Purpose

The procedure for running the Annual Season Subscription Drive is described here. With the conversion to online ticketing for running the box office, the procedure has been substantially rewritten. All selling of tickets must use the online system.

Policies

1. The Season Subscription Drive will be the responsibility of the Season Subscription Manager who shall report to the Director for Strategic Planning and Marketing. This manager should be a member of the Box Office staff.
2. The Subscription drive begins with the mailing of the season brochures, which should occur concurrently with the beginning (opening night) of the last show of the current season.
3. The preparatory work for the season subscription drive includes the creation and printing of the season brochure (normally by the Manager of the season subscription drive).
4. Because of the way the online system works, when selling a 5 show season pass the seat or seats requested must be available for all 5 shows. Therefore, the opening up of online ticketing and ticket exchange must be delayed until sometime in the middle of August.
5. The Treasurer and Manager of the Season Subscription Drive will decide between themselves how they will handle getting the mail from the Post Office and the depositing of funds received.
6. All monies received will be deposited as received.

7. If the monies are deposited prior to the start of the new fiscal year, the subscription money and associated gifts must be clearly as such in the current fiscal year budget.
8. As each request is received, the database will be updated with their personal information (if needed), the fact that they are a season subscriber, and their giving level (e.g., Angel, Benefactor, etc.).
9. Seat assignment will begin on or shortly after the date printed in the brochure. Seats will be assigned as follows:
1. Handicapped patrons and their companions.
2. In order by giving level (e.g. Angel, Benefactor, etc.) and then by date within giving level.
3. After all the requests received by the date in the brochure are assigned seats, ticket requests will be handled on a first-in first-out basis.

During the beginning of the subscription drive, requests come in at a rate of 30 to 40 a day. It is almost mandatory that the above work be done on a daily basis until the numbers begin to slack off, otherwise it becomes overwhelming. Also requests for season tickets were received as late as December, this year, so this could be considered an ongoing process from August through the end of the year.

Change Summary

• 6/16/1998 -- Initial inclusion in P&P Manual
• 2/20/2014 -- Rewritten from scratch
• 3/17/2014 -- Web revision