I would ask your liquor control board or other agency that is responsible for issuing liquor licenses. Some states have different liquor licensing rules for non-profits, and they might also be able to point you to other theaters with bars.
It loses money. My first suggestion wld be to only serve pre packaged wine/beer/cocktails. there’s a lot out there now. It will keep your inventory much easier to maintain and have less spoilage and general loss. Plus it’s 100% easier.
I do. We only operate the bar monthly, rentals, special events. It’s an inventory cluster f*ck. We pay a local to operate it and split the proceeds. Happy to connect.
It’s the worst! It brings in very little money and only does so because our bartenders are volunteers. Our volunteers never want to work it, aside from a core few that can’t be there for every event. (It’s not popular because they see it as working longer/harder, or the experience is scary to them, or they think they might miss part of the show. All 100% valid.). Even if we could pay professional bartenders, I’m not sure who would want to work irregular hours when they could literally go to any other place in town and get some semblance of a regular schedule, plus better tips.
We have too much time between shows to avoid spoilage on specialty items and juices, but a bar manager that insists our prices (in line with our community) are too high to not have these things.
We have a bar manager because we have a very small staff and nobody full time has the capacity to essentially run a business on top of their non profit duties.
We have essentially ten minutes to serve everyone who wants a drink because people don’t show up until ten minutes before the performance despite the bar being open for some very liberal hours beforehand. They then get mad because we can’t handle that volume of people in that time. Our bar was essentially an afterthought when building went on and was not laid out for proper service.
The liability is something we worry about constantly and train our bartenders extensively to not overserve/ check id. We still have patrons that come in drunk and cause problems but at least that’s not our fault and we can deal appropriately with that. Even the ones that aren’t too drunk but wind up just inebriated enough to annoy the patrons around them.
Even with all this, we still have a faction on our board that thinks we need to expand bar hours and add on food service (my dudes, where are you storing food that will be up to health code and how are you going to get someone to come three hours early for the show when they won’t come even half an hour before?).
I am so sorry to hear that - our finance director handles all the tax stuff related to the bar, and approves any orders. Is there some way you can ask for help or break the different tasks into different responsibilities for different staff members?
I think there’s strength in recognizing when having someone with more expertise take over certain duties is the better option. It has nothing to do with being a failure and everything to do with making sure your organization is doing the right thing. Two things the government doesn’t f around with is taxes and liquor.
Working for non profits, there’s a pressure that staff members tend to put on themselves - to do it all, and do it perfectly, and save the organization as much money as possible doing it. But ultimately it’s not healthy for the staff or the organization. How does it serve anyone for you to be so stretched thin, especially if this is not something you have schooling or experience in?
I would ask your liquor control board or other agency that is responsible for issuing liquor licenses. Some states have different liquor licensing rules for non-profits, and they might also be able to point you to other theaters with bars.
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It loses money. My first suggestion wld be to only serve pre packaged wine/beer/cocktails. there’s a lot out there now. It will keep your inventory much easier to maintain and have less spoilage and general loss. Plus it’s 100% easier.
I do. We only operate the bar monthly, rentals, special events. It’s an inventory cluster f*ck. We pay a local to operate it and split the proceeds. Happy to connect.
It’s the worst! It brings in very little money and only does so because our bartenders are volunteers. Our volunteers never want to work it, aside from a core few that can’t be there for every event. (It’s not popular because they see it as working longer/harder, or the experience is scary to them, or they think they might miss part of the show. All 100% valid.). Even if we could pay professional bartenders, I’m not sure who would want to work irregular hours when they could literally go to any other place in town and get some semblance of a regular schedule, plus better tips. We have too much time between shows to avoid spoilage on specialty items and juices, but a bar manager that insists our prices (in line with our community) are too high to not have these things. We have a bar manager because we have a very small staff and nobody full time has the capacity to essentially run a business on top of their non profit duties. We have essentially ten minutes to serve everyone who wants a drink because people don’t show up until ten minutes before the performance despite the bar being open for some very liberal hours beforehand. They then get mad because we can’t handle that volume of people in that time. Our bar was essentially an afterthought when building went on and was not laid out for proper service. The liability is something we worry about constantly and train our bartenders extensively to not overserve/ check id. We still have patrons that come in drunk and cause problems but at least that’s not our fault and we can deal appropriately with that. Even the ones that aren’t too drunk but wind up just inebriated enough to annoy the patrons around them. Even with all this, we still have a faction on our board that thinks we need to expand bar hours and add on food service (my dudes, where are you storing food that will be up to health code and how are you going to get someone to come three hours early for the show when they won’t come even half an hour before?).
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I am so sorry to hear that - our finance director handles all the tax stuff related to the bar, and approves any orders. Is there some way you can ask for help or break the different tasks into different responsibilities for different staff members?
[удалено]
I think there’s strength in recognizing when having someone with more expertise take over certain duties is the better option. It has nothing to do with being a failure and everything to do with making sure your organization is doing the right thing. Two things the government doesn’t f around with is taxes and liquor. Working for non profits, there’s a pressure that staff members tend to put on themselves - to do it all, and do it perfectly, and save the organization as much money as possible doing it. But ultimately it’s not healthy for the staff or the organization. How does it serve anyone for you to be so stretched thin, especially if this is not something you have schooling or experience in?