Annual Caving Dinner

[busty_caver]

I am seeking advice on how much cavers actually think is a sensible amount for their annual dinner. 

In th past I have known clubs to offer three courses of dinner plus one drink and a coach home for around ?25 per head.  A genuine response would be appreciated to determine what people would be willing to pay for a decent 3 course meal with minibus hire to take them back to thier caving hut. 

many thanks,
Hannah
BC

 

[paul]

We (Orpheus CC) charge ?10 per head and have the dinner at our hut, along with 2 barrels of Pedigree set up, so no transport required. 

 

[paulf]

We (Orpheus CC) charge ?10 per head and have the dinner at our hut, along with 2 barrels of Pedigree set up, so no transport required. 

Great Idea  8)

 

[Les W]

Good idea but a bit difficult to seat 120 people at our hut.  :-\

We normally have a christmas/new year dinner at the hut which costs around ?10 andthat includes 3 courses, Wine and a small profit is also accrued.
Our main club dinner is usually a 3 course sit down for around ?25 each, transport is extra.
We normally have a barrel of beer back at the hut after and the cost of the beer is usually covered by a surpluss on the coach, as it is those people that would normally drink it.

 

[Ian Adams]

We had our "bash" at our local pub/restuarant. We paid ?15 per head for the meal (3 course) and supped as much ale as we could.

The pub also offers accomodation and we negotiated a deal for all the rooms at ?10 per head (which included breakfast in the morning).

We also went in fancy dress although we had considered making it a formal occassion.

Just a thought as it solved all the usual problems with using the club hut (ours was small anyway  )

 

[Hatstand]

Hard to say really, depends whether you're getting good quality for your money. ?30 quid say for a stonking bash is fine, but I've been to some god awful gigs that cost that much. (No I'm not refering to the Wessex dinner!) Sometimes cheap and chearful can be better but it depends what kinda atmosphere you're after. One of the great things I find about more expensive and formal do;s is seeing people you normally see looking like shit all dressed to the nines!!  8) So I think, yeah expensive is ok so long as you're getting what you pay for.

 

[Slug]

Good idea but a bit difficult to seat 120 people at our hut.  :-\

Our main club dinner is usually a 3 course sit down for around ?25 each, transport is extra.

Ah but Les, is the coach trip worth it alone.  At Our last Dinner some of us had the  ( Dubious ) adventure of a trip in a 56 seater, down Nine Barrows Lane, courtesy of  the RAT-NAV  System. .

The biggest problem in holding a dinner with 100+ people is usually finding somewhere to have it,as not a lot of places can accommodate such large numbers.

 

[ryanwarwick]

We had our club (UBSS) annual dinner on Sat 1st March at a local bangers and mash restaurant (It was actually pretty fancy in spite of the type of food).
We paid ?17.50 a head for three courses which seemed pretty reasonable (It had to be considering most of our members are students). :greed:

 

[Slug]

We had our club (UBSS) annual dinner on Sat 1st March at a local bangers and mash restaurant (It was actually pretty fancy in spite of the type of food).
We paid ?17.50 a head for three courses which seemed pretty reasonable (It had to be considering most of our members are students). :greed:

I suppose compared to Pasta and Chili ( normal student grub) You didn't want to give them anything too rich in case it made 'em bad. :yucky:

 

[Hatstand]

(It had to be considering most of our members are students). :greed:

When I was destitute, the works dinner was very expensive relatively but it was something I looked forward to and didn't mind the outlay, because it was worth it. The Danger with such an event is if of course you are let down by the venue. I remember one particularly rubbish year the whole event was called into question, purely because our regular venue had changed hands and couldn't deliver the goods. We had much the same debate as is happening here now.

 

[ryanwarwick]

(It had to be considering most of our members are students). :greed:

When I was destitute, the works dinner was very expensive relatively but it was something I looked forward to and didn't mind the outlay, because it was worth it. The Danger with such an event is if of course you are let down by the venue. I remember one particularly rubbish year the whole event was called into question, purely because our regular venue had changed hands and couldn't deliver the goods. We had much the same debate as is happening here now.

Very funny you should mention that. As social sec it was my job to arrange the Annual Dinner this year, and we had huge problems with the venue. We had planned to have the event at a local Lebanese restaurant. I had booked the restaurant in January and spoken to the manager in person to confirm it. He then phoned me less than two weeks before the event to inform me that we would have to be out of the restaurant by 20.30 or else we couldn't hold it there. I soon told him where he could shove his dinner,  and he lost forty customers as a result. :spank:

 

[Slug]

(It had to be considering most of our members are students). :greed:

We had planned to have the event at a local Lebanese restaurant. I had booked the restaurant in January and spoken to the manager in person to confirm it. He then phoned me less than two weeks before the event to inform me that we would have to be out of the restaurant by 20.30 or else we couldn't hold it there. I soon told him where he could shove his dinner,  and he lost forty customers as a result. :spank:

Was He expecting another Israeli Invasion ?

:spank:

 

[paul]

Good idea but a bit difficult to seat 120 people at our hut.  :-\

True - but then we restrict numbers to the sit-down meal to 32 on a first-come first-served basis...

 

[Les W]

Good idea but a bit difficult to seat 120 people at our hut.  :-\

True - but then we restrict numbers to the sit-down meal to 32 on a first-come first-served basis...

We have a membership of around 250 so 120 is less than half. An annual dinner should be about being together, not excluding a large majority of our membership. It would become 'elitest' if it was too restricted.

Slug is right though, finding a venue fot 100+ sit down that can sensibly cater for that many is quite demanding. Especially when you need to rotate the venue.

 

[Slug]

Especially when you need to rotate the venue.
[/quote]


Because You want to, or because They wont have You back ?. :ang:

The B.E.C.'s 70th was held at a large venue, due to the numbers. It could hold all of us, but the meal was best described as "edible", (and I'm being quite generous here). The problem lies in the fact that having the capacity isn't enough, the quality has also to be considered. Marrying those two factors is not always easy. From the social sec's. perspective it must be a nightmare. 

 

[SamT]

We always have a stomp each year - see

http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php/topic,5934.0.html



this follows our AGM in the afternoon, which is always held in the pub. The land lady always does a quick round of chips and butties. Which is what you want after about 4 lunchtime pints.

The stomp is always open to anyone.

Problem is - we have to move around from venue to venue as they are usually less than keen to have us back for some reason  :-[

Never really been keen on "Dinners". Always over rated and over priced.

 

[Peter Burgess]

Never really been keen on "Dinners". Always over rated and over priced.

Some people like them, and some don't. Which is why it is silly to try to cater for every members' tastes. The bigger the club, the more difficult it will be to find a venue. But I wouldn't expect more than 25 percent of a club to want to go to one. That's more or less our experience anyway.

 

[Les W]

120   100
250  x  1      =  48%  Not a bad percentage for a club dinner then 

 

[Peter Burgess]

Yes Les, that's pretty good. How far do most members travel to attend? We hold ours in Somerset so that cuts out most of our mines-only members, of which we have a good number. Our first annual dinner in 1980 was attended by more than half the membership. We used the long room out the back of the Hunters. We haven't held it there since! I think the cost was ?5 each.

 

[SamT]

The eldon 50th last year (special occasion I know)

Had people flying in specifically from as far away as Austraila and Canada.

It was half dinner/half stomp which annoyed/pleased people in equal measures. Cant remember - but I think it was 25 quid a head. (ish)