Symposium registration fee??

I can only address this from the local AAW chapter perspective. When we have "name" turners visit for demos and workshops, we generally pay the person something on the order of $150 per meeting demo and between $400 and $600 per full day demo (though all this is negotiable). A chapter member usually hosts the visitor for their stay so hotel costs aren't usually paid. We also have to negotiate travel costs - sometimes we can pay for the leg to and from our location if the turner is headed elsewhere before or after our dates. These costs add up very quickly.

There is no member cost to see the meeting demo but we seem to routinely charge between $30-$50/day for the full day demos with a pizza or sub or cookout-style burger lunch included. We consider it a good return if we break even on the costs but usually lose a hundred or two. In other words, these are anything but money-making programs.

Now multiply this one demonstrator by 15, 20, 30 and the costs become a major-ly expensive - we haven't even considered obtaining the facilities or logistics of getting proper lighting, sound and equipment. As I understand it, most of the lathes are "on loan" by the companies and they sell them at a discount afterwards. But there are a ton of other details to be arranged and put into place.

I haven't paid that much attention in the past, but I believe AAW prints a year-end income/expense report in the Journal. Let's see if I can find a report in a past issue - hold on a second...

From the Summer '04 issue, pg. 8, (the '05 is likely at my bedside and I'm too lazy to get up and fetch it):

Symposium expense: $216,422 Symposium income: $198,945

For a loss of $17,500 - so you can see that even at $245-$305 a person "we" still ended up in the red. At $15 per person it would bankrupt the organization.

I used to attend Corvette-oriented weekend get-togethers that cost about $75-$100. But there was very little in the way of expert education or expenses - thus, these weekends were the clubs' big income generating events of the year. Why does our local AAW chapter and National do it if it's a money pit? Because it's all about presenting opportunities to educate those interested in the art and craft of turning.

I decided to visit the Rocky Mtn. WT symposium info site you posted after I made my first reply.

In the RM registration fee you get 10.5 hours of instruction, 1 hour of critique and Saturday dinner for $130/single:$200/couple (pay by Sept. 1 and get $20 off). Let's say dinner is worth $12.50 to buy in a restaurant, *and* assuming you got your bucks to them in the next 37 days, that leaves $97.50/$155 to pay for the educational opportunity. That leaves the cost per hour at $8.50/$13.50 - not a bad investment to further your development from "hack" to accomplished turner.

My experience with various Symposium's and workshops over the years makes this one look fairly reasonable (I am speaking beyond turning or woodworking). You have to consider they are paying rent for the facility, possibly other facility usage fees, the meal and some fee or stipend for the guest woodturners. $130 seems pretty reasonable. Wish I was available during that time.

I dunno... looks pretty cheap to me. As a professional woodworker, I would be insulted if that was all I got per hour to teach, and probably wouldn't do it considering all the ancillary expense and exposure.

For the price of a couple of dinners out on Saturday night, I am looking at a helluva return on this type of activity. You meet other turners, compare notes, and have a chance to yack on and on for hours about all the nuances of woodturning with other turners.

Then there is the class... I remember when I made my first planing cut with a skew after about 10 minutes of discussion and then some body/hand/placement coaching from the instructor... worth every damn penny. Two years of frustration gone in minutes.

Robert