In article .com>, " > writes:
>
> Sharon wrote:
>> look back, you'll see that at my second wedding, I did order extra stuff from
>> the caterer. But "they tricked me" and I still ended up short.
>
> Yeah, sometimes the best-laid plans... It happens. But they're your
> friends, it's your wedding, everyone's glad to be there and celebrate a
> joyous event, right? What's a little food shortage among friends?

Right, but we were short equipment, not food. The caterers scrambled to find a
few extra chairs and cutlery, though and saved me. It was embarrassing, but
I'm pretty sure everybody was ok once it was fixed.

Of course the caterers also were looking at me like "you gave us the headcount,
you idiot..." Just the look in their eyes. They were graceful and
professional.

>> even if you cancel. The problem is that nobody on the board wants to be the
>> bad guy and enforce that rule.
>
> And that puts the coordinator in the position of being The Bitch, I
> take it? The club board needs to take this issue seriously. I recently
> attended a seminar about negotation, and one of the things they kept
> emphasizing was to pitch your arguments in the currency that the
> listener values. Any organization that wants to remain viable for the
> long term needs to be fiscally responsible. Do you have a Treasurer
> that you could coordinate with? Could the pair of you discuss this with
> board members and frame it, for example, as a general financial
> viability issue instead of a social event issue? I'm just tossing ideas
> out, I have no idea what the club (or club culture) is like, obviously.

Yes, we have a treasurer... with a rather dubious idea of how things
are done. His financials are probably fine, but... well let me illustrate:
The event I mentioned where we were short a canoe happened because a
couple asked if they could come late the night before. They could only get
hold of him. He knew the event was booked, but figured that since there are
usually a few no-shows it would be ok to let them come. Actually there weren't
any no-shows that time, so we ended up short on equipment. When I discreetely
questioned him about it, he explained the above and also said that since most
events have no-shows it's generally safe to overbook. Just like the airlines
do.
Picking my jaw up off the floor, later I tried to explain to the board
that the airlines can afford to **** off customers by overbooking and then
bumping some, but our club couldn't! (And this was an excellent parallel too,
because we had all driven 2 - 3 hours to meet at the river for that event.)
Just a personality difference: he felt that if it was a problem he
could pack up his wife and two sweet daughters and go home, leaving a canoe for
the guests. If it was just him, I'd say fine. But to yank your kids around
like that... sheesh
Anyway, we are working on a database that will help us greatly with
coordination. It's a challenge because we're geographically dispersed and do
most of the club business via email. Such is life in a volunteer capacity!

- Sharon
"Gravity... is a harsh mistress!"