SC - Opinions?

[Siegfried Heydrich]

    There's nothing ignoble or wrong about making a profit - this debate has
been going on for well over 3,000 years, and so far, the capitalists are
ahead on points. If your group needs to buy (or make ) a new pavilion, how
are you going to raise money for it?  You need money to send out your
newsletter? You want to buy a group trailer? Need regalia? The Princeling
needs new shoes?
    Please remember, most events are specifically held as Fund Raisers -
that's part of the purpose of the event, says so on the IRS paperwork. As
long as the profits are used for SCA purposes, and not to pay for the shire
pizza or the exchequer's 6 pack , it's both legal and morally acceptable to
actually come out ahead on the deal. A reasonable return on investment is
quite acceptable and expected. I would, however, get seriously hacked if I
paid for feast and got Stouffer's & Swanson frozens . . .
    The high table stuff is all part of the same budget - are we really
worried that the specialty items that are served to High table are going to
be leapt upon by an IRS auditor? C'mon . . . The 'wine purchased with SCA
funds' issue has been beaten to death. You can buy it to cook with, but not
to serve. Period. If you serve it, it has to be donated. Period. If the
site's dry, don't serve it, or call it grape juice.
    The Royals always eat free (RHIP), and that's it. Visiting Royals also
eat free, but that's just good manners. As for the extra dishes for the High
table, just think of the feast as a work of art, and this is artistic
license.
    I find irritating the number of people who whine about feast prices.
We're talking about dinners whose complexity, quality, scholarship, and
specificity rival anything a commercial establishment could put out. Look, I
cater functions that don't have ANWHERE near the quality and amount of foods
found at an SCA event, and we charge 3 to 5 times the price of an SCA feast.
Yes, sometimes the results are less than thrilling, but that's the way it is
in the real world, too. (eaten at a Denny's lately . . .?)
    Go out in the real world with an SCA menu and get bids from some of the
major caterers and restaurants for a 200 person dinner. Now, THAT will be
educational! I doubt seriously you'd get any bids under $35 a head. An SCA
feast is a seriously good deal no matter which way you look at it. Some
people quibble, but them's that do are generally them's that does . . .
    What makes us able to do feasts so cheaply is that instead of food cost
being (say) 25%, with 75% of the cost of the feast going to pay rent,
insurance, payroll, taxes, investors, utilities, overhead, etc, we can
devote almost ALL our money to food. We generally run a 95%+ food cost on
our feasts, which gives us an awesome bang for our buck! Plus we have some
of the best cooks in the world who do this sort of cooking, and an eager
volunteer workforce whose creativity should never be underestimated. (you
should have seen the time I handed a Garde Mangier book & tools to a couple
of girls and told them to have fun. Whoa!)
    We shouldn't be looking at the issue as one of 'oh, it's awful to make
money', but rather one of 'this meal would be a tremendous bargain at twice
the price!'. Stop looking at what YOU get, look at what THEY get. Which is a
fantastic dinner with ambience, entertainment, and socializing at an
incredibly low price. So quit feeling guilty about making a profit - it's
simply the reasonable reward for your efforts.

    Sieggy

- ----- Original Message -----

> I have been following this thread and thought I would add comment as well.
>
> Firstly no matter what the number of people you are serving be it 50 or
250
> there is no reason why fest cannot make a profit.  We consistantly bring
in
> feast at $3.50 to $4.00 per serving and charge $7.00 (maybe in near future
> we will raise that to eight) so there is profit margin per serving. If
your
> just making a huge amount of food thats another story, you have to figure
> servings and stick to it.
>
> Secondly, as far as royals table and feast crew, they have always gotten
fed
> free, thats the way it is. Now HRM's retainers etc pay for feast, whether
> its the king paying or the retainers themselves they pay, by the way a
note,
> the figure of $3.50 per serving is including that amount that will be
eaten
> free by the crew and royals. And that figure also includes "special"
dishes
> for the high table.
>
> We serve feast on regular basis and the numbers range from 20 to 250 and
> though in couple cases where we went banannas on what we served we have
> never lost money, on those occiasions where we did go overboard we broke
> even.  ANyone telling you they are not able to serve feast at $7 a head
has
> to do some serious work on how they purchase and prepare the meal.
>
> Just an opinion
> Elric, Harper's Raid
>
>
============================================================================
>
> To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
> Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".
>
>
============================================================================
>