Building net income
Private John Wellfare finds out what happened when the people who made RAAF Base Wagga’s cinema complex a huge success set their sights on establishing an Internet café.

 

OIC Cinema and Internet Café at RAAF Base Wagga, FLTLT Sean Hurley works on one of the base internet café’s computers with SGT Mark Smith and Leanne Bond looking on.

Photo by PTE John Wellfare

Sergeant Mark Smith has learnt a few things about business management since he started volunteering with the RAAF Base Wagga cinema complex in 1999. In that time, he and the other committee members have raised the cinema’s annual profits from about $8000 to more than $70,000, without raising the ticket price.

Now, having established an Internet café and TV lounge in the cinema complex, the amount of money that will be generated for the base welfare fund by year’s end can only be guessed at. Last month, the complex banked $11,500.

At the home of the Royal Australian Air Force School of Technical Training (RAAFSTT), Internet access is not available in the lines.

The base has had a basic Internet café, operating from the commercial section alongside Frontline and the credit unions, for about five years, but it wasn’t until last Christmas, when the cinema was stripped of asbestos and renovated, that things really started to take off.

“We wanted to move the Internet café up [to the cinema],” Sergeant Smith says.

“We wanted it all in the one facility.”

A coat of paint, some furniture, a wide-screen television and a few high-end computer systems later, the Internet café is a very busy place after hours.

“We come in here at night and the machines are full and there’s people sitting in here either playing on the XBox or watching Foxtel; this place is packed.”

Turning the cinema complex into the base’s most profitable facility took the combined effort and cooperation of the senior base management, the Welfare Committee, Corporate Services staff, the volunteers and, of course, the patrons.

The cinema complex screens mainstream films five nights a week at $5 a head, charges $3 an hour for Internet usage and sells drinks and snacks at just above cost price. Most of the money generated is donated to the base welfare fund, which provides monetary support to other welfare clubs, facilities – including the cinema – and personnel initiatives.

Cinema and Internet Café OIC Flight Lieutenant Sean Hurley says the system is not as convoluted as it may sound and it’s the RAAFSTT students – the majority population on the base – who benefit the most.

“The majority of money comes in from the students and we pump it back into welfare, then we bid for it back to improve the facilities, which then [means] we get more clientele so we generate more money. So the system just feeds itself,” he says.

To handle the day-to-day running of the complex, Sergeant Smith enlists the help of volunteers from the student body. It eliminates the problem of employee wages cutting into the profits and has the added bonus of giving younger trainees some experience with responsibility.

“For an 18-year-old to open the cinema up, handle all the cash, 50 patrons, run the film, break it down, change the posters and walk out at 10pm is a big responsibility,” he says.

“People are dedicated to it because they see a result and they provide a service, so they get a lot out of it.”

The Cinema and Internet Café Committee has received support from the Base Commander, Wing Commander Graeme Wren, and the Welfare Committee, headed by Squadron Leader Norman Siggee. The team has also worked hard to build strong ties with the base Corporate Services and Infrastructure organisation, in particular Base Services Manager Joe Jacovelli, who, Sergeant Smith says has “supported us tremendously”.

CSI Riverina-Murray Valley has covered the cost of carpeting, painting and many of the furniture and fixed structures in the complex. By providing the basics, it frees up the cinema’s own budget and the funds from welfare to put the icing on the cake. And it’s the polish that, according to another key member of the cinema team, Corporate Services coordinator Leanne Bond, draws the crowds.

“The trainees need somewhere to go where they can get away from the regimental idea and just relax – they’re not at work and they’re not being told to line up,” she says in explanation of the Internet cafe’s decidedly non-regimental colour scheme – colours she picked out.

After six years at RAAF Base Wagga helping to run the cinema in his spare time, Sergeant Smith will be posted to Laverton next year and will leave the complex in the hands of his fellow volunteers. But as word of the Wagga facility gets around, chances are he’ll pick up a new project soon.

“I’ve already got an e-mail from the guy who runs [the cinema] down at Laverton, asking if I want to jump on board,” he says.

“We’re talking to Glenbrook, they want to set up Internet accounts there.

“The welfare [committee] at Edinburgh is going to send a representative here next month some time to check out how we do things.”

Flight Lieutenant Hurley says the key to RAAF Base Wagga’s cinema complex success could be applied anywhere there are a large number of people living on base.

“This is sort of a benchmark for others,” he says. “It’s a proven formula that’s worked for a training base.
“A lot of people put in a lot of work after hours to make it work.

“Unless you’ve got that commitment and are willing to put in that time and effort, nothing will work.”

But the RAAF Base Wagga cinema complex isn’t standing still and waiting for everyone else to catch up. Soon there’ll be new carpet in the foyer and the team is currently in negotiations to establish café-style tea and coffee services to complement the recently constructed outdoor setting.

If the other training bases want to catch up, they have some work to do. But if Sergeant Smith can apply his winning formula to RAAF Base Laverton, the title of Australia’s best base cinema complex could be hotly contested in a few years’ time.

Visit the RAAF Base Wagga cinema complex on the intranet at www.intranet.defence.gov.au/raafweb/sites/wagcin.

 

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