By Dessa Bayrock (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: October 24, 2012
If you’ve been to AfterMath in the past few days, you’ve heard the news; there is a possibility that AfterMath will be closing as early as next month.
If this were the case, it would stay shut at least until April of next year, when SUS’s next fiscal year begins.
This fiscal year, which runs from April 1, 2012, to March 31, 2013, the budget for AfterMath was set at $80,000 by the SUS board. This amount is intended to cover the cost of food, wages, contracts and any extra costs incurred through promotions or events.
As of October 23, AfterMath had spent roughly $67,000 of that budget. It will cost approximately $20,000 to pay out severance and contracts associated with shutting the pub’s doors, meaning that even if AfterMath closed immediately, it would still be over-budget.
It’s no secret that AfterMath has never turned a profit, but this is not atypical. The majority of campus pubs across Canada operate at a loss.
“I think most of the student body has been made quite aware . . . that this is not business, it’s a service,” explains AfterMath manager, Brad Ross. “This is their space. This is a student space to be used . . . Just as easily, we could say, ‘It’s $200. You want to use the space, it’s $200.’”
Ross says charging a hosting fee would generate additional revenue for AfterMath, but explains that this would be “a shell game.” Clubs and associations would turn around and ask for that funding from SUS, so the funding would still be coming from the same place.
In a report obtained by The Cascade this week and presented to the SUS board this past August , Potter (then VP east) and Samuel Broadfoot (VP finance) recommended that AfterMath lower employee costs, lower food costs and raise food prices. Looking at the expenses reported in AfterMath’s budgets, it doesn’t appear that any of these measures were pursued.
Ross explains that part of the problem came from an unexpected price increase in many popular food items.
“After the menus were already out and the prices were set, thanks to a worldwide shortage of corn and other vegetable products, our products took a huge price increase going into September and October,” Ross notes.
This is an expense that was not passed on to students, although Ross says that would probably change if AfterMath stays open.
Ross also notes that AfterMath has a partnership in the works with Phoenix, which would see the two bars putting together a weekly pub night for UFV students. It would allow AfterMath to adhere to their licence, but also supply a place for student to go after the campus pub closes. This would serve as an additional revenue stream, but the first “pub crawl” is due for the last day of October – which may be too late.
“We’re going to start looking at as many type avenues as we can to start bringing in added revenue,” Ross says, “and then we’ll be creative to see if there are other avenues that we can do on [top of] that.”
For now, the reality of the situation can be distilled down into a single, simple fact: there is no money to keep AfterMath going.
“In order to keep AfterMath open for the rest of the year, Samuel Broadfoot calculated that we’ll need an additional $40,000. Best case scenario,” states interim SUS president, Shane Potter. “What that means is that we would need that money within the next two weeks in order to keep AfterMath going.”
Potter says every option has been explored and there is no easy answer. SUS simply doesn’t have $40,000 lying around, and producing that money would mean cuts elsewhere or going into debt.
“Ideas that have been brought forward are to reduce funds and budgets and take it from other sources. Unfortunately, as a society, that is very difficult to do,” Potter explains. “When we’re talking about $40,000, we would have to drain a lot of funds, including events, clubs and associations, emergency student grants.”
There is a petition making the rounds at UFV to keep AfterMath open; clubs, associations, and unaffiliated students alike are eager to put pen to paper to keep the pub open.
But at the end of the day, Potter says a pile of signatures—although inspiring—will help no one.
“I think it’s good that the students are getting behind something,” Potter says. “There could be 5000 signatures on my desk in the next two days. But I’m sorry – unless those 5000 can tell me how, or tell me what they’re willing to give up, or tell me what they’re willing to cut, I don’t know what to do.”
“And we can’t make that decision for our members,” Potter continues. “That would be something our members would have to make.”
There are long-term solutions that could be pursued, but the clock is ticking. AfterMath needs funding in the next few weeks, or those weeks will be their last of the school year.
“For long-term solutions, we could start a member-driven referendum, at $6 a student, per semester,” Potter suggests, “but because of the referendum rules, where you have to wait 30 days for a referendum, the soonest we can do that referendum is in the summertime.”
Meanwhile, SUS has made all of AfterMath’s budgets available online so anyone can take a look at the numbers. Potter hopes that perhaps someone will see something the board has missed and supply a solution to the yearly AfterMath crisis.
“They can see how much I make. They can see how much we spend. They can see every line in my budget up to date. And then they can put those 5000 signatures on my table and they can tell me what they want me to do,” Potter says, wearily. “But I’m willing to save AfterMath if one person can come forward and give me a solution to save it. I don’t need 5000. I just need one.”
