#: 18563 S5/OS9 Users Group
    19-Aug-93  17:32:00
Sb: International UG news
Fm: Steve Wegert 76703,4255
To: All

Scarfed from the COCO LIST

{++}


 With the recent discussions on the money of the UG and the upcomming Atlanta
Fest I realised I hadn't given a financial overview of the 'donation'-campaign
held to get the international OS9 usergroups together. I really owe one
especially to those whom contributed their efforts.

 Let's first examine the cost. Please note that these are not exact figures but
they ressemble the exact figures very closely. I just rounded them up to make
it easier to calculate:

First off, we had 4 rooms for 3 days and 1 room for two days at the Holiday Inn
resulting in a $550 cost.

I didn't keep exact figures on what I spend for food and drinks, let's assume
this will total to $12 a person a day. With 8 people for 3 days that totals to
around $300.

Before the Fest we visited MicroWare in Des Moines. As we were going with 5
people (from Europe and Japan), I rented a full size car being $350 for the
week. (We used the car for another 3 days after the show though I made the deal
with the EUROS9 group that we could sell their newsletters and FU/6809 if we'd
pay for these extra days, we'd probably payed around the same ammount if we'd
only kept it for 4 days anyhow).

As for miscellanious cost during this trip to MicroWare, I calculated $100
which sacrifies for the hotel-rooms the Japanese used on the way up and down to
Des Moines.

Although we originally intended to pay for the trip of one person of the
various groups to come over, we didn't make that ammount. In the early stages I
already agreed upon paying $400 towards the trip of Stephen. The rest of his
ticket was payed by MPL (the company Stephen works for) as well as the EFFO.
With no money at hand after the show, I also gave 10 books to the Japanese
which they could sell for around $400 as well so they'd be getting a similar
ammount. I haven't made an arrangement in this sort with Gordon Bentzen from
Australia though. I will look into a possibility for doing so in the near
future, though as Gordon didn'd come over just for the Fest (like the Japanese
whom payed $1500 for their ticket) I don't feel as bad about this as on the
deal I had to make with the Japanese.

If I add all these ammounts up:

Hotel:      $550 Car:        $350 Food:       $300 Stephen:    $400 Japanese:
$240  (the cost of ten books, they could sell them for $400) Various:    $100
(See above on trip to Des Moines

Total:    $1940


On the other hand we received the following:

Donations. These consisted of three parts:

  - Received by Carl Boll (before the show):  $350
  - Received during the show:                 $120
  - Received by others before the show:       $130

  Total: $600

Books. As you know we sold the "OS9 Guru" book at the show. For every book sold
we could keep $15 of the $40 price-trag. In total 45 books were sold, thanks to
the Atlanta people for their group-purchase. The venue from the books was: $675

 I had gotten a 100 books from Galactic. 45 of these were sold, 3 were given
away for free (door-price), 2 went to Australia, 10 to Japan about 20 were left
at Carl Boll's place for later sales (Atlanta?) the other 20 I took back with
me (of both the ones that were left at Carl's place and that I took back with
me some were sold in the meantime).


We also had the EUROS9 backissues and the FU/6809 program. We sold around 20
back-issues sets and 15 copies of FU/6809. This totalled to about $500


If I add all these up:

 - Donations:  $600
 - Books:      $675
 - EUROS9:     $500

 Total:  $1775



 This leaves a gap of about: $165 which we received from the books sold after
the Fest. Do keep in mind though that not all cost were included. I also made
some (short) phone-calls to Australia and Switzerland, wrote quite a number of
letters etc. My own "losses" are therefore limited to the money I still have in
the books which were left over. My main concern though is that I've not been
able to keep my "promise" to pay for the trip of one person for each group to
come over. Especially the Japanese paid a fortune to come to Chicago just for
the show (I've actually always included this chance when talking to these
people that there would be no money, in fact, they've mentioned from the
beginning they'd preferred to pay their trip by themselves but still I feel bad
on this).

 The reason for this? Maybe I was too optimisitic, people had warned me for
this all the time. I surely had hoped to sell some more of the EUROS9 stuff and
maybe a couple of books. Neither of that has happened. Though we had a lot of
fun and even despite some current 'silence' we've accomplished some in Chicago.

 As soon as the American OS9 usergroup gets on it's feet again and I've been
able to get in touch with Chikara Yamaguchi (whose probably on holidays) we'll
get back to work. In the meantime I will be going to Switserland to discuss the
future of OS9 usergroups in Europe. I surely hope the US group will soon rise
again (I hear a lot of good reports from the people who're working on this).


 I would like to thank all of those who've made this 'event' possible including
(but not limited to):

 - EFFO
 - Carl Boll and others of the Glenside Coco Club
 - All those whom donated money. There were two people who donated $100!!
 - Chikara Yamaguchi and Masayugi Oya (Japanese OS9 usergroup)
 - EUROS9 usergroup


 If you have any questions, just drop me a note...


  Peter Tutelaers
    peter@center.stack.urc.tue.nl


*- Steve -*