A strategy APSE executive director Jack Berninger described as "bartering, begging on bended knee and shedding a few tears" helped this year’s APSE convention in Pittsburgh turn a $2,451 profit despite attracting the lowest number of paid registrants in the recorded history of the annual event.
"I thought we had done a number of things to cut costs," APSE president Garry D. Howard said. "I didn’t expect to actually finish in the black this year. So it was a surprise, but it was a very good surprise."
According to Berninger, the late-June convention drew 63 paid members, a sharp drop from the previous recorded low of 112 registrants in Minneapolis in 2008. The unexpectedly sparse turnout – Berninger said the original best-guess estimate for the Pittsburgh convention, given the struggling economy and downsizing of newspapers nationwide, was 100 registrants – led to a room penalty of $6,210.
Berninger said APSE also had to pay an additional $4,500 for the rental of meeting rooms because the sleeping room commitment was not met. Those fees, Berninger said, were a considerable improvement on the $30,000 deficit APSE faced at the start of the convention.
Costs were whittled down by allowing the Sheraton Station Square Hotel, site of the convention, to sell unused rooms. According to Berninger, the hotel also didn’t charge for a catering shortfall.
Other money-saving measures included:
■ Eliminating multiple microphones in meeting rooms, using APSE members’ projectors instead of renting them, eliminating a spotlight and spotlight operator at the banquet and by not paying a technician.
■ Encouraging workshop leaders to bring in as few people as possible and to use APSE members for support if possible.
■ Using a student photographer provided by new APSE partner Indiana University.
"Jack has always been the kind of guy who wants to think of some of the smaller things we can do to save money," Howard said.
Berninger said other major factors helping the convention finish in the black included sponsorship by member papers – including $20,000 from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – income from vendors and revenue from breakfasts sponsored by sports organizations.
A vote was taken at the convention to end the sponsored breakfasts, a decision Berninger strongly backed even if it might force him to get even more creative to ensure the 2010 convention June 23-26 in Salt Lake City doesn’t lose money.
"That’s $17,000 this year that we won’t have next year," Berninger said. "Eliminating the breakfast sponsors was the absolute right thing to do. The money was nice, but the resulting feeling was not.
"We’ll come up with another plan."
