Ceremonial strain
Ceremonial delivers business plan to governor

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Independent correspondent

GALLUP — On Friday, a representative of the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial Association traveled to Santa Fe and hand-delivered what may be the most important document in the organization’s 88-year history to Gov. Bill Richardson.

It may decide if the Ceremonial can continue in its present form or will have to scale down.

The document is the group’s first business plan, and the fact that it was even done is solely because Richardson said he was getting frustrated with the organization’s inability to make a profit. Earlier this year, he yanked state funding from the association for next year and said he would only restore it if the organization submitted a business plan that showed it had the potential to survive one day without state help.

Enter the Northwest New Mexico Council of Government and its planners, who held three meetings with the chairmen of the various Ceremonial committees to see if they could come up with a business plan that would meet the governor’s expectations.

Louie Bonaguidi, chairman of the association board, thinks they have.

“We believe that the relationship between the state and the Ceremonial ... is very workable,” he wrote in his cover letter to the governor.

Not all of the committee chairmen made it to the meetings, but Evan Williams, a COG senior planner, said the major ones did. The plan, for the first time, has gotten committee chairmen to do something they have never done before — prepare a budget for their event instead of flying by the seat of their pants as the event progressed.

What the association wants, according to the business plan, is for the state to provide $300,000 in the next fiscal year, which will allow the organization to hire a year-round director and assistant as well as ensure that the event has enough funds on hand to kick off this year’s event, which runs from Aug. 12-16.

It will cost about $520,000 to put on this year’s event and that figure increases about 5 percent a year because of inflation, so in the beginning, the state would be paying for most of the cost.

“In subsequent years, the association projects a gradual annual reduction in state funding,” the business plan states, “as other contributions grow, marketing expands and event-generated revenues increase.”

The plan projects that state funding to the event would decrease by $50,000 in 2011 and then another $25,000 the following year as revenues increase and the amount of funds it receives from the county goes from $25,000 to $35,000.

Bonaguidi said that while the association is waiting to see what the governor decides, work on this year’s event, which is now just two months away, is progressing. But he admits that planning for this year’s event is nowhere near where it was in the past at this time.

The organization has been racked by a number of problems throughout the year — including not being able to get along with its state-appointed director.

The association still has not firmed up its schedule for the August show — something that is usually done by February — and Bonaguidi said that the decision about whether to start this year’s event on a Wednesday or a Thursday still hasn’t been made.

He expects those decisions to be made in the next week or so, and that’s not expected to have any major effect on the overall profitability of this year’s show since the events will not change much. What may have an effect is the fact that the association, because of lack of money and disorganization, has not been able to get any advertisements out like it has in the past.

“We are getting there,” he said. “You should see us in the next week go at a lot faster pace.”