so there are number of volunteers that come especially to help otherwise the show can’t go ahead. This payment does not cover their time, it covers their fuel costs so they are not out of pocket by offering their time.
- Show secretary – this is a HUGE job. A lot of areas offer a token payment to their show secretary to acknowledge the amount of work that goes into this role. And when I say token amount, I mean token amount. It would be lucky if it is $2 an hour which is not what I would describe as being paid to do a job. Likewise with an office manager. A lot of areas do not have someone available to volunteer to do this, it requires specialist skills, therefore they need to pay someone to do it. Again, this is hardly a ‘paid’ job if you work out the hourly rate.
- Steward – ESNZ rules require a steward to be present. Bigger shows need more than one.
- Centreline fee – this is the fee charged by DNZ for every horse ridden up the centreline in a competition that uses ESNZ dressage tests.
- Sound person to provide equipment and play music for musicals. Not all clubs have gear to do this and again, volunteers are hard if not impossible, to find for this job.
As you can see, there is absolutely no way your class fee will cover all of these costs.
Medic Fees
Depending on the discipline, there are different requirements. This is an ESNZ rule. For dressage, any show that has more than 120 riders, a medic is required to be on site. This is not negotiable. For under 120 riders, there must a qualified first aider on site and a first aid kit available that meets a certain standard. In the case where groups are not lucky enough to have qualified people, they need to put some of their volunteers through a first aid course to ensure they have people to meet the requirement.
Smaller shows don’t always have a medic fee, it can sometimes be bundled into the admin fee but not always. This would cover the consumables in the first aid kit and be put towards certification for volunteers.
I have no doubt I have missed a number things but this gives you the general idea. As you can see there are a massive amount of expenses to cover. No show is out to make money, they need to cover their expenses and if they are lucky, make a small profit which would then be put back into equipment for the club, cover expenses like insurance, affiliation fees etc. Membership fees only go a small way towards covering these expenses.
Next time you see someone having a moan, please point them in this direction and also ask them how they have contributed to their local club or facility lately to help keep expenses down.
