2006 Antiques Show Report

January 28, 2007

By any measure this year's Antiques Show & Sale was a great success. Not only was there a strong sense of cooperation between church volunteers and dealers, but the show raised $24,435; an increase of 32% compared to last year and 20% more than our goal. It was a job very well done by everyone who volunteered!

Please allow me to summarize the highlights of this year's show.

Volunteers

Eight people volunteered to be subcommittee leaders for the first time. Many of these people are from a younger generation or have recently joined the church. It was good to see a new generation willing to take on leadership positions with the show. The first time committee chairs were Ray Claus, Jody Manly, Mary Ellen West, Stephanie Booth, Tom Milliman, Griffin Jones, Barry Brown, and Melissa Burnley.

Melissa Burnley is the director of the St. Paul's Day Care Center and was very enthusiastic about accepting my invitation on behalf the Day Care Center to help with the show. As an annual beneficiary of the show's proceeds, I was grateful the Day Care Center felt such a willingness to be involved. It is truly a role model for other organizations.

Dealers

The dealers were elated with the newly remodeled Parish Hall and the new wall separating the booths in the middle of the room. They especially liked the improved restrooms. Judging by the smiles at the end of the event, the vast majority of them had a financially rewarding show. Gail Bush did another fine job in taking care of the dealers' needs and the show was rewarded with happy dealers and a Parish Hall that was left in great shape. The only issue the dealers consistently have is they want more attendees at the show. I agree, and this is the number one priority for next year's show.

I have attached the individual dealers' feedback as recorded by Gail Bush as Appendix A at the end of this report.

Neighborhood Relations

Each year a church volunteer puts a flyer in each mailbox on Vick Park B and Westminster Road announcing the show to our neighbors. The flyer is also good for two free admissions to the show. We do this as a thank you to our neighbors since street parking is at a premium during the show hours.

This year I asked Donna Suchy to deliver the flyers. Donna, being the wonderful ambassador for everything she does, was not satisfied with just putting the flyer in the mailboxes and walking away. She took the time to ring each door bell and personally hand deliver and speak with those who were at home at the time. Donna had some good conversations and experiences with our neighbors which I want to share with you.

"I wanted to share a few of my experiences on Saturday as I walked the St Paul's area delivering our Antiques Show invitations to our neighbors on Westminster Road and Vick Park B. I am happy that we let our neighbors know that we appreciate them and their patience by extending free invitations to the Antiques Show. Parking is always limited in the area, and will be even more so next weekend during our wonderful show, so letting our neighbors know we recognize the inconvenience by extending a free invitation to them is a great gesture that was appreciated.

What surprised me is how much the show and our church mean to our neighbors on Westminster and Vick Park A. The invitations were eagerly awaited and one elderly lady told me "she could not believe it was already time for another sale since the last one seemed only a short time ago" (something I suspect our planners feel also). It was obvious to me that she uses our events as milestones in her own life.

Another neighbor was so thrilled and said that he would definitely attend the show since he enjoyed the event so very much last year. Another gentleman wanted to be sure that I left an invitation for each apartment since it was an event they would all want to attend and that St Paul's made such an impact; he said "St Paul's was the best thing in the neighborhood and made such a difference to them all."

I had to laugh at another apartment house when I asked if the gentlemen I met at the front door lived there. He said no, that he was the landlord. I told him that I was leaving the Antiques Show flyers for the renters and that I would leave an extra invitation in the entryway for him if he wanted to take advantage of it (after talking to him I did not want to have him feel left out). As I continued down the street and turned around, I was not surprised to see the familiar pink colored flyer in his hand as he left the house and got in his car.

These are just a few of the comments and stories I heard as I made my rounds in our neighborhood on Saturday afternoon. I knew we made a difference but to hear so many positive comments was refreshing. I wanted to share them with you so that you also know what a difference we make in our neighborhood and how proud I am to be a part of St Paul's Church.

We will have a great Antiques Show but more importantly, as we continue to invite our neighbors into our church, we will make a bigger impact on our neighbors and on our community.

Thank you for the opportunity to be part of this great event."

Donna Suchy

It is comforting to see that St. Paul's is not viewed by our neighbors as an annoyance or just the brick building at the end of the street. Sixteen of the neighborhood flyers were used as admission to the show.

Door Prize

After attending an antiques show in March to do some competitive evaluation, I decided to institute a door prize at this year's show. The prizes available were two tickets to GEVA (donated by a parishioner), a $25 gift certificate to The Good Book Store (donated by Jane Reynolds), and three free tickets for two to next year's preview party. Given the extremely strong response, the door prize drawing committee also drew 10 additional names of people who will each receive two free tickets to next year's show.

Those filling out the door prize form were asked to provide their name and address, as well as indicate how they heard about the show by checking a list of the different publicity vehicles used to advertise the show.

The benefits of the door prize were that we now have a mailing list which can be used for cost effective direct-mail advertising for future shows, can understand via ZIP Code where the show attendees live, and have a good understanding of what advertising methods are most cost effective.

Just over 600 people attended this year's show on Friday and Saturday. After weeding out duplicate forms and known St. Paul's members, 416 unique forms remained. Of these, 50% of the respondents live in 146xx Zip Codes (City of Rochester and some contiguous towns), 29% live in other Monroe County towns, 9% live in the five counties surrounding Monroe County, 10% live outside the six county Rochester region (all west of I-81), and 2% live outside New York State. Clearly the show draws from a fairly small geographical region.

The following table summarizes the publicity vehicles that were checked on the door prize forms and the associated cost of each. Some forms contained multiple responses.

Advertising Vehicle Responses Cost & Comments
Word of mouth 125 priceless
D&C 78 $350 for classified ads, free events calendar listing
Sign out front 64 free
Direct mailing 53 nominal printing and postage costs
St. Paul's member 49 priceless, assumed to be word of mouth
Penny Saver 17 $117 classified ad, free events calendar listing
Show card advertising 20 $102 printing cost
City Newspaper 15 $10 classified ad, free events calendar listing
Messenger Post 13 $90 for four-week coupon ad in classified section
Shopping bag 6 $54 classified ad, free events calendar listing
Adnet Direct 6 $144 classified ad
Dealer mailing 6 free to St. Paul's
Neighborhood flyer 7 $5 for paper and copying
Epis. church mailing 3 $20 printing and postage
Freetime Magazine 2 Free events calendar listing
Comp tickets 2 Free
Website 1 Free
Sign on Park Ave 1 $10
Golden Times 1 Free events calendar listing
TV's Tony & Dee 1 Free. Dee is an Episcopalian
Syr. Post Standard 0 $56

With the exception of the D&C, the best advertising sources are free or have a nominal cost. The show significantly reduced the amount spent on paid advertising this year and will have to consider whether further reductions can be made without negatively affecting attendance.

People were also given an opportunity to provide written feedback about the show. Only three took advantage of this. The comments provided were:

Attendance

This year's attendance was approximately 4% less than last year's. Admittedly, we do not do a good job of tracking attendance at the door and the difference could be larger or smaller than 4% due to error. Therefore, it is difficult to say with any degree of certainty whether attendance was down this year or not. A better, more reliable method of attendance tracking is a goal for next year's show. The show needs accurate attendance data in order to evaluate the effectiveness of publicity, as well as to justify any prospective future booth rental rate increase for the dealers.

The following table summarizes the attendance for the past two shows.

2005 2006
Entrance Entrance
Day VPB WM Total VPB WM Total
Preview 197 186
Friday 312 312 156 193 349
Saturday 108 209 317 103 156 259
Total 826 792

The Preview Party attendance is estimated based on income. While Friday's attendance this year was up 12%, Saturday's was down by 25%. One potential reason is that the weather on Saturday was sunny and mild, nicer than I recall in recent years.

Publicity

Between 1999 and 2005, the amount spend on advertising almost doubled, from $2100 to $4100, with no gain in net income. Net income (and most likely attendance) over those years remained flat at $18,000 plus/minus a few hundred dollars.

Since I was unable to find a publicity chair for the show, I took on the responsibility and reduced the amount spent to $967. I eliminated costly print ads in favor of less costly classified ads and found as many free event calendar listings as I could. This reduction in publicity expense had at most a negligible effect on attendance, based on the attendance discussion above. Basically we were not getting a return on the ever-increasing amount the show was spending on publicity.

I also sent a letter and flyers to each of the churches in the Diocese asking them to mention the show to their membership. I included two complimentary tickets to the show to grease the skids. In addition I sent a letter, posters, and two complimentary tickets to the Activities Director of all retirement communities in the six county region around Rochester. While it is difficult to judge the effectiveness of this approach, it should be continued for a few years to allow it to gain momentum.

Take Down / Set Up Committee

In January, I met with Keith Thompson, Louis Martin, and Tom Lincoln to discuss the Antiques Show. It was clear to me after this conversation that the Sexton's staff was overburdened by the show, and I decided to form a committee to reduce the show's demand on the Sexton's staff.

Griffin Jones and Tom Milliman co-chaired the Take Down & Set Up committee which had the responsibility of configuring the rooms of the church for the show and then restoring them right after the show ended, so the church was ready for Sunday worship and church school the following day. The committee was a success with the church being fully restored by 8:00 pm on Saturday night, a truly Herculean effort by the team. Typically, in the past, the overburdened Sexton's staff would work late into the evening on Saturday and still have a significant amount of cleanup work the coming week.

Program

The show's program was expanded from four to eight pages. Three of the additional pages were devoted to a writeup about each of the organizations receiving funding from this year's show. We did this to help people understand that the show is a fundraising event and the proceeds are used both locally and internationally to help those less fortunate. The fourth new page was a listing of all of the silent auction items to help raise awareness of this not-yet-fully-mature revenue generator. A complete Simply Crepes menu and updated map were also included. The program was printed in house at a significant saving. Feedback was positive about the updated program.

Beneficiaries

The proceeds from this year's show have been distributed as follows:

Beneficiary Amount Beneficiary Amount
Episcopal Church Women $6,416 Hope for Sudan $5,190
Book shelving 1,000 Reading programs 200
Sexton's tool fund 500 Berea library building 1,000
SPY mission trips 2,000 Water for Sudan 1,000
Daycare scholarships 1,000 Marion Institute 1,000
SEM's CHAPPs program 1,000 Office SW/HW upgrade 829
Church School needs 1,500 New flag for Paul's Cross* 100
School #9 1,500 Two playground benches* 200

Finances

A financial summary is attached as Appendix B. The increase in net income is a combination of reduced expenses (66%) and improved sales (33%) in the shops run by the church during the show.

The $3,000 reduction in publicity costs accounts for 50% of the $6,000 increase in show revenue. This by far had the greatest effect on revenue. The other significant contained cost was a reduction of $1,100 in Sexton's staff overtime and bonus paid. This correspondingly reduced the demands placed on the Sexton's staff.

The show added a new shop this year called Decorator Fabrics & Trims. This was made possible by the generous donation of fabrics by the Rochester Area Community Foundation from the estate of Elizabeth Hollahan, a well known local interior decorator. The DF&T shop raised $1,789, with a significant amount of material remaining to be sold at next year's show. This was found money.

The Linens Room had a great show and raised $983 more than last year, for a record amount of $4,798. The Silent Auction raised $999 more than last year, an almost100% increase!

The other shops had income within normal year-to-year variation. This variation is driven by the amount and quality of the items donated each year for sale. All of the shops were well run, organized, and nicely presented.

Looking Forward

There are two critical issues the Antiques Show Committee needs to address. The first issue is how to increase the number of attendees. Show attendance has most likely been flat, possibly decreasing over the past 5-10 years. This is consistent with what the dealers are saying is happening in the broader antiques market. There are fewer shows with decreasing number of attendees, fewer dealers, with younger dealers foregoing brick and mortar shows in favor of using the Internet to sell their merchandise. The changing antiques marketplace, in combination with six years (1999-2005) of increased advertising expense without increased revenue, indicates to me that the show is in need of a refreshed image and desperately needs a marketing plan. We need to understand how to get the message out about the show to the parts of the community that have an interest in antiques and the other items that we sell. The Antiques Show Committee needs help in identifying St. Paul's members who have a marketing background that would be willing to take on this important challenge.

The second issue is how to insure that there are sufficient number of volunteers to take on leadership roles and to staff the show. This past year I found it very difficult to fill some of the leadership positions and I had to step in where possible. One success, and I propose it as a model for moving forward, is the arrangement I made with Hope of Sudan. Hope of Sudan is now the custodian of the Linens and Decorator Fabrics & Trim rooms at the show. They will run this part of the show each year until they decide they no longer want to. They are responsible for finding the committee chairs and staffing those rooms for the show. In return, Hope of Sudan will receive from the net revenue the same percentage of gross revenue the Linens and Decorator Fabrics & Trim rooms generate. For example, if these two rooms bring in 25% of the gross show income, then Hope of Sudan will receive 25% of the show's net income. The benefits of this arrangement include:

The Antiques Show Committee needs to find another group who would like a similar arrangement for the Old Curiosity Shop. The Antiques Show Committee needs help in identifying groups who would enjoy this type of arrangement and could use the $3,000-4,000 the OCS typically generates each year. If there are no groups within St. Paul's that would like to take advantage of this arrangement, then organizations throughout the Diocese should be considered. I feel if the show is to survive long term, we need to look outside the walls of St. Paul's for volunteers.

It was a pleasure to serve as chairperson for the 2006 Antiques Show & Sale.

Chris Curtis