3 ms·

Maybe the burning man people are overpayed, but being the treasurer of an organization that, as you say, deals with 35 million dollars every year sounds like a

by c22 9y ago

Maybe the burning man people are overpayed, but being the treasurer of an organization that, as you say, deals with 35 million dollars every year sounds like a full time all year round position to me, regardless of when or how the money is made.

geezerjay 9y ago
> but being the treasurer of an organization That's immaterial to the discussion. The point is that management rakes in the lion's share of a $35M revenue made largely at the expense of people paying well over $1k to attend an event which is sold as non-profit, non-capitalist and volunteer-only. Naturally, people need to get paid for the job they do, and organizer's do have the right and even obligation to profit from their initiatives, but questions do pop out regarding the ethical implications of doing so under what appear to be false pretenses.
aje403 9y ago
Great point sir. I am interested in being a full time treasurer as well, will you give me $35mm/year? I will devote my full time to managing it
- pault 9y ago
  Don't be ridiculous, the treasurer doesn't make $35mm/year.
  - aje403 9y ago
    Not with that attitude
sytelus 9y ago
The work load here isn’t proportional to revenue, it’s proportional to services provided by the organizers - which is extraordinarily minimum. The revenue simply drops in via website that is active only few days a year. I absolutely disagree that any person involved for Burning Man should be full time employee of any kind. I would also not expect any sort of “executives” let alone paid folks for Burning Man when the entire premise of event rests on volunteering. Do you think no one with great qualifications in the world is willing to be volunteer to make a website for Burning Man or be a treasurer for the event?
- c22 9y ago
  > Do you think no one with great qualifications in the world is willing to be volunteer to make a website for Burning Man or be a treasurer for the event? I honestly don't know. What I do know is that if I was in charge of selecting a treasurer to manage $35M I would definitely prefer it to be a paid position, especially if the money all comes in and goes out in a short timespan. I might trust volunteers with trash pickup, but this is 35 million bucks. If I go to burning man with 70000 other people then $1.59 of my ticket price is going to pay this lady, that's less than a single cup of dusty coffee or a bag of ice! I'm okay with that. Handling 35 million dollars in a year sounds like a daunting task, doing it in a week sounds downright insane, I don't think it's unreasonable to pay someone a living wage to do this job. I also hope the people driving around sucking shit out of the porta potties are getting paid and I would not like to see that be a volunteer position. Like I said, I have no idea if the other administrators of burning man are overpayed, but I do suspect running an event of this scale is much closer to a year-round job than you surmise, and in the real world being "radically self reliant" usually means maintaining an actual paying job somewhere.

by c22 9y ago

geezerjay 9y ago

> but being the treasurer of an organization That's immaterial to the discussion. The point is that management rakes in the lion's share of a $35M revenue made largely at the expense of people paying well over $1k to attend an event which is sold as non-profit, non-capitalist and volunteer-only. Naturally, people need to get paid for the job they do, and organizer's do have the right and even obligation to profit from their initiatives, but questions do pop out regarding the ethical implications of doing so under what appear to be false pretenses.

aje403 9y ago

Great point sir. I am interested in being a full time treasurer as well, will you give me $35mm/year? I will devote my full time to managing it

pault 9y ago
Don't be ridiculous, the treasurer doesn't make $35mm/year.
- aje403 9y ago
  Not with that attitude

sytelus 9y ago

The work load here isn’t proportional to revenue, it’s proportional to services provided by the organizers - which is extraordinarily minimum. The revenue simply drops in via website that is active only few days a year. I absolutely disagree that any person involved for Burning Man should be full time employee of any kind. I would also not expect any sort of “executives” let alone paid folks for Burning Man when the entire premise of event rests on volunteering. Do you think no one with great qualifications in the world is willing to be volunteer to make a website for Burning Man or be a treasurer for the event?

c22 9y ago
> Do you think no one with great qualifications in the world is willing to be volunteer to make a website for Burning Man or be a treasurer for the event? I honestly don't know. What I do know is that if I was in charge of selecting a treasurer to manage $35M I would definitely prefer it to be a paid position, especially if the money all comes in and goes out in a short timespan. I might trust volunteers with trash pickup, but this is 35 million bucks. If I go to burning man with 70000 other people then $1.59 of my ticket price is going to pay this lady, that's less than a single cup of dusty coffee or a bag of ice! I'm okay with that. Handling 35 million dollars in a year sounds like a daunting task, doing it in a week sounds downright insane, I don't think it's unreasonable to pay someone a living wage to do this job. I also hope the people driving around sucking shit out of the porta potties are getting paid and I would not like to see that be a volunteer position. Like I said, I have no idea if the other administrators of burning man are overpayed, but I do suspect running an event of this scale is much closer to a year-round job than you surmise, and in the real world being "radically self reliant" usually means maintaining an actual paying job somewhere.