You want to know what we are doing with the money you donate
This is not a one-off summer camp. We want to set up a model that will serve for the future.
- This year is a pilot
- A reduced number of participants create the model
- All participants pay, but expenses will outweigh income.
We are expecting 30 participants. We charge 800€ for the two week camp. We will make discounts for large families and poorer areas of Europe. We estimate an income of 20 000 with 4000 total in discounts. We are also asking for 15 000 on Crowdfunder. But parents will be contributors to this fund. Deposits to reserve places will be paid directly into Crowdfunder. That is 6 000.
Operational Total: 29 000
3000 for legal and financial advice. We are teachers and ex-students we are not lawyers and accountants. We want this model to be legal and watertight. We do not want to do what the Spanish call a “chapuza”.
Countdown 26 000.
Training and administrative/bureaucratic procedures. I asked our legal advisor about how to employ monitors from around Europe on a camp in Spain. He said, “Well, there is what you should do and there is what everyone actually does.”
Chapuzas- Illiterate Cowboy
I said,
“We are not doing a cowboy job. We have to do it right from the start. Tell me everything we should do!“
Here is one example. Most camps pay their monitors cash in hand and completely by-pass tax and social security. We are not prepared to do that. That means that we will register all our staff as temporary workers, going through the paperwork and bureaucracy that implies. We will pay the employers’ Social Security contribution, which will increase our wage bill by 30%.
If we pay monitors 100€ per day when on camp and 50€ per day on training and set up, we are looking at a wage bill of 8800€. That is with Leonard and Jason not paying themselves a penny.
Countdown 17 200€
“Ah, cut corners, why not?” you might say. “No” We want to duplicate legal camps. We do not want to be shut down, fined or hauled over the coals for illegalities. That would be unfair to our monitors and the kids on the camp.
In order to look after 30 children for two weeks we have to feed them and the staff. 10€ per person per day. We want plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. We want to be able to have one dinner in a restaurant. 30 kids, 4 staff, 1 Leonard, 1 Jason= 36 x 10 x 14= 5040€. I think we can make some bulk savings on this and am prepared to reduce the estimate by 20 %. We will budget 4000€
Countdown 13200€
Get rid of another 200€ for washing up liquid, cleaning materials, paper towels, snacks on outings, tissues, basic toiletries.
Countdown 13000€
Set up. We have not decided whether we are going to hire or buy tents and camping equipment. It is not easy to find the right supplier at the right price. Tents come in a range of sizes and qualities and we could easily spend anything from 70€ to 300€ per six man tent to buy. Renting is not cheaper but it does mean we do not have to store equipment the rest of the year. A middle-range price would be 150€ x 6 tents = 900€.
This could be the best option! I think it is beautiful.
On top of that there are the camping fees themselves 7€ x 14 x 6= 588. We also want to rent a cabin which will cost us another 500€.
Extra days for staff on site for training and set up: 50€
Leonard accommodation in Portomarín. (He is not camping. We want someone available in town.) 400€
We can either have a cook tent and invest in cooking equipment
Or
Hire a Foodtruck. We do not have the estimates for the foodtruck yet but I doubt we will get one for less than 1000€.
Countdown 9 560€
Travel. Hire a support vehicle for tthree weeks: we need the extra time to do set up and staff training on site. 645.18€
Petrol: 100€
Staff travel expenses: 100€ x 3. It will cost them more than this to get to and from England, but 100€ is a standard travel allowance in guiding, for example.
Countdown 8 617€
Three days on which we will need bus transport- pick up, drop off and excursion. We can eliminate the excursion to save money but coming to Galicia without seeing the sea is a shame! I have one estimate for 588€ per day. Let’s go with that for now. 588€ x 3=
Countdown 6 853€
And we still have not programmed in our marketing expenses, our office expenses, our research expenses. Some of these expenses are already paid by Summerhill Democratics, but we have to pay for things such as the T shirts and other rewards, our office supplies specifically directed at this project and filing expenses. Forgive the vagueness but I am going to round this up to 200€.
We still have not programmed in the cost of getting our monitors trained according to the rules here in Spain. The online monitor de tiempo libre certificate costs 189€ (x3 as they do not all have to do it). Online food hygiene certificate is cheaper.
We still have not factored in the cost of the insurance. We are looking at an overall insurance bill of 88 + 30×30= 988€
We still have not added the cost of doing a pre-camp research check up. It will cost us 500€ to get our monitors over, put them up and feed them.
We have not paid for the investigation we already did. But let’s say Summerhill Democratics paid for that.
Countdown 4 598
We have not factored in the seed money for next year, which is essential if we are to run follow-up summer camps. We want to save 5000 to use for investigation and set up of next year’s camps.
And we have not paid Leonard and Jason. Summerhill Democratics is our project. We set it up to promote the Summerhill model of democratic education. Money is not the first motivation and we will be the last to claim on the pot of funds.
Summerhill Democratics is a non-profit association. We are possibly the most non-profit non-profit in the world since last year neither Leonard nor Jason received a penny for the consultation work they did helping schools set up democratic programmes on the Summerhill model.
