Notes From Our 2016 Quilt Show Chair

TQG 2016 QUILT SHOW – “QUILTERS ROCK THE BEACH”
I wish to start off by letting everyone know that your 2016 Quilt Show Committee is hard at work, although we got a late start in organizing the committee and developing our plans for the quilt show. Once we had our first committee meeting in June 2015, each committee member quickly volunteered and took on the responsibilities of the variety of job positions necessary to present a successful local quilt show.
First and foremost was to find a venue to hold the quilt show and as the Quilt Show Chair I took that task on with earnest and veracity. I decided to share this experience as a tool to enlighten everyone. We had outgrown the venue of the Khedive Temple in Chesapeake, which was 9,100 sq. ft. of space, and wanted to expand to 11,000 sq. ft. or more. We also wanted to have the venue in Virginia Beach area in our efforts to attach ourselves to the tourist industry. We would need a venue for 3 days rental, 1 day for set-up and 2 days for the show to be open to the public with breakdown after the close of the quilt show.

Quickly I became educated on a variety of facilities that may be available for lease and this is what I found.

• Churches throughout do not have the square footage we are looking to rent.
• The Grand Affairs on Pleasure House Road has a carpeted ballroom that is 11,000 sq. ft. they rent out for $11,000.00 a 24hour period.
• The Modern Museum of Contemporary Art has a maximum of 6,400 sq. ft. using their Atrium & Pavilion at a cost of $16,000.00 for 3 day rental.
• The Virginia Beach Resort & Conference Center on Shore Drive has 16,000 sq ft, but would encompass use of 5 different rooms and would cost $12,300.00 for 3 day rental. There would also be an issue with parking and unloading/loading in the vendors and our quilt show exhibit.
• The Virginia Beach Convention Center (also known as the Pavilion by us old timers) has a Box Office Policy Agreement whereas we would have to sign a “Use Permit Agreement” and then as the “Permittee” we would have to pay the current hourly rate for a Box Office Supervisor and (1) or more Ticket Sellers in addition to any box office fees. We would not be directly involved with selling admission tickets. At the end of the event, we would receive a Box Office Statement generated by the Virginia Beach Convention Center’s accounting department at settlement, meaning, we wouldn’t receive the full admission ticket monies. After seeing that policy, I didn’t go any further to research rental fees for 11,000 sq. ft.

Then I turned to public schools for possible venues. In order to acquire use of public schools rent their gymnasiums, cafeterias and classrooms in 4 hour increments with a different dollar amount depending on which area you wish to rent.

• I inquired about Luxford Elementary’ s gymnasium and cafeteria. To rent these for 3 days would cost between $10,950.00 -$13,000.00. On top of that we would need to hire one to two custodians at $19.00 per hour each and the school’s principal would have final determination as to how many custodians we would need to hire.

To balance things out, I checked on 2 private schools. St. Gregory’s the Great Catholic School and Cape Henry Collegiate.

• At St. Gregory’s to rent the gymnasium and cafeteria the fee would be $3,800.00. There was one disqualifying factor of absolutely not able to have any form of liquid inside the gymnasium. So, not one item of drinking water or liquid would be allowed use by our vendors or guild volunteers inside the gymnasium. The committee felt this was too much of a hindrance for our vendors and guild volunteers.
• So, having all of this information available, the committee decided on Cape Henry Collegiate’ s Field House giving us a huge space of 16,000 sq. ft. or better of usage at a rental fee of $7,000.00 for 3 ½ days. This includes use of the Concession equipment, tables, seating benches/chairs, electrical and Wi-Fi connection. We will be able to have our Café and the vendors will be able to have drinks at their booths. There are 4 – 6 bathrooms available, plenty of parking & handicapped access.

The Committee is ecstatic about Cape Henry Collegiate as the venue for the 2016 Quilt Show and sincerely all of you are, also. We ask that you support us in our endeavors by entering at least one quilt or quilted apparel item into your quilt show and shout out loud that we quilters “ROCK”!
If there are any questions or comments, please contact Karan Fisher at karanfisher@cox.net  or phone (757) 761-1173.

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