Posted by Ken Kurtis - Chairman, Chamber Day on August 24, 2000 at 00:25:04:
In Reply to: Chamber donations posted by Captain Tim Burke on August 23, 2000 at 20:52:41:
Tim (and all),
I personally have answered this both on this board and to you in a few phone conversations within the last year so I'm not sure why this is coming up again or why anyone thinks there's some secret, but here goes.
The Chamber is housed at the USC facilities at the Isthmus. The 20% figure you quote (and I don't recall off the top of my head if that's the exact number but my recollection is that it's pretty close) is an overhead charge from USC to the Chamber.
It is justified because USC is supplying facilities, utilities, some supplies, classrooms, housing, meals, etc., etc. These are expenses the Chamber would incur even if they were seperate from anyone and totally ran their own show. And if they said that 20% of everything they raised went to running and maintaining the physcial plant, I don't think anyone would question it.
The monies paid to USC are not a ransom nor a "fee" for the privlege of being associated with USC. The Chamber gets value for those monies, perhaps in excess of what they pay in. My underdstanding is that the % is simply an easier way to do the bookkeepping than trying to track every single dollar for every single category that the overhead fee covers.
If you'd like to see exactly what the Chamber has to say (and I think they've got the % numbers wrong on the webpage - but I think the $70,000 dollar figure is right, which would make the % on the County Grant closer to 30%, and that may be a different number than anything else), go to "http://wrigley.usc.edu/hyperbaric/fundinfo.htm" and see for yourself. Like I said earlier, it's not a secret but posted quite publicly on the Chamber website.
Hope that answers your questions and allays your concerns. If not (and this applies to all) feel free to pursue this futher either publicly or privately and I'll do my best to provide whatever answers I have knowledge of. I will also forward a copy of your e-mail directly to Karl (who might be in Michigan on vacation, which would explain the lack of a response) to see if he wants to add anything to what I've already said.
Ken Kurtis
Chairman
Chamber Day & Chamber Evening
(Wednesday, May 2, 2001 - might as well get in the plug)