SC - Decline in members signing up for feast.... Opinions?

[Decker, Terry D.]

Large events in Northern Ansteorra seem to have about 25% of the attendees
taking the feast.  This appears to have been the norm for several years.  It
held true for the last major feast I cooked and because total attendence was
down, I had a number of open seats at the feast.  I had planned the
break-even for 50% of the feast capacity, got a real break-even at about 60%
capacity, and sold between 75 and 80% of the seats, so it wasn't a financial
loss.

The primary reason I see for declining feast attendence is cost.  Site fees
keep rising, so does feast overhead.  Mundanely, Ansteorra has some of the
lowest salaries in the country.  When discretionary income is tight, the
money that would pay for a feast goes into feeding people for the weekend.

Personally, I avoid feasts because I can not tell how many of the dishes my
wife can eat, I find the menu unappealing, or I have  previously experienced
problems with a group's feasts.  Why should anyone spend good money on a
meal which can't surpass dinner at Denny's?

I also have some strong opinions about how a feast should be served.  You
can find my comments in Stefan's Florilegium.  I prefer not to dine with
groups who are going to leave me sitting as they trickle food out to the
table one dish at a time or who can not feed the number of people to whom
they sold seats.

Bear  

> ----------
> From: 	maddie teller-kook[SMTP:meadhbh at io.com]
> Sent: 	Friday, October 09, 1998 6:42 AM
> To: 	cooks list
> Subject: 	SC - Decline in members signing up for feast.... Opinions?
> 
> Just wanted to get an idea of what is happening elsewhere.  In Bryn
> Gwlad, we have noticed about 50% of the people coming into an event
> signing up for feast (at least this last feast we had).  And we are
> noticing a trend for people not to eat feast. Is this happening
> elsewhere?  We are about to put out a 'feast' survey to see if we can
> get any answers to this.  I will post the results here. Just wanted to
> know if any of you have seen this happening.  And if so, what reasons
> have people given.  Just curious.
> 
> Thanks,
> Meadhbh
> 
> 
> --
> ÿWPCT
> 
> 
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