If a Step Sing group has the maximum 80 members, and they charge each member the regular $80 participant fee, they have a maximum of $6,400 to spend on their show. Multiply this number by the 18 different groups, and students are collectively putting approximately $115,200 into the overall production of Step Sing. What does all of this money go toward?
Each group can request up to $80 from each of their participants, to be used at the directors’ discretion. Each group pays for their own costumes and props for their show.
Per Step Sing bylaws, directors must submit preliminary budgets with anticipated costs and then send a report of actual spending after the performances. Any money that is left over from participant dues can be rolled over into the next year’s budget for any group.
Many groups also have other expenses, including renting their practice space, hiring a music arranger or a track mixer and buying stock footage for the background videos, as well as any makeup, accessories and costume alterations.
Emma Powell, logistics director for Alpha Omicron Pi’s (AOII) show, manages their budget, costumes, props and anything that doesn’t involve singing and dancing.
“We want a majority of it to go towards costumes, because outfitting 80 people can get really expensive really fast,” she said.
AOII also contributes some money toward the Step Sing scholarship each year.
Many groups hire composers to write their music and mix the track, including AOII and Alpha Tau Omega (ATΩ). The Step Sing bylaws set a limit of a maximum of $1,200 to be spent per group for a music arranger or sequencer.
“I myself tried to do a kind of rough draft track for us, not only to kind of use as a reference point, but also to send Mark Willard (the composer) and kind of say, like, hey, this is what we want it to kind of sound like,” Max Tomlinson, ATΩ director, said. “And then the one he sent us back made mine look like a preschooler made it, to be honest. It was pretty terrible. So, he does a great job, and it is super worth it.”
Some Greek groups also have some money set aside in their chapter budgets that can be tapped into to cover any additional step sing costs.
“I think this is one of the advantages that we have as a Greek organization, is that we do have a Step Sing budget,” Tomlinson said.
In ATΩ, as the budget is decided by the chapter at the beginning of the semester, some funds are allotted to a Step Sing budget to be used in assisting paying for Step Sing costs, like stock footage for the background video.
“That’s kind of an under-looked thing in terms of budget … you don’t realize how much money is really going to, like, just the random footage you need for your background video,” Tomlinson said.
ATΩ practices at a local church that the fraternity already has a good relationship with and is used for many other ATΩ events throughout the year.
“It’s not a free space. We do pay for it, and we donate to their church, but it’s, thankfully, not a Step Sing expense because we use their church so much,” Tomlinson said.
IGnite is an independent Step Sing group, open to all females, and not affiliated with a sorority. Because they are not a part of any larger organization, they are limited to solely the funds from their participants.
“We ask them all to pay $80, but of course we coordinate with everyone’s financial circumstances and if they cannot make the $80 work, we are very accommodating to that,” said Julia Swiercek, one of IGnite’s directors.
IGnite was able to use free stock footage paid for by Samford activities. Their practice space is also free to them, but they try to leave aside money to donate to the church.
“I think the one thing that does kind of standout is I know that some of the Greek groups have more money towards the end to like buy little gifts or … in rewarding and treating their participants just for all of their hard work,” Swiercek said. “We do our absolute best to do what we can and even use some of our own personal money because doing this means so much to us and we’re so thankful for our groups.”
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