Very low turn out, please help

[Greg Chrise]

Fun with sponsorship

In a very small event, even the act of going around asking for things when they say no, you still haven't wasted your time because you have notified/personally invited another potential patron and their family to come check it out.

Every time you run an add for anything from looking for volunteers or donations you have notified even if no one calls.

Every person that thinks you are a weirdo goes and asks friends if there is something wrong with you or not. They have been notified and notified others.

Every other home haunt or pro haunt you go to see and talk to in your area now has some other place to offer patrons that want more.

Every neighbor that bitches publicly gives you the opportunity to disclose why you do this to help the community.

Watching these home haunt videos on fearnet.com left me with a few questions about why two generations of people, each with an extra 45 pounds of undigested meat in their gullet, think halloween 365 days per year is cool. How do they really help anyone but themselves? Just because they can all fit into a Ford Pinto and make it to Mac Frugals to buy Hallloween crap does it really make them somebody? Oh, the children love it. Really? Or is it the parents love abusing the children exposing them to weirdos with consumption issues and fake blood in a limited one night per your life time frame? What's wrong with this picture?

Sure there is a learning curve here, an enjoyment through doing, some sense of accomplishment but what is the over all end purpose? to bring Chinese recycled raw materials fashioned into crap to the local landfil? To entertain? To have something to do?

I'm just trying to be objective and see this phenomina as others would. If you have an answer for these issues and can communicate it properly then you are somebody and your event becomes something. Like, you make all of your own stuff and it is not only unique but, is a physical activity that keeps you fit, physically and mentally. It helps more than just warping a few undeveloped brains and your own psycological inferiority issues.

Maybe it inspires others that if they invest enough time, they too can also do things that are ultimately positive. Which intern keeps people off the streets abusing substances and welping on each other for free stuff.

Somehow, there must be somekind of a glimer of something that proves you aren't broke and retarded even if you are. Broke and retarded with a good heart, that's good. Resourceful and creative, that's good. Developing skills for something bigger, thats good maybe.

[UnDeRTaKer313]

you kinda lost me, but i think i get it.

So what you were talking about in one part was that the more people you get working on it the more of a turn out you have. That depends however on how good the people working on the even fel the evenr is. IF the people helping think it is stupid then they wont invite their friends, but they will more than likely still help out.

I get it, but i would still like some liability questions answered. If i open to the public and advertise i am as liable as if some one comes up to my hosue trick or treating. Now thats good, but if you advertise you arnt getting kids coming up to the door you are getting adults and stranger, teenagers. Normally people that are up to no good.

Did any of you get security at your haunt. How much was it.

[Greg Chrise]

I think I lost myself there too, I'm in the broke and retarded catagory these days.

Recently I have seen reports where people fall at a store or someone's home and think they will be sueing for millions. It is not so. They are in some regards responsible for their own ability to walk. The insurance industry of course isn't going to support this information as their product is to get money for something that will never happen.

It is less expensive to just be prepared in some manner that if someone gets hurt somehow you can to some degree tend to their needs. Most real claims even at major events are nothing more than minor scrapes usually far below what the deductable of any insurance policy would be. You would spend say $1200 or slightly more for $300,000 in liability insurance or an additional $300 event insurance attached to who ever ownes the homes policy. The over all trick is indeed to make sure there is indeed some policy in place but chances are there won't be the ability for anyone to recieve money on any real claim as your event charged no money, or was for charity.

All you have to do is make sure that there are no slides, steps or places that you crawl through. The patrons walk through the entire time in an upright position and as a result are not being introduced to harm by others or your event. If you have something happen, be prepeared to render aid to the extent of making sure someone can get to them with the hospital even if it is their own party. If they do not need a hospital visit, a simple first aid kit is generally enough. Making sure they have time to recover somewhere and are offered assistance.

yes, to follow up the more people involved and positive the better the event. You can make sure one or many of your volunteers are experienced EMS and have all of your emergency numbers known in advance.

Paying for security and such is also a function of cash flow. If only 10 people are attending, you don't need to be spending $300 per night for security. You ARE security. When a home haunt gets large enough to require things like this you have bigger problems like zoning and being raided for wrongfully operating an event that is said to be for a cause but might not have all of the legitimate papers and permits. If it is a freindly neighborhood event it flies under the radar as something you have the freedom to do on your own property.

With anything, every area and township has different levels of requirement and enforcement of township rules. Believe it or not there are places that have no police force, no dedicated ambulance service and everyone is on their own. Places that have all of this infastructure coming from your tax dollars will have all kinds of reasons to justify their existance and that they are doing what they are supposed to do.

The purpose of home insurance is on different levels and different stacks of policy functions. One is liability, another is property value, another is damge to the place by others, another is the value of the contents, another is an event or party at your home, it can go on and on, it just depends on how much these things are worth and how much you have to spend on a regular basis.

[s.fc90]

Yeah you need insurance to run a public attraction, store, etc.

If you're gonna advertise it, you have to find out first: a demographic. This is a home haunt and I take it that you don't have many actors or sophisticated props, scenes, etc. right? Or do you. If you do have a good amount of actors, props, themes, and scenes then advertise it more as a mature haunt and if not then as a more family haunt. Or even if everything is good, you decide how much scare goes into it.

So: Insurance, Audience, Advertisement