Hey everyone!
Hope this finds you well.
As you all know, YACC is growing. This is a great thing, but growth often means having to make some changes to make space for the new.
After many considerations, consultations, and conversations, we have decided to move our annual Survivor Conference from the fall to the spring (i.e. June 2014). We know the Conference is THE time of year where young adult cancer survivors in Canada get to reconnect with old friends and make new ones. We did not make this decision lightly, and won’t leave you high and dry.
The fundamental reasons
It’s all about the money. Kind of. YACC’s budget has been growing nicely for the 13 years we’ve been around. We hit $1M in revenue last year for the first time (high five). However, we are not close to realizing our vision. Growth is our focus, because that means we can connect with, and support, many more young adults. The Shave for the Brave, which you may have heard of, is our biggest fundraiser, generating over 70 per cent of our revenue. It is just wrapping up in the next few weeks, and happens to be in the third and fourth quarters of our fiscal year (i.e. our business plan and budget starts August 1 and ends July 31).
Money is great whenever it comes, but as the Shave has grown, it has created some cool and challenging side-effects. Reaching way more survivors = cool. 70 per cent of revenue coming in at the end of the year = challenging. It’s mostly challenging because as the Shave winds down, we wind up program by delivering Retreats, and the Survivor Conference wraps it up in the fall. This means our biggest revenue generator and our most expensive program are on opposite sides of the calendar (Survivor Conference budget this year is $150K!). This is an annual challenge we’ve been dealing with for several years, and this year we are exploring a new way to address it: moving the Conference.
That’s the background…
Next steps
I am sure you are thinking, “When will the next Conference be? What happens until then?”
We are finalizing some details to move the Conference to June 2014, thus having no Conference in 2013, but instead, holding a national Localife event that would allow us to get groups together in different cities while still connecting with the national network. Many more details will get finalized in the next few weeks and we will keep you updated as this new project becomes concrete.
Ultimately, we want you to know we are working on an event that will provide an opportunity for survivors and supporters to connect in the fall until the Conference takes place in June. If you have some questions or concerns about this, we have created a closed Facebook group that will be a safe place to express yourself on that subject. If you want to join the group, just look for “YACC Survivor Conference changes” and we will add you.
We will always welcome your thoughts directly as well at [email protected]. Big thanks for your understanding.
Always…
Live life. Love life.
Geoff
