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Big
Convention Has Big Budget to Prove It With
more than 100 workshops, a job fair with over 300 booths and thousands
of participants, Unity '99 is proving to be a historical event in the
world of journalism. It
even has the budget to prove it. The
convention is expected to cost $3 million, almost twice as much as the
first Unity held in Atlanta in 1994, which had about 3,800 attendees.
Organizers expect this week's convention to host about 6,000 people. In
order to serve that many people, the conference has tallied up a budget
equal to that of a Hollywood film production. A
bulk of the funds, roughly $600,000, will go toward the Unity opening
and closing ceremonies, the Town Hall reception and the closing party,
said Jackie Greene, a Unity spokesman. Other
pricey items include student projects, at $500,000, and the convention
workshops, at $100,000. Also, travel for convention speakers can cost
as much as $2,000 for complimentary first-class airline tickets for a
one-day, round-trip to Seattle. Greene
said the Unity committee is running $500,000 below the estimated costs
for the convention. "We
are running ahead of projection on the revenue side," he said. Revenue
remaining after the convention will be divided among the four associations
and the Unity office for operational costs. Fundraising
for this year's Unity was more representative of the convention's namesake
than in 1994, when the event was planned and held as four different conferences
under one umbrella, Greene said. Rather
than raise money separately, this year the four associations pooled their
resources and created one centralized office to oversee convention fundraising.
The four groups are the Asian American Journalists Association, National
Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists
and the Native American Journalists Association. "Unity
raises money through sponsorships, through organizations and media corporations
that promote diversity," said Catalina Camia, Unity Board president
and AAJA president. "Each association is well-versed in having to
raise money to put on (their own annual) convention." Money
was also raised through registration but will not go directly to finance
the Unity convention. Under
the new system, when a member registers for Unity, the fees are paid directly
to the central organization. Fees varied based on time of registration
and membership status. The fees are then funneled into four separate bank
accounts for the members' respective association. After
the convention, the money earned by each association will be spent exactly
the way it would have during the associations' annual convention, Greene
said. A
specific, final tally of how much Unity raised and how and where the money
will be channeled is still undetermined, officials said. According to
NABJ President and Unity Treasurer Vanessa Williams, this is standard. "That
would have to happen when there is a full accounting of all the income
of revenue and expenses," she said, adding that such a number could
not be obtained until the convention concludes. At
that time, an auditor will clear the books and determine final figures,
she said. For the 1994 convention, Unity raised $1.9 million for the $1.5 million event. Of the $400,000 surplus, Greene said, $300,000 was divided among the associations to replace funds they normally would have raised from their respective conventions, and the rest went to operate the Unity office as well as other programs.
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