SC - paid reservations?

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Mary Morman wrote:

> Well, Stefan, you've hit Elaina's big hot topic, and I'm going to respond
> even though I still have to get mom up and to the senior center before i
> go to a conference an hour and a half.

The dentist hits an exposed nerve, I see...
> 
> I learned cooking and most of my event management skills in the east and
> atlantia.

That would explain a thing or two ;  ) 

> Stefan asks the autocratting question about how does one enforce paid
> reservations, and are refunds made.  As an autocrat, I simply do not pass
> on the the cooks 'numbers' for anyone who has not pre-paid.  My exception
> to this is that I will accept an unpaid reservation from someone for whom
> I am personally willing to front the money (and them collect it
> personally) - there are a limited number of such people.  If someone pays
> and does not show up I will offer their seat for sale, and if I sell it
> then I will refund the money to the original gentle.  If I do not sell it,
> then I will not refund the money since the food was bought,prepared, and
> waiting for the person who did not show up.
> 
> So to end my tirade - cooks of the Knowne World unite!  Insist on paid,
> per head reservations!

I have grown up, so to speak, in the East, and have never really had a
problem with simply asking for advance reservations to be made.
Autocrats will frequently insert the caveat in an event notice that the
only reservation is a paid reservation. Generally I use the classic
Ostgardr / New York guilt trip method: "Our hard-working event staff,
clerks, and cooks appreciate your courtesy of advance reservations." The
fact that the autocrat reserves the right to cut off the troll list at
26 people, if necessary, is implicit, but nonetheless real. Slightly
different approach, but the end result is more or less the same.

I believe that the "The only reservation is a paid reservation" is the
doing of Countess Brekke Franksdottir, one of the founders of the East
Kingdom Cooks' Guild, who expected 75 people at an early EK coronation
(Aonghais?) and got almost twice that, and swore it would never happen
again. I'm sure HG Cariadoc would have a better recollection of this, as
I seem to recall he was either coming off the throne that day, or
cooking, or, knowing him, both.

Adamantius 
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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