Decisions, Decisions...

An interesting opportunity came our way last week and, I tell you, it's not an easy decision. A Latino film event in another city has asked us to take over its organization. At first glance, that's an insanely great (and flattering) offer. But, like everything in business (and life), it's not as simple as it sounds, i.e., how do their financials look? What is the status of key staff members? Are there any multi-year sponsorships that are still in play? What is the general sponsor/partner feedback (we've heard not great)? If we take off a year for rebuilding, will that make their brand less relevant and diminish its equity? How difficult will it be for us to run this from NYC, even though there will be a local director with support staff and volunteers? And, that's just the beginning. Moreover, we need to make this decision with a degree of haste b/c the org. is incorporated as a 501(c)3 non-profit, so, for legal and tax purposes, they must opt to dissolve or move forward b/f 12/31/08. Ay dios - the pressure! It's difficult to turn down an offer that falls in your lap and is part of your longer-term strategy, i.e., this will further cement us as the Latino film organization. It also even further expands our filmmaker database (particularly internationally) and provides us the opportunity to bundle sponsorship with dual market programming. The flip side: we need to stay focused on the bigger picture of growing NYC and building Cinedulce. This may be a significant drain on already thin resources. And, what if we decide to take it, shelve it for a year ('rebuilding year') and then rebrand it with a totally new name (for consistency's sake)? Does that even make sense? If so, maybe it's wiser to let it dissolve and ask key board members to help us enter the market in a year or two, when we have the resources to do so. Basically, we need to figure out which makes more sense: take an established event with a long history but a good deal of baggage, shelve it and reintroduce it in 1.5 +/- years, or let it fade away now and then enter the newly freed market in that same time frame as a fresh property (associated with the NYILFF) with more robust resources and no baggage, but also no local brand equity? Decisions, decisions...
~ Liz
(P.L.H.H.)