My standard seminar rates are as follows.  For those seminars with different rates, those rates will be given on the particular seminar page.

All rates given below are for attendance only. The group must also cover lodging and travel expenses. I am happy to stay with a family or in a cheap (but reasonable) hotel. I do not need five-star accommodations.

I do not offer seminars to groups of less than five.  In general such a small group cannot be cost-effective for me or for the participants.

5-10 attendees -- $300 per person.

11-15 attendees -- $250 per person.

16-20 attendees -- $200 per person.

21-40 attendees -- $150 per person.

For my standard seminars, in general I do not allow for groups larger than forty, because beyond that size I believe that there is a decline in the quality of the group dynamic and the time I am able to devote to each person. Of course, for custom presentations everything is negotiable as needs dictate.

I require a 50% advance deposit (10% is immediately non-refundable) upon registration for a seminar, along with an agreement about what travel (including a car at the seminar location) and lodging accommodations will be. Once I arrive to conduct the seminar, this entire deposit is non-refundable. The final 50% will be due and payable at the final session of the seminar. Once I receive the deposit, new attendees registering will be added at the rate of $300 per person. Prior to the first session of the seminar, people may drop from registration; at the start of the first session the minimum cost of the seminar is then fixed.

For clarity, here is an example. The Pastor of the United Methodist Church of Somewhere calls to arrange a Philosophy of Religion seminar for a group of 10 of his members. By the scale above, this is a $3,000 seminar. He informs me that there is a small apartment in the back of the church, and a church car, available for my use during the two weeks I will be there.  This is excellent because that means I can buy food and cook instead of going to restaurants all the time! We agree that the Pastor will arrange a flight from Walla Walla to Somewhere, and he will send me the confirmation number for boarding.

As soon as I get the registration form and check for $1,500 (50% of the $3,000 seminar cost), I schedule the seminar and send confirmation of this fact to the Pastor.  Any time after this until the time I arrive in Somewhere, if the Pastor were to call me to cancel, I would send back a check for $1,200 (keeping 10% of the seminar cost, which is $300).

On the scheduled date, I arrive in Somewhere. Once I get there, the Pastor tells me that 3 additional people have signed up to attend. Because adding people this way amounts to $300 per person, the additional cost is $900, so the seminar is now costing the group $3,900 instead of the original $3,000.  While it is true that the group can agree to evenly distribute the higher cost, you can see that it would have cost the group less had those 3 people registered initially. Had the initial registration been for 13 people instead of 10, the scale would have been for $250 per person, for a total of $3,250. So, registering all 13 people initially instead of registering 3 of them late would have saved the group $650 ($3,900 minus $3,250). So, it pays a group to get clear commitments from registrants prior to sending the registration form and deposit check to me.

Let's say instead that upon my arrival, the Pastor informs me that 2 people have dropped (which must be done prior to the first session). Now the seminar is costing the group $2,400.

In the first case, at the final session, the Pastor hands me the final check in the amount of $2,400, which is the $3,900 less the $1,500 deposit.  In the second case, at the final session, the Pastor hands me the final check in the amount of $900, which is the $2,400 less the $1,500 deposit.

I have been asked why I would not just charge a flat fee, say, $3,000 for a seminar.  There are a number of reasons for this.  Such a price is prohibitively expensive for the minimum sized group.  I want to be accessible to small groups, even if I don't make as much.  On the other hand, larger groups do take much more effort and energy (not to mention copying costs). Managing a discussion group of ten people is a very different prospect from managing a discussion group of forty people! Also, given that I make myself available to members of the seminar virtually the entire time I am at their location  (I do reserve a few hours each day for my own devotions, exercise, and preparations), getting calls and arranging meetings with ten people is obviously very different from dealing similarly with forty people.  So, there has to be some sort of sliding scale, and I have settled on this method as the best compromise. You are, of course, free to divide the costs among your group members as you see fit.

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