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[Mastercahankyle@cs.com]

> Is it common elsewhere to have a feast plan/costs figured out and make an 
> offer to some autocrat in need of a cook?  Or am I misunderstanding the 
> definition of 'bid'?

In my local group, at least, there are two ways to do it, at the
discretion of the autocrat(s). They either find someone to do the feast
and ask them to do it, or they ask the group at large for bids on the
feast. In other words, the autocrat issues an RFP and takes bids. Lately,
we've done it more the 'requesting' way and I've found that it has
pitfalls, not to mention that it has a tendency to 'close' the process:
the autocrat asks known feastocrats or dear friends to cook the feast.
This isn't necessarily bad, of course, but the other way gets the
paperwork that everyone hates done up front, and gives an excuse for the
experienced people to duck out if they want and the possibility that
someone will blossom forth with new talent that you hadn't thought of.
 -- 
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
"I do my job. I refuse to be responsible for other people's managerial 
hallucinations." -- Lady Jemina Starker