[Sca-cooks] Feast costs, was: Master A's Feast; my 2 cents

[Terry Decker]

In the case of a "known" cook, the autocrat, an officer or the Baronage is
liable to request a bid be made when something special is desired, otherwise
it's open bid.

Rather than a menu and a per-head cost, I provide a menu, a preliminary
detailed budget, a person limit based on my knowledge of the site, an
estimated cost-per-person, a maximum cost-per-person, and pricing
information with detailed analysis of break-even and possible profit and
loss.  I make my recommendations (which are usually accepted), but I leave
it to the finance committee to decide the price.  They usually feel better
if they have some kind of say.

I always plan for a profit and I hedge potential losses.   So far, I haven't
lost any of the Barony's money and I usually make 10 to 15 percent ROI
(mostly from judicious buying) while providing full value for the price.

There was one very embarassing year when everything the Barony did turned to
gold.  The feast I did that year made 50 percent ROI (about $300).  We
cleared about $2,500 for the year, just on events.  We used those profits to
finance one of the following year's events and make it free of charge.
People usually don't begrudge a profit, even a healthy profit, if they
believe they got full value for their money and everyone was treated
equally, and they seemed to appreciate our answer to the problem of excess
monies.

Profit is a group's hedge against failures and cost overruns.  Having helped
shepherd an incipient shire through its first events with a $25 treasury, I
have a health respect for setting the prices to cover expenses and possible
losses while making the fees affordable and in keeping with the general wage
level of the Kingdom.

Bear


>I think all groups try to cover their expenses plus perhaps just a
>little.  But, they're not trying to make a living like a restaurant.  At
>least with some groups, if you suggest charging enough to make more than
>a pittance on the venture, you'll get some nasty reactions.  From what
>I've seen and done, the cook "bids" on the opportunity to do the feast
>by submitting a menu and a per-head cost.  That cost gets translated
>verbatim into the feast fee for the event, or maybe slightly higher
>($0.50-$1) as Just In Case money, but not high enough to be considered
>an attempt to generate profit.  If the cook comes in a bit under budget,
>cool - that money is profit.  In any case, the profit per head is very
>low.  That is the case with running events, too.  Generally, the actual
>cost of the site is divided by the number of expected attendees, maybe
>bumped up $0.50-$1 Just In Case, and notable profit is only made if the
>event turns out many more people than expected.  I remember one weekend
>event where the autocrat decided to drop the price at Troll part way
>through Friday night because she'd already covered all the costs and
>didn't want to be seen as profiteering.
>
>Basically, it's assumed that coffers will grow slowly.  If you're
>running a $6,000 event, it's pretty cool if you can bring in an extra
>couple hundred dollars to boost the shire's ability to throw an even
>better event next year.  But, if you make $2000 on the event (either
>through the feast or the site fee,) there are people who will complain.
>    Perhaps this isn't true in newer groups that are still building
>their coffers.
>
>-Magdalena
>
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