The Blog That Will Not Go Away

Bouchercon 2008 is closed for business and Judy Bobalik and Myself would like to give everyone an idea of where we spent money. The many places where we didn't spend any are what made this event so special for us. One last time from us to you, thanks for everything you did. Mystery is alive and well and racing towards Indy.

We had a final budget of $320,000 .

$240,000 from registrations
$2,500 from advertising in the program book
$4,300 from brunch tickets
$6,000 from Tee Shirts
$35,000 was passed on to us from Madison B-Con
$ 5,000 was passed on to us from Anchorage Bouchercon
and the Live and Silent Auctions raised just under $15,000 dollars (WTG Dave and Cindy)

You'll ask, "Did you spend the money on the attendees?" I'm happy to say that we certainly did.

That fab hospitality suite that was subsidized by Charmed and manned by SINC? $33,000
Food for Opening Night, Authors Without Borders & the Sunday Brunch? $70,000
We brought a lot of Guests of Honor from far away (and I think we'll all agree it was well worth it) so Charmed's travel and housing costs were perhaps higher than most years but we were payed back ten fold by the guests themselves and the international membership numbers. Cost? $34,000 (4,857 per guest)
The book bags and everything in them cost a total of $24,500
The Anthony Awards (mailings,ballots, supplies, awards and certificates) $3,400
Registration itself cost us $22,810 (pay pal fees, sales tax and supplies for registration table)
Audio Visual cost us $27,500 for both hotels
The Web site was $7,500
There was a volunteer dinner at the Pratt, that and a few meals paid for in the four years between inception and conclusion was all these people received for all of their work along the way. So you paid $5,000 to your staff.
We rounded up the Auction proceeds and donated $16,500. $15,000 to the Library and $1,500 to Viva House.

That brings us to a total of $244,210. YOUR DOLLARS SPENT ON YOU.

What of the Rest?

We've passed on; $10,000 to Indy, $20,000 to San Francisco & $10,000 to St. Louis. Note that our generosity is truly paying it forward as this is the same cash that came to us from Madison and Anchorage. We've also paid a few standing committee bills for the website (2,700) and We do have 9,000 in the bank and after we're sure there are no other bills that money will be donated to the official Bouchercon Charities.

I'm afraid the remainder of the cash went to the not so sexy infrastructure. Things like decorations, Window Office, office supplies, phone bills, advertising, signage, travel reimbursement, truck rental, tee shirts, security etc. And it all balances.

We're happy to make this report, happy to be working with the people who did this before us and who are planning both Bouchercon's future and future events. We hope we've taken some of the mystery out of the event for you. And While I'm very glad that we didn't need the money that was paid forward towards us, it was really nice to have that breathing space, to not go cross-eyed when I saw the coffee bill for day two or found out how much a digi-max player was going to cost us. So to the folks who took some of that financial burden off of us with sponsorships, donations, time and cash ..... forever, you are in our hearts.

Ruth Jordan