Sig Ep Hoops for Hearts Concert: A How to Guide

Hoops for Hearts Concert Guide

By Matt Altstiel, Matt Pryor and Adam Perdue

Introduction

If you are reading this, congrats, you’ve earned the position of Hoops for Hearts Concert manager. This is a demanding position that requires a great deal of personal responsibility. It is up to you to gain funding, pick a venue, assemble a competent team around you, and network with artists. Fortunately, the time frame for this concert from conception to completion has been expanded.

This guide offers some suggestions and options to make this concert a successful event that the community will look forward to every year. The first annual concert (2006) was definitely a learning experience full of failures and successes. While this guide is by no means definitive, it should eliminate some guess work on your part. This guide is ongoing, so if you have any input, feel free to add it upon project completion.

This guide is broken into numerous sections. Part 1 details the type of cabinet you could assemble to help divide tasks and play to individual talents. Part 2 will familiarize you with our sponsors, Camp Heartland and Sigma Phi Epsilon. Part 3 will touch upon obtaining financial backing for the concert. The following section, part 4 will outline venues and provide two different types of venues. The next section, Part 5 will deal with promotional aspects. Part 6 will highlight ways to attract artists to the project and keep them happy. The final section will offer options for the day of the show and relate to special in concert events.

Part 1: Assembling a Cabinet

You were chosen for this position because the house has faith in your planning abilities, and determination to see the project through until the end. This doesn’t mean, however; that you should take on this project alone. Rather than simply asking people to sign up at meeting to help you, you should have a mental list of those individuals who benefit the project the most. The size of your cabinet depends largely upon your individual skill sets. For instance, if you do not know how to write a grant proposal find someone who does for that position.

In terms of cabinet positions, I recommend:

• Concert Writer: this person will be in charge of drafting grant proposals, letters to businesses and potential donors, follow up and thank you notes, press releases to various media outlets, and venue proposals.
• Technical Support: this person will maintain contact with the bands (or artists) to see what kind of sound, lighting and other technical aspects they require. This person will be in charge of setting up stage, lighting and sound equipment. In 2006, this position was a kind of defacto second in command.
• Promotion: This person will be charge of poster distribution, arranging groups to spread the word at least two weeks prior to the event, and printing all concert related material.
• MC: If you do not feel qualified to host this event, find someone charismatic to present this event. This person will talk about sponsors and donors, introduce the musical groups, call out raffle winners, and serve as the sweetheart coronation presenter.
• Artist: This individual will come up with a concert logo, create the posters for the concert, the basketball tourney, t-shirt designs, the sign up sheet, and the tickets.
• Web designer: This person (most likely the VP of Communications) will create a link and separate web page on the Sig Ep website detailing tournament and concert information. I also recommend this person maintains contact lists, mailing and creates the Myspace and Facebook event pages. Finally, this person should set up a paypal account to streamline team, concert and t-shirt payments.

While certain individual, yourself included, may wish to take on additional responsibilities this breakdown should help to maximize cabinet and event efficiency.

Part 2: Know your sponsor

This event is Hoops for Hearts. Our sponsor is Camp Heartland. Camp Heartland is a camp for kids basically 3-18 who are HIV or AIDS positive. Our fundraising allows these children the chance to attend this very unique camp.

Why Camp Heartland? AIDS is a problem in the United States; there are thousands of new diagnosed cases every year. More problematic, is the high number of persons who are not even aware they have the disease. These children were passed the virus by their parents. Nearly one half of all campers have lost one or both of their parents. Many are currently in foster care awaiting a good home through an adoption agency. This camp is one of the only times they can feel “normal” because everyone at camp is in a similar situation. Testimonials given by campers affirm Camp Heartland as a life changing experience.

This camp has a national focus, but it is located right here in Minnesota. Talk to your partner with Camp Heartland, they are an excellent source for information about the organization, event planning, and can give a credible list of financial donors. The Camp Heartland official also will assist you with promotion and raffle prizes.

Part 3: Getting financial backing

Develop a budget. How much do expect to spend on the concert? What is your ticket goal? How many bands, and how much are you willing to pay them? How much do you want to charge for concert and raffle tickets? This is all up to you. Having a set estimate in mind, you will be much more able to determine your goals.

Grant writing is of paramount importance to the success of the Hoops for Hearts events. Without financial backing, Sig Ep will lose money in the event and be forced to use concert and tournament earning to cover costs. The less grant and donor money you receive, the less you can donate to Camp Heartland.

Use any member connections, corporate, familial, or other to obtain funds. I recommend having each member obtain a certain financial pledge, the winner will receive a substantial amount of money off of their spring dues.

Start listing donor organizations and writing grant proposals right away. There is a high amount of rejection, so the more grant proposals you submit, the better. While non-profit organizations are generally strapped for cash, they will direct you to resources pools and help provide additional volunteer infrastructure. Ideally, the concert should raise at least $3,000 worth of grants to cover costs. This will allow for pure profits and more money for Camp Heartland.

Stress to potential donors that there are many ways they can contribute. Offering products, as well as promotions, is a great way to increase event exposure for both parties involved. These promotions, you can use to feed participants, offer during the raffle or use in other ways.

In the past, we have had certain companies sponsor the event to help defray the cost of T-Shirts. T- Shirts are expensive so try to cover this cost as much as possible. Talk to your cabinet and the house about other potential ways to raise money.

Part 4: Concert Venues

You have two major options in terms of concert venues, inside or outside.

• Outside Venues: The benefit to an outside venue is usually cost effectiveness. In 2006, Sigma Phi Epsilon was the venue. This provided a wide open space, and generated a substantial walk up crowd. However, outside venues are very weather dependant. If you are going to have an outdoor venue, plan for the worst by buying a tarp to cover the stage and any electrical equipment. You will also need to rent a stage, audio equipment, and hand off a great deal of responsibility to your technical chair. In terms of sound of rental, I recommend EMI over on Johnson Street slightly past the Quarry.
• Outdoor venues also require a sound permit, but be aware that sound permits only last until 10 PM. Cops will disrupt the event if it runs past that time limit. Keep in mind that any philanthropy, but especially an outdoor event, is a completely dry event. In the event that this concert does get broken up, penalties will be much more severe if there is alcohol on the premises. Security is also much more important for an outdoor event; make sure you know who is at your show.

• Indoor Venues: There are many suitable indoor venues in the immediate Dinkytown area. If you want an indoor venue, there are several additional steps that must be taken. You must write an event proposal, which will be up the venue’s discretion to evaluate. Venues are also slightly more expensive, and will take a cut at the door out of the ticket price. When drafting the concert proposal, you will need to provide them with a cost estimate, sound requirements, the bands (with their concert info) and deliver posters and merchandise in advance.
• In return for these expectations, you will receive a concert that is not weather dependant. They will provide the audio equipment, lighting, and a sound technician. Merchandise space will already be set up, as will ticket taking. You will not have to worry about randoms sneaking into the event, or the squatters who sit slightly outside of fencing. It is in the interest of the venue to help promote the event, the more people who show up the better for the venue as well. The Varsity has excellent promotion, and I would list them as my top pick.

Once again consult with the cabinet and the house for any more ideas.

Part 5: Promotion

Have your writer draft an immediate press release for the event. Include all the event specifics: time, place, cause, cost and band listing. Even if a newspaper or magazine does not run an ad for the event, they may include it within their weekly community events section. Radio ads are expensive, but depending on your funding are something to consider.

Set up a Facebook event and invite everyone you know. Remind them with frequent messages. Anything to keep the event fresh in their minds and help the event spread through word of mouth is a good thing. This aspect, as much as anything is the collective responsibility of the house.

Well attended events all have something in common: excellent promotion. If no one knows about the event, no one will show up.

• Plaster the campus with promotional posters.
• Go into businesses in the three weeks leading up to the show and ask them to display event information.
• Hit up the dorms and pass out flyers, particularly in the Superblock.
• Non- U of M members should also cover their respective campuses and hype up the event as much as possible.
• Seek out non-traditional neighborhoods: Cedar-Riverside, Marcy Holmes, Como Ave, Franklin Ave and St. Paul
• Talk to coworkers and even invite family to the concert
• Go make sorority and fraternity presentations and distribute event sign ups and drop off tickets. Talk to your lecture or class section at the beginning of class to publicize the event.
• Stress that this event will have a raffle and is the SWEETHEART WEEK CORONATION. Sororities will have an extra incentive to go to cheer on their respective candidate. Also, make sure the sweetheart candidates sell tickets to their house. You should expect each candidate to sell about 10-15 tickets each.

Give the artists tickets and offer them a percentage of every ticket they sell. 20% or 1 dollar on every ticket is a fair concession to make. If they have an extra incentive, not only will the hype up the event, but they will play better as well.

Part 6: Getting artists and keeping them happy

One of the major mistakes I made last year was not singing artists to legally binding contracts. If there is no contract, a band can decide to opt of the show, potentially leaving you high and dry come show time. I did not have the complete band set until one day before. Not having your artists locked in before makes promotion, developing promotional materials and obtaining a venue much more difficult. Make sure to include all the specifics, set times and financial obligations on the part of the fraternity.

Be proactive. Get your band list early and continually remind them about the event and their obligation. Ask them what kind of set they want to play. Be very clear with them the length of their set. Last year one particular band played two songs over their set length preventing the headlining from enjoying their full time allowance.

Usually, benefit concerts pay their artists $150 dollars per set. We lucked out last year and did not have to pay them. However, if you want artists to keep coming back and positive word of mouth to spread around the music community, it is best to pay your artists.

What kind of show do you want? In general, it is a good idea to have variety. This satisfies everyone. Make sure your bands are proven live performers because studio recordings can be very deceiving. My formula last year was a chill intro act, a hip hop group, a punk group, another hip group and a jam band. This seemed to work relatively well. However, keep in mind most shows should not extend over three hours. Therefore, I recommend 3-4 bands. Keep the non-headliners around 25-30 minutes and the headliner to about 45 minutes. You will need the rest of the time for your MC to do his segments. A between set DJ is generally a good idea, but it isn’t mandatory.

If you choose to do an outdoor venue, make sure your tech guy talks to the bands to see what kind of equipment they need or what they can bring for the show. Stagger your bands so that those requiring the most equipment will perform later. This way, you won’t have to continually assemble and reassemble band set ups.

Part 7: The Day of the Concert

This is an all house event. Make sure they know that non-participation means fines. An outdoor event requires more participation. Designate certain people to man the merchandise stands. Have people selling extra tournament t-shirts. Have people assist the sound man, or the have a set up crew if it is an outdoor venue. You will be in charge of checking in the bands, making sure all the raffle material is there and ready to be distributed, and keeping your volunteers busy.

Obviously, the conditions and requirements change for each show. By this point, you should have the event mapped out in your head. Visualize the event and how it will flow from artists to MC and back to artist. This event was a lot of fun last year. Enjoy all the effort you have put into the concert, because it really is a reward for Sig Ep.

Conclusion

While this guide is imperfect, it does provide many helpful hints and tips for designing and carrying out a successful concert. This guide should be on going, so feel free to add any input or experiences you have during the concert process. Once again, congratulations on accepting this position and best of luck.

Sincerely,

Matt Altstiel Matt Pryor Adam Perdue