Getting Ready for IL Break 8!!!

After a long period of time this blog has been going MIA, I finally conjured up enough motivation to make another post. Let's hope that this keeps up in the long run :P But this time it was rather easy because I am very excited to announce the coming of another IL Break!

As the treasurer of Floor Lovers Illinois, it is not an exaggeration to say that the whole role of being a treasurer of FLI is to ensure that the club can afford such an extravagant jam. So one can actually say, this post is mainly my overview of the jam that will go over most of the costs and miscellaneous stuff like that :P But for those that are interested in hosting jams in the future...I hope this can be served as a good reference ^_^

Well then let me first put it out front my estimated price for IL Break 8...ready? YOU READY FOR THIS RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF CASH THAT WILL MAKE MOST COLLEGE KIDS GO W-T-F LIKE THIS?!?!

The amount is roughly 6000 US dollars. Ya, That's right...this is quite a grand amount of money. Of course, let me put it out in front, this is NOT INCLUDING the price money for winning IL Break. The reward, according to traditions, are always roughly 1000 US dollars... but usually covered most of that amount by collecting entrance fee to non-university students.

At first glance, this just sounds plain retarded. You may be like "man you don't know what you are talking about"...well I am about to prove you wrong :P Let us start by the most basic part of the jam that features battles: Judges and DJ. As tradition state, IL Break always like to include 3 judges: One judge from a local background; one judge from an international background; and one judge from another part of the USA. Each Judge will be paid 400 dollars for their troubles. That is already 1200 Dollars. As for DJ, we are fortunate enough to have the legendary DJ Skeme Richard as our returning DJ. As signs of our appreciation and respect, we are paying this legend a grand total of 800 dollars. But he's not our only DJ. DJ Los Boogeys are also included on the roster, but the club is going to offer 350 dollars to him. That already put us up to 2350 dollars. Now, if we are to have an exhibition from the big names that are going to show up in the jam, we are going to offer each exhibitioner (going to have 2) 200 dollars...that make it 400 dollars in addition to that 2350...so 2750 dollars. Now each person (that would make it 7 people) need to stay at a nearby hotel in order to provide them courtesy. Hotel costs roughly 75 dollars a night and each person is going to stay 4 days and 3 nights. So that would be 75 dollars x 3 x 7 = 1575 Dollars. 2750 + 1575 = 4325. Now, we are also responsible for covering judge's travel expenses...and since we are going to have an international judge...depends on the flight ticket price..we are talking about roughly another one thousand dollars...the other two judges' gas are also on us...assuming the judge from somewhere in the USA is also within driving distance. So OPTIMISTICALLY SPEAKING...I am assuming roughly 1200 dollars to cover all 3 judges travel expenses. So just base on the roster alone, we are talking about 5525 dollars total. And this is only half the game.

A big event like IL Break definitely needs to be advertized across campus, therefore, it is essential to have fliers to be passed around. Now, one would ask me why we need to have the campus students to know about IL Break and spend another 50 to 100 Dollars on them. Well, the reason is rather simple yet at the same time complicated >.<. To make a long story short, college student organizations simply cannot afford such colossal amount of money on their own. Therefore, registered student organizations are eligible to apply for funding from school known as SORF funding. But to do so, the treasurer of the club (namely me) has to score 100% on a 35 question quiz on SORF funding in order to be eligible for the club to apply. In addition, the school's ability to fund is constantly decreasing over time. SORF was able to cover roughly 83% for IL Break 7. But my current guestimation is that even if SORF is applied, they can probably cover up to 80% at BEST. To apply for SORF funding, I have to also put up a "portfolio" that can convince the school to fund IL Break 8. And to be able to do that, I have to make some kind of bullsh!t like "spreading the hip hop culture to the student populus..and this is beneficial to the campus because...." something like that....all just to increase the chance of getting funded. The more the fund, the better because it is rather hard for the clubs on campus to make money. SORF usually covers approximately 80% of the total cost. However, due to the fact that SORF is getting poorer and poorer by the year, it is questionable if it can do the same as two years ago. In fact, it is relatively safe to assume that SORF will probably cover up to 75%-78% this year...optimistically speaking.

Putting those fliers aside, the vendor also costs money. Being a university student and returning customer does have its advantage :P We are able to reserve the Illini Ball Room ABC for roughly 250 dollars. In addition to that, we also need the union's kickass audio system that will probably cost around 50-75 dollars. All in All, we are talking about another 325 dollars. 5525 + 325 = 5850 Dollars. There we go! Quite a colossal amount no? XD

Well despite the seeming impossible amount of money required to make this jam happen, FLI will definitely try their bets to bring IL Break 8 into existence. Hope to cyall there!