I did talk with Dick a bit earlier (evening of 2007-07-24). It looks like we'll likely need to raise the BALUG dinner price a moderate bit.
What we're looking at, is moving the price up to $13.00 ($12.00 per person to go to restaurant, $1.00 goes towards covering speaker/presenter's dinner at BALUG and/or other miscellaneous BALUG expenses).
This would be the first time in quite a while (probably at least 4 years) that the restaurant portion would be going up (they've been getting the same $10.00 per diner from us for quite a number of years now - and that's including tax and tip).
Anyway, hopefully the additional $2.00 wouldn't keep too many people away. At $12.00/head (to the restaurant) for all the food, tax and tip included, and the presentation space we generally* have available to us, it's still a pretty good bargain, ... and I think at least most attendees could reasonably absorb the extra $2.00 in cost without too much (if any) pain.
*since we pay nothing extra for the presentation facilities, our basic arrangement is we're subject to being "bumped" - i.e. if someone else books the room (for $$) or the room is otherwise unavailable, we don't get to use it - but most of the time, we have the room available to us - at least for presentations and such (if we're not that numerous, they'll often serve us downstairs - more convenient for them, and we also get more attentive service downstairs - at least if we're a more modest sized bunch).
So, ... not that we have a whole lot of wiggle room on the matter, ... but, opinions/thoughts/etc.?