Worship Wisdom: Making the Budget
The Devil is Often in the Smallest Details
How do you establish priorities for your operating budget each year?
Do you have a five year plan for your ministry, a solid idea of where
you want to be in the future, and a way to stay on task? Do you find yourself
constantly putting out fires, using duct tape and tin foil solutions,
and never quite hitting the mark?
CONSENSUS
In preparing to write this article, I enlisted the help of our ChurchSoundcheck
Discussion Group. I found their input especially interesting. Here’s a
sampling of their comments:
One thing that always seems to be missing from small to medium and even
some larger church budgets is a maintenance / emergency / contingency
fund. For example, the new IEM system gets put on hold for another year
as soon as a dimmer pack fries or a monitor amp goes!
And when was the last time the church had a pro come in and check/reset
gain structure, EQ, and do a component check? It is surprising how often
a church has a weak amp or blown component in their cluster and do not
even realize it.
There are often complaints about the sound and the MoM/Pastor/Techies
start talking about upgrades, when what they really need to do is to repair
damaged components such as damaged cables, tape machine maintenance, projector
and stage light lamps, lavalieres for wireless packs and non-functioning
hearing assistance receivers.
The little things can add up to major dollars over the course of a year.
I say protect the money set aside for new stuff by having a large enough
maintenance budget to get the equipment functioning and keep it there.
Keith Thompson
Jacksonville, Florida
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I’ve just started on my items for the next fiscal year. I always submit
a decent list of items. I don’t break them down by need. I just give them
my list.
I do however have the items broken down on my list as follows:
1.) Equipment I want
2.) Equipment we need but could do without
3.) Equipment we should have
4.) Last, but not least equipment we must have
Needless to say, by the time the list goes through the review process I usually end up with some of what we must have.
Rick Dean
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We handle all maintenance with a maintenance fund. Money is put into it
every month. The current balance is in the area of $25,000. All maintenance
costs are taken from it (audio, video, computers, recorders, heating systems,
paint, vehicles, etc).
This way we don’t have to budget for maintenance, unused money is carried
over from year to year, and we don’t have to go to the board for money
every time something needs to be fixed. It’s been working very well.
Bob Lewis
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I believe the three most important items are:
1.) Capital expenditures for new equipment, equipment replacement/upgrades
2.) Repair and Maintenance
3.) Supplies: cost of disposables such as audio & video tapes, CDs, MDs, batteries, batteries, and more batteries.
One thing that I think we most overlook is the rental of extra gear for special events. I think that is a major item and should be included but I’m not sure if it’s a separate category or included in one of the above.
Keith Kotch
Orlando, Florida
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DYNAMIC SUPPLIES
These folks have hit it on the head, haven’t they? Based on my own experience,
the supplies category gets the most attention. Not that it should be first,
but it’s the operational fire that needs to be extinguished each week.
For example, do you ever find yourself driving to church for the services
one day only to realize in a panic that you’re out of fresh batteries,
which of course has you diving into the nearest gas station with a food
mart to grab a couple of incredibly high-priced 9V batteries?!
You know what happens. You’ve evaluated the supplies issue and ordered
the quantities you think you’ll need for the worship center. But then,
right before the service, somebody from the youth ministry rushes up to
you begging to “borrow” a couple of 9V batteries.
Standing in line behind them is someone from the Children’s Ministry asking
for a battery and some gaffers tape. A few minutes into the worship service,
someone from the Senior Adults Ministry is tapping you on the shoulder
asking to for a cassette/DAT tape.
Sound familiar? Of course, that’s never happened to me, but it’s far better
to stay on top of the supplies issue. In fact, in an all-volunteer tech
support ministry, I think it’s especially helpful to assign one member
of the team to simply manage supplies.
If an aspiring audio team member really doesn’t want to mix, but they
are exceptional organizers, then hire them! They can maintain an inventory
of the supplies, and be responsible for filling out the purchase orders,
placing the orders with the usual suppliers (or running to the local store
for those supplies), and keeping everything organized.
To minimize costs try buying in bulk whenever possible. The cost of those
batteries and cassette tapes will drop to a dull roar if you can buy them
in quantities that will get you through a month or two at a time. Equally
important, you’ll have extra supplies on hand when someone walks up to
you on Sunday morning with their hand out.
MAINTENANCE
I couldn’t agree more with Keith Thompson’s urging that churches should
pay more attention to the ongoing need for maintenance and repairs. I’ve
had similar experiences. I’ve been in two different churches in recent
years where the high frequency drivers were blown in all of their main
loudspeakers, and yet no one realized it.
All they knew is that it didn’t sound as good as it used to. That’s the
time to call in a professional either a consultant or a reputable contractor.
Recognize if the item is worth repairing, or if it should simply be replaced
instead.
A long time ago I had to get over the idea that an inexpensive cassette
deck is simply a supply item. If it costs more to fix it than it does
to replace it, just toss it out, buy a new one, and get on with life.
I know, it doesn’t seem right to throw something you paid $300 for into
a dumpster but, unless you’re a trained repair technician, get used to
it.
RENTAL GEAR
There is wisdom in renting the gear you need just on occasion. For example,
a great many churches find themselves in need of extra wireless mics now
and then, especially for those Christmas pageants. Some can’t yet afford
to install subwoofers, but want to add some extra weight to their sound
for their Easter drama pageant.
Extra stage lighting fixtures and special effects devices are good rental
items to consider. And who needs to buy a phone hybrid? I can only recall
two times in the last twenty-one years of working with churches that I
needed to feed the house system with a live phone conversation between
someone on stage holding a mic and a missionary overseas talking on a
phone. It just makes no sense to buy something like that.
A well-stocked, reasonably priced rental company provides an excellent
service for churches with these kinds of occasional equipment needs. It
pays to shop around, though. Several years ago I paid as much as $4,000
to rent a few high quality wireless mic systems for several weeks.
Two years ago, I found a company that would rent me the exact same units
for the same time period for about $1,400. As you’re filling out your
next annual budget, remember to include a line item for general rental
needs.
Usually there is a separate budget for major productions. Renting wireless
mics for your Christmas pageant, for example, should come out of the Christmas
pageant budget, not your annual operating budget.
CAPITAL EXPENDITURES
This is where you put more expensive gear that you know you’re really
going to need in the near future. For example, if the FOH mixing desk
is really showing its age, and it’s past due for a replacement, be sure
that a reasonable price for a suitable replacement is tagged in the church
capital budget.
Try to think well into the future. If you can project that high ticket
items under your command such as FOH mixing desks, video projectors, computers,
etc. should be replaced within the next five years, then get those items
on the capital budget list now.
Let the senior pastor, administrator and especially the finance officer
get used to the idea. Give them time to develop a plan that will ensure
that the money is there when you say you’re going to need it. Don’t forget
to remind them on occasion, and be sure to ask for it when the time comes.
If you don’t, they just might decide that they want to replace the carpet
in the foyer instead of buying your new console! Trust me on this.
At one point, my signing power as the Audio Director of a reasonably large
church was $500. A couple of years later, they dropped that to $250. At
first, I felt insulted. Later, as I thought about it, I realized my diminished
purchase authorization was a blessing in disguise.
This meant that any purchases that I needed to make for the sound systems
that were over $250 apiece didn’t come out of my $25,000 operating budget.
As such, funds for a desperately needed wireless mic didn’t come out of
my supplies budget.
TIME IS PRICELESS
I’d like to add one more item to the list, and that is Time. I know very
few people who aren’t going through this life racing to meet one deadline
or another. Not that it’s right, or even good, but certainly common.
Some of those time goals are self-imposed, while much of that activity
is directed toward putting out fires that other people have created for
us. People usually want their problems to be your problems, and some are
especially good at delegating. I would consider time to be the most valuable
category on the list.
Curt Taipale, LSMAG!’s Sacred Sound editor, is widely known as one of North America’s foremost experts on religious audio systems. He can be reached via e-mail at CTaipale@aol.com
September/October 2001 Live Sound International