2008/7/2 Andrew Fife afife@untangle.com:
With the help of Alan Duboff and Steve Lau, we have secured a new location for the September meeting. (As a reminder, the Four Seas cannont host BALUG on 9/16/08) The new location will be at Songbird's office at 585 Howard near 2nd street. The location can hold aprox 75 people.
Nice; beautifully appointed spot and very friendly hosts.
1)Given that the speaker (Ian Murdock) is likely to be quite popular and we have a limited amount of space, should we enforce a mandatory RSVP?
If more than 75 people RSVP, then we may have to turn folks away at the door.
2)Given that we won't have the goodwill from the Four Seas kitchen, I'll probably windup fronting the cash for food. Pizza/soda seems like the logical choice any objections?
Of course this is acceptable. I would like to make an alternative suggestion though. Some months ago I was at HackMeet, a very low budget event. The organizers procured a whole platter of Vietnamese sandwiches (aka bahn mi) for lunch. These were a big hit and very inexpensive (retail for about $2.25 a pop, maybe cheaper in bulk). If there is interest in going this route, I would be happy to check in with some of the local Vietnamese sandwich shops.
3)Given that dinner is likely to be pizza/soda should we lower the cost of dinner to say $8 or $5?
It would be reasonable to make some such adjustment, naturally keeping in mind that you have to over-order a bit to make sure there's enough.
BTW, what is a typical ratio of RSVPs / attendees these days?