IN RE: Funding recognition.
 
          I think that you need to apply some corporate thinking to
          what an exhibition costs. There is a whole field of study in
          accounting called cost accounting. This is an attempt to
          find out what something really "costs" to manufacture,
          market, etc. The underlying principal is that all the costs
          of the company need to be allocated to some product or
          another. Nothing in the company should be called "overhead",
          "administration", etc.
 
          Therefore, if you have an exhibit that costs $5,000 to rent,
          that is only the beginning of the true costs of an
          exhibition from an organizational point of view.
          *Everything* that is contributing to the possibility of
          putting up that exhibit, from the Director's salary , to
          space rental, to heat, to advertising, to raising the money
          to support the exhibit needs to be included.
 
          Corporate people understand this. How much do you think a
          can of beer costs to make? 1 cent, less maybe? But.. start
          piling on all the costs of manufacturing, administering, and
          marketing, then you have beer manufacturers claiming that
          they only profit 5-10 percent on the sale of beers. So that
          means that *they* claim the bottle of beer costs 90 cents to
          make.
 
          Applying that ratio to your exhibit (1 to 90), then the
          5,000 dollar exhibit becomes a, what, $450,000 exhibit.
          There you go...
 
 
          Eric Siegel
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