[Sca-cooks] Tavern Arrangements WAS An Andalusian Lunch at Red Dragon

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Sep 2, 2009, at 9:46 AM, Susan Lin wrote:

> I usually ask for half early to take advantage of sales and early
> prep.  Then I will get the rest closer in time.  I keep all receipts
> and even do a small consolidated cost sheet and turn it in at the
> event.  Either I get an additional check or more likely I return
> money. I never comingle the funds with my own.  I cash the check and
> keep that money and reciepts in a separate envelope.

As I understand the rule for my group (it has changed over the years,  
as has the number of times I've worked with other groups, or my  
financial situation has varied enough to make it either more or less  
relevant at any given moment)... it is as follows:

We have a budget for any event, and ticket prices reflect site fee,  
feast and/or other food costs, and any other event-related expenses  
(say, competition prizes, decorating supplies, printing, etc.). The  
portion of an event's income to be used for food can be advanced to  
the cook based on the number of pre-registrations. If the event is  
designed for 150 paying attendees, and the cook is getting $10 a head  
for food (for simplicity's sake, remember we do a lot of Saturday-only  
events here in the East), and 75 people have pre-registered and paid  
as of two weeks in advance, the cook is given that $750 to spend on  
food for advance prep. More can be disbursed as more registrations are  
paid. This usually works pretty well because it allows people who  
don't have the cash in hand to front the advance prep costs to shop  
well in advance of the event, but still is structured to keep the  
group from taking a bath if something happens to cause cancellation or  
major restructuring of the event, or if the cook for some reason  
decides to go way over budget.

The cook holds the receipts until the day of the event, or sometimes  
the next day, at which point any excess money is returned to the  
group, or any money owed the cook is paid. I believe current kingdom  
law is that event financial reports are due six weeks after the date  
of the event, so any financial fine-tuning pretty much has to be done  
by then, but usually it's long done at that point.

Generally what  happens is, we schedule an event (we generally pay the  
site fee from the group's bank account in advance), and at some point  
the cook may post a menu to the group's website or e-list. This is not  
strictly necessary, but helps for people with health or faith-based  
food issues -- I make no secret of being utterly unmoved by people's  
issues based on personal taste, but strangely enough it never seems to  
crop up as a problem. A few days later the cook is informed by the  
event steward that six people have pre-regged.

This is the signal for the cook to loudly announce on the e-list that  
the scheduled feast will now consist of Tuna Helper, but due to  
budgetary restraints no actual tuna will be harmed for this event.

Then everyone panics and a flood of reservations come in, the cook  
goes shopping, and everybody is happy. Most of our events are sold out  
in advance, and rarely, if ever, make large profits or take  
significant losses.

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter