Ohio schools love to save money on school assemblies! I say that because some of them are very good at negotiating every possible angle to cut their costs on school assemblies. Here are some of their tactics, and they will probably work in your state, too.

We perform every year in a six school district in North Eastern Ohio. The principals all meet together regularly and discuss what they are up to and make plans for down the road. As a result, they are able to agree on scheduling the same school assembly at all six buildings for the following year. 

Now, just so that you understand, when a school assembly performer working in Ohio, or any other state, passes by your part of the country, he is most likely on tour. He (or she) is usually away from home and incurring road expenses as they travel. School assembly performers cover these expenses in one of two ways. The first way is to charge one fee for your performance and then to tack on an additional “surprise” fee to cover their travel expenses. Mobile Ed does not do that. Instead, we charge enough in our regular fee to cover all of our expenses, so there are no “surprises”. (Even so, generally, our fees tend to be about as low as you will see with a professional performer even before they tack on their surprise fees. I can’t figure out why other performers have to charge so much, but that is just me, I guess.)

Most performers and companies will try to charge enough from a school scheduling a morning performance that all the expenses for that day are met in just that one fee. Then a second school in the afternoon provides the profit for the day.

When a district combines to host a school assembly at several schools in a row, with one school in the morning and one in the afternoon, as do our friends in the above mentioned Ohio school district, obviously the presenter makes a lot of profit in each day. Because we are in one place for several days, however, our expenses are lower. As a result, when our friends in this particular Ohio school district schedule their school assemblies, we are quite happy to pass back to them a cash savings at each school. It is good for them and good for us. A win-win situation.

Another way our clients in Ohio schools schedule school assemblies to save money is through flexibility.

School assembly performers on the road don’t like down time. They like to work every morning and every afternoon performing their school assembly programs. After all, that is how they get paid! Though schedules are usually filled long in advance, changes do occur. Sometimes a school has a conflict and needs to change the date of their scheduled school assembly. Sometimes emergencies occur. And sometimes there will be that one Thursday afternoon that just never found a home. For whatever reason, as we approach a week there may be an opening yet unfilled.
Often (not always) we can give this opening away at a very low price, rather than see it go to waste. We have several client schools in Ohio who know this and never schedule their school assemblies in advance. Rather they wait, and every so often we will get a call asking if there are any “last minute” openings in their area. Sometimes there are none available but sometimes there is something and then that school can often get a great deal, as long as they are flexible. They may not get exactly the school assembly they wanted, but because it is from Mobile Ed they know it will be top notch, and they will save a lot of money.

Yes, many of our Ohio schools are very clever about saving money on school assemblies. Still, being clever about saving money on school assemblies may be something Ohioans are good at but they do not hold a monopoly! Client schools all over the country use these same techniques and so can you. If you are seeking high quality school assemblies, it pays to be smart and flexible!

Geoff Beauchamp is the Regional Manager of Mobile Ed Productions where "Education Through Entertainment" has been the guiding principal since 1979. Mobile Ed Productions produces and markets quality educational school assembly programs in the fields of science, history, writing, astronomy, natural science, mathematics, character issues and a variety of other curriculum based areas. In addition, Mr. Beauchamp is a professional actor with 30 years of experience in film, television and on stage. He created and still performs occasionally in Mobile Ed's THE LIVING LINCOLN