By now you've probably heard the news of another personnel change in Southern Gospel - and if there's anything at all consistent about Southern Gospel it is that there will always be personnel changes. It's an accepted fact of life in this community.

These changes are not as simple as a person moving from one bus to another: There are some far-reaching effects that must be dealt with each and every time. As the old saying goes, "For every action, there is a re-action."

In the case of personnel changes, the re-action taps the wallet of someone. No wonder so many group managers have ulcers.

Just for the thrill of it, I got out the calculator and started trying to estimate what one personnel change could potentially take away from the bank account of a group ...

1.) Salary adjustment: Will the person who is being hired to replace the departing one demand a higher pay? Granted this could go either way, but when a group manager is "set" on one particular person, sometimes there's a little more money that is forked out. But for the purposes of this illustration, let's say that the incoming person gets $1500 more a year than his/her predecessor.

2.) Benefits: More and more people are asking for benefits when moving to another group. Like the salary adjustment, this could go either way. But let's assume someone gets a nice benefits package when they step in. I'm going to set aside a bare-bones minimum of $2000 for this. (Of course, then, assume that the manager will feel led to offer benefits to the others who are there...so there's more $$ going out. Fortunately, more and more groups are providing at least some kind of benefit package.)

3.) Photos: Photographers just love personnel changes! Why? Because in most cases, every change results in at least two different photo shoots - one for the group a person just left and one for the group he/she just joined. Depending on the photographer, a new shoot runs anywhere to a couple hundred dollars to over $5,000. (There's even a couple of photographers in Nashville who's day rate exceed $6,000 - and yes, some groups use those photographers.) For this, let's say the average will be $1500.

4.) The new photos: A new photo session comes before the printing of new publicity shots, both for press kits and table sales. Prices vary, but allow $1000 on average.

5.) Backdrops: Before groups got "smart" and realized that they would save a lot of money by simply having a group logo on their CD table's backdrop, each personnel change meant a new backdrop. Average cost per backdrop? $800-1200, if the group insists on having a photo on it.

6.) Clothes: Some group managers still purchase suits, etc, for each member. A new member, a new set of clothes. Let's be nice and say someone spends $1000 total on two new sets of clothes for the new person. Some groups spend less (if any) and some spend way more than that.

7.) Web site overhaul: May involve just a simple change of photos, but in most cases, a group has to pay their Web master to handle it. Though it's not much (usually less $200), it's still an expense.

8.) Press kits, press releases, etc: Some artists hire publicists to make these changes. Publicists are not cheap, so count on spending about $300 each time this happens. Oh, and don't forget the costs invovled in printing new kits and so forth. Add about $800 for that, if the artist is doing "quality" kits.

I'll stop there, but you can see the big picture already - there are just a handful of the things that can be affected. And, remember, you most likely will have to double these figures as two groups are doing this at the same time. I have seen as many as four groups go through this at the same time because of the chain of events caused by one person's departure.

If you've keeping up with the numbers, I'm suggesting that each personnel change could easily push $10,000 if the group falls within the parameters above. Sure, it doesn't always cost that much, but many times it can - and it will.