FUDCon - Dave & Busters Proposal

[Paul W. Frields]

On Sat, Aug 29, 2009 at 10:21:26PM -0400, Chris Tyler wrote:
> Here is the proposal from D&B.

Excellent, thanks Chris.  I read the proposal you attached, and would
recommend others check it out too.  Thoughts follow...

> Notes:
> - They have 'appetizer-style' buffets and 'dinner-style' buffets. The
> former include finger food such as cheese and crackers, kebabs, and bar
> burgers; the latter, a more traditional meat-starch-vegetable-salad
> menu. For our event type and budget, only the appetizer style seems
> appropriate.

I agree.  This worked fine at the most recent Boston FUDCon, and I
notice they have chips+salsa and crackers+cheese on the menu for
veggiesauruses.

> - Drink tickets are charged on a as-consumed basis -- if a $5 drink is
> ordered, we pay $5, if a $7 drink, then $7, if the ticket isn't used, no
> charge. We can include the non-alcoholic drinks via ticket, or for
> $2.59/person have unlimited tea, coffee, and soda. Tickets can have a
> maximum value attached; $7.20 (recommended) covers most drinks.

Here's what I would suggest, but we'll want Max to chime in from his
position as the chief financier for this operation. :-)

Right now the total for the whole night is coming out at ~$4500.
That's actually pretty close to what things cost at Boston, but we had
a sponsor who picked up that tab.

If we are paying $1000 for a deposit up front, that money will come
out of Red Hat's third fiscal quarter, whereas the balance in December
will come out of the fourth.  That may give us some flexibility.

If Max thinks the overall cost is at our ceiling, we may want to opt
for paying for nonalcoholic drinks for everyone, and attendees are on
their own for everything else.

As Chris notes, in the proposal, none of these tickets are included in
the bottom line.  So these $5/$7 drink costs are all *in addition to*
whatever we're paying for other stuff.

Gratuity (16%) has been included, so we shouldn't need to worry about
an extra tip on top of the numbers we're seeing in the contract.

> - They will throw in the space rental for free under their current
> promotion. Of the various spaces available, the space that looks best to
> me includes 9 pool tables, a snooker table, and two hand-shuffleboard
> tables (which will be covered and used for the buffet for part of the
> evening). This is the "Viewpoint 2/3" on the proposal -- it's normally
> $125/hour.

This is fantastic, just what the doctor ordered.  Even if people don't
opt for midway and video games, fun will be had. :-)

> - They have recommended "Power Cards" for each attendee -- these can be
> used on the midway. They are optional -- we can just have the pool
> tables available, and if someone wants to use the midway they can pay
> their own way. If we include the Power Cards, we're over budget.

Right, this is the first place I'd consider cutting from the proposal.
In fact, I'd rather use the ~$900 quoted for these cards to pay for
drink tickets, if we decide the overal bottom line is OK.  Then we'd
let people just buy their own midway Power Cards.

So again, the bottom line cost options look something like this:

* Basic costs for food, non-alcoholic drinks, space, tax + tip: ~$3500

* Power Cards: ~$900

* One "alco-bevvie" per person: ~$900

Once Max is back and settled we'll have a short chat about this and
get things finalized with D&B.  I do know that Max thought D&B was an
absolute winner of a place to have FUDPub, so no question about the
venue at this point.

-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
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