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.