So the current (and probably final) results from the quick poll on the blog are:
21 for the Burford Bridge Hotel in 2011, and 2 against (someone's changed their vote!)
15 had enough to eat, and 7 didn't.
21 wouldn't be put off by a £30 ticket price but 3 would.
Thanks to everyone who voted - I didn't realise so many actually looked at the blog! - and it turns out it isn't quite so easy as I thought to vote twice, which means that multiple votes from the same household were not easy to achieve.
The hall hire charge that the Burford Bridge has quoted is such that we can afford to go there again - this was the concern as they had indicated that we had it at a substantial discount which made all the difference to the affordability for us. On the other hand with mostly weddings as their functions they aren't used to repeat business like us.
Thus the committee decision is to return to the Burford Bridge in 2011. The date should be 19th February 2011 - a wedding is pre-booked for our preferred "last Saturday in February" date, but never mind.
We will attempt to address the issue of not enough to eat for a number of people. (Personally, when the dinner plate was put in front of me my thought was "ah, it's one of those restaurants - snazzy cuisine, not large portions - but the reality was that I had quite enough to eat, and didn't need to eat anymore than I was given.) A number of people who actually had enough to eat said that they would have liked more vegetables: this is also something that we will attempt to address with the venue for next year.
Modifying one story that I was told, I rather liked the notion of calling the nearest pizza delivery place and asking for a pizza to be delivered to table 20 in the Tithe Barn at the Burford Bridge as an answer for not enough food!
Once again we will use the legacy from Cis George to subsidise the meal, but this time the ticket cost will not be less than the individual meal cost - there was one point where we began to panic that because of the subsidy more attendees were going to make for a much bigger loss on the dinner. One of the benefits of the Tithe Barn is all the space and the fact that we are not limited by numbers as has been the case at all the other venues in recent years - I think the capacity is closer to 200 than the 'less than 100' of other venues. I also felt that the large seperate bar area was a great benefit.
However we hope that the ticket price will not have to go as high as £30 although it will be slightly higher than this year's £25.
Someone commented that as a guest of a member they did not feel that they should benefit from Cis' legacy and would have been prepared to pay the "full" price for a ticket. As we do not want to operate a two tier ticket price, my suggestion for anyone who feels this way is that either they send a seperate donation to the club (all donations gratefully received!) when paying for their tickets, or buy lots of extra raffle tickets with the difference. Historically we have always planned all club events on a break-even basis, erring on the side of a small loss, so income from the raffle is a bonus to the accounts.
And talking of the raffle - we have been discussing how we can change things around to sell the raffle tickets earlier and thus hold the raffle earlier so that those who do not want to stay late for the dancing can leave without missing the raffle. And also the issue of selling two lots of similar coloured tickets! One suggestion has been to set up a raffle ticket stall where Kat had her "Himalaya adventure" table this year to allow the raffle tickets to be bought before we sit down and then offer a final chance to buy tickets straight after the meal with the raffle itself close to the prize presentation.
Also, apparently it would now be a lot easier to arrange to go on to 00:30 or 01:00 rather than finishing at midnight - to allow more than just two hours' dancing for the energetic. We are looking into this, and just how much it would cost for the DJ post midnight, etc. Also some of the committee already think that midnight is a late enough night for them, so that one still needs some discussion...
If anyone has any other issues or comments - good or bad - about this year's dinner I would be interested to hear (email me), if we don't know what puts people off, we can't attempt to address it.
Sadly the one thing that we can't do an awful lot about is the price of the drinks, but that does seem to be the major cost - literally - of this as an excellent venue for the Club Dinner.
Lisa
21 for the Burford Bridge Hotel in 2011, and 2 against (someone's changed their vote!)
15 had enough to eat, and 7 didn't.
21 wouldn't be put off by a £30 ticket price but 3 would.
Thanks to everyone who voted - I didn't realise so many actually looked at the blog! - and it turns out it isn't quite so easy as I thought to vote twice, which means that multiple votes from the same household were not easy to achieve.
The hall hire charge that the Burford Bridge has quoted is such that we can afford to go there again - this was the concern as they had indicated that we had it at a substantial discount which made all the difference to the affordability for us. On the other hand with mostly weddings as their functions they aren't used to repeat business like us.
Thus the committee decision is to return to the Burford Bridge in 2011. The date should be 19th February 2011 - a wedding is pre-booked for our preferred "last Saturday in February" date, but never mind.
We will attempt to address the issue of not enough to eat for a number of people. (Personally, when the dinner plate was put in front of me my thought was "ah, it's one of those restaurants - snazzy cuisine, not large portions - but the reality was that I had quite enough to eat, and didn't need to eat anymore than I was given.) A number of people who actually had enough to eat said that they would have liked more vegetables: this is also something that we will attempt to address with the venue for next year.
Modifying one story that I was told, I rather liked the notion of calling the nearest pizza delivery place and asking for a pizza to be delivered to table 20 in the Tithe Barn at the Burford Bridge as an answer for not enough food!
Once again we will use the legacy from Cis George to subsidise the meal, but this time the ticket cost will not be less than the individual meal cost - there was one point where we began to panic that because of the subsidy more attendees were going to make for a much bigger loss on the dinner. One of the benefits of the Tithe Barn is all the space and the fact that we are not limited by numbers as has been the case at all the other venues in recent years - I think the capacity is closer to 200 than the 'less than 100' of other venues. I also felt that the large seperate bar area was a great benefit.
However we hope that the ticket price will not have to go as high as £30 although it will be slightly higher than this year's £25.
Someone commented that as a guest of a member they did not feel that they should benefit from Cis' legacy and would have been prepared to pay the "full" price for a ticket. As we do not want to operate a two tier ticket price, my suggestion for anyone who feels this way is that either they send a seperate donation to the club (all donations gratefully received!) when paying for their tickets, or buy lots of extra raffle tickets with the difference. Historically we have always planned all club events on a break-even basis, erring on the side of a small loss, so income from the raffle is a bonus to the accounts.
And talking of the raffle - we have been discussing how we can change things around to sell the raffle tickets earlier and thus hold the raffle earlier so that those who do not want to stay late for the dancing can leave without missing the raffle. And also the issue of selling two lots of similar coloured tickets! One suggestion has been to set up a raffle ticket stall where Kat had her "Himalaya adventure" table this year to allow the raffle tickets to be bought before we sit down and then offer a final chance to buy tickets straight after the meal with the raffle itself close to the prize presentation.
Also, apparently it would now be a lot easier to arrange to go on to 00:30 or 01:00 rather than finishing at midnight - to allow more than just two hours' dancing for the energetic. We are looking into this, and just how much it would cost for the DJ post midnight, etc. Also some of the committee already think that midnight is a late enough night for them, so that one still needs some discussion...
If anyone has any other issues or comments - good or bad - about this year's dinner I would be interested to hear (email me), if we don't know what puts people off, we can't attempt to address it.
Sadly the one thing that we can't do an awful lot about is the price of the drinks, but that does seem to be the major cost - literally - of this as an excellent venue for the Club Dinner.
Lisa
we have a 70th birthday where Steve is brewing the beer on the new date for the 2011 Dinner Dance - what a shame the usual date wasn't available
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