Queensland community halls and venues – from corro sugar cane storage sheds to extravagant architectural marvels. We’ve seen them all. Perversely, either end of the spectrum can be a white elephant, or a lively hub of the community. We’ve put the sheds and palaces through the 99 Consulting electron particle accelerator and worked out why!
If you are in the community venue business, here’s a little quiz for you:
Is the purpose of having an asset portfolio clearly stated?
- We’ve always had them
- Not really but our hirers mainly run dance classes and yoga so I guess that’s what the assets are for
- Yes, the objectives are spelt out and we evaluate how well these are achieved
Do you know how much it costs to own/manage these assets?
- No
- It’s pretty hard to work this out as various sections across our organisation all play a part
- Yes, we budget for and monitor each expense and income area for each asset and also calculate the social return on investment
Is each asset fit for purpose?
- Hard to say
- Yes, except for disability access, energy efficiency, acoustics, internet access, and the old furniture
- Yes. We progressively get occupant, user and hire enquiry feedback to get a picture of issue and expectations
Is the use of each asset still a good fit with the surrounding community?
- We don’t know
- Possibly not – there are a lot of new school facilities now that can be hired by community OR the community has grown/ changed/ aged/ gentrified etc
- No – but we are working with most of the other community asset owners in the district so that between us, we can respond to the changing needs
Do you have a simple way to evaluate that you are getting a good social return from your assets?
- No
- Not really, we only know how many groups book the assets
- Yes – it could be more sophisticated but that would entail more time and energy than we want to expend at the moment.
If you scored mainly a) or b) to the quiz then it’s 99 o’clock! Time to call us in for a fine tune and get those assets working for you! 
