Codgers

[msmemory_archive]

Color me Old Codger. I'm having sticker shock today over the prices of Twelft [sic] Night and Birka. Yes, I know that each is charging just a smidge more than a first-run movie ticket, and I couldn't eat anywhere nicer than Friendly's for a sum like that feast fee, but I am unused to these numbers - or to the notion that advance registration doesn't give a discount.

(If anyone knows for sure that the 12th Night feast is sold out, let me know so I won't bother sending an onboard reservation.)

Comments

[cellio]

I've been seeing a lot of events (day events, not weekends) that would cost $20 or more to show up and eat, and it certainly gives me pause. Yes, I have the money, but what is going on? It's not being spent on elaborate feasts; it's not being spent on super-expensive sites. Some of it is almost certainly gouging -- or, to be more PC, "fear of taking a loss from a snowstorm in July". I just don't get it.

Earlier this year I cooked an all-day feast that no one went away hungy from (and that people said they liked) for $7 a head. I believe most of our local sites are no more than about $500, and it's pretty rare for a general-purpose event to not get at least 100 people, usually 150 or even 200. Sure, I'll grant that sites in other parts of the kingdom are more expensive, but still...

I don't go to a lot of events any more, and almost never travel for them. This isn't the reason, but it is certainly a contributing factor.

[jducoeur]

(Nor do I think we have more than a couple thousand in the bank, although I would be delighted to be proved wrong.)

You're incorrect -- as of the October Council report (the most recent I happen to have to hand), we had $5300 in uncommitted funds. And that's not counting the considerable amount that was fluid through Frosty Revels (which was a very expensive site).

I believe the Barony's overall cash runs somewhere around $6000-$7000, and has done so pretty consistently for the past decade. Yes, it's true that many events lose money -- but they only lose a very small amount on average, frequently around $50. By contrast, the events that turn a profit (typically the occasional Big Brand Name Event) tend to turn a hefty one, which more or less covers the little losses.

If we were genuinely hemorrhaging money, I would agree with you about the concern. But everything I've seen indicates that we've held pretty much steady financially for a very long time now, and there's no reason to believe that's changing...

[dreda.livejournal.com]

Huh. In the Council Minutes I have to hand for 2007, I see:
February - $7788
June - $6212
September - $5909
October - $5320

One event (K&Q Rapier in January) made ~$200, and the others in those minutes all lost money. Small sums, as you correctly point out, but when was the last time we had one of those big events?

I'm not being snippy - I'm just genuinely curious as to how these things are supposed to work and how they are actually working. (And, as further caveat, in today's economy I consider $5000 to be a couple thousand. Less, if the dollar continues down the toilet...)

[jducoeur]

Okay, difference of definition. Keep in mind, I think of our bank balance as quite large, because it *did* used to be "a couple of thousand" in the literal sense. (And that was a huge increase at the time.)

But those apparent declines in 2007 are, I believe, largely illusory. You can check with Rowan, but I'm pretty sure that what she reports is *uncommitted* funds -- that is, money that we are free to spend over and above what we've committed to event budgets. So when we get close to an expensive event like Frosty Revels, it's quite common to see swings of one or two thousand dollars. I suspect that the numbers will swing up again once that event is totalled out.

(As for when we last had a big event that made money: my recollection was that we made out reasonably well from Canterbury. Again, feel free to check, but I thought our split was still a decent amount...)