I got a really great question this week.......

by Pat Richards
I attended the FCE women's retreat this week. The retreat, with its diverse range of crafts and educational classes, ensures something for everyone. We're well-fed, and the movie night is always a hit. It's a great getaway for many of us, always enjoyable, and a great time to get ideas from the other ladies about what they are currently interested in. 
Many women who attend this event are familiar with the Gallery and have shopped or attended our workshops. As someone always striving to improve, I value feedback on our newsletter and events, so I asked many of these ladies their thoughts about what we do and how we do it. 

This question came from Michelle Huffer. She wanted to know why we didn't just have one class price. Why do we have a Gallery Fee paid to the Gallery and then a separate Supply Fee paid to the workshop teacher? Why can't we just charge one flat fee?

What a great question, Michelle, and thanks for asking. If one person has that question, I'm sure many others wonder the same thing. 

Well, Michelle, part of the answer to that question is because we are an all-volunteer organization. No one, including our Gallery director, gets paid to do what we do. The only thing we get from it is the art we sell in the Gallery. The 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, states that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. In our case, this means that 20% of the people in our organization do 80% of the work. We are a small band of people who believe art is essential and important enough for us to do everything that we do as a volunteer. 
To better answer your question,  the Gallery only gets 20% of the Gallery fee. That covers the lights, building costs, and insurance, and we must have, to have classes in our building. The rest of the Gallery fee goes to the Workshop Teacher. That is her pay for her teaching time for the class. If we only had one fee, the workshop teacher would have to charge more because she wouldn't be getting the full amount she paid for the supplies needed for the class if we deduct our 20% from the total amount. Or we could hire a bookkeeper to sort all of that out, but then we would have to charge a larger fee to pay the bookkeeper a salary. The bottom line is we have two separate fees so that we can charge less for your class, and the Workshop Teacher can charge just what she paid for her supplies. It keeps the class cost down so you can enjoy more of our workshops!
I hope this clears this matter up for some of you. We keep our fees as low as possible so that you can enjoy more of our Workshops.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Your feedback is important to us and can help us improve our services. Please share your thoughts in the comments or reply to this email.