Grrrr!...

[CDNSushi]

Todd, no offense intended to you either because it's obvious that you're looking at it from a very different viewpoint but if it weren't possible to do it for less then I'd be much more sympathetic but when someone decides they absolutely MUST have the swankiest joint in town for a venue then they open themselves up to some criticism.

Obviously, the group's desire to having something posh and upper-class is more of a priority than making it accessible to more people. It's clear already that they over-estimated the number of people in general sharing the organizers' views. It's not that I disagree that the money is being spent appropriately (for venue, live entertainment, etc) but I absolutely KNOW that it could have been done for far less had they so desired. I've served on numerous organizing committees myself, the most recent of which was being in charge of taking care of purchasing/organizing/administering buying food and cooking meals at our church's winter retreat. This, as the church isn't exactly rich, required careful budgeting, planning and being able to "make-do" with the resources I was given.

Now having said that, there are some good reasons why I wouldn't volunteer for this society's committee(s), first and foremost being the fact that I live in another city almost two hours away. Second, I don't just look out for myself. It would be rather selfish of me to be a part of a committee for the sole purpose of extracting something cheap out of it for myself. I'm more interested in being able to have my wife and some of our friends come and join us too. For me to get mine and then for them to have to pay the full price isn't what I'm trying to achieve here.

Again, obviously we don't see eye to eye on this but there's more to this issue than just me just idly griping.

As for my "snide remarks" well -- I don't believe the St. A. soc of Tokyo is exactly above reproach here. If I meant everything I said at face value as you seem to think, I probably wouldn't have used the smilies I did to indicate that there was some humour in it. I guess you didn't realize that...

[macwilkin]

Todd, no offense intended to you either because it's obvious that you're looking at it from a very different viewpoint but if it weren't possible to do it for less then I'd be much more sympathetic but when someone decides they absolutely MUST have the swankiest joint in town for a venue then they open themselves up to some criticism.

Obviously, the group's desire to having something posh and upper-class is more of a priority than making it accessible to more people. It's clear already that they over-estimated the number of people in general sharing the organizers' views. It's not that I disagree that the money is being spent appropriately (for venue, live entertainment, etc) but I absolutely KNOW that it could have been done for far less had they so desired. I've served on numerous organizing committees myself, the most recent of which was being in charge of taking care of purchasing/organizing/administering buying food and cooking meals at our church's winter retreat. This, as the church isn't exactly rich, required careful budgeting, planning and being able to "make-do" with the resources I was given.

Now having said that, there are some good reasons why I wouldn't volunteer for this society's committee(s), first and foremost being the fact that I live in another city almost two hours away. Second, I don't just look out for myself. It would be rather selfish of me to be a part of a committee for the sole purpose of extracting something cheap out of it for myself. I'm more interested in being able to have my wife and some of our friends come and join us too. For me to get mine and then for them to have to pay the full price isn't what I'm trying to achieve here.

Again, obviously we don't see eye to eye on this but there's more to this issue than just me just idly griping.

As for my "snide remarks" well -- I don't believe the St. A. soc of Tokyo is exactly above reproach here. If I meant everything I said at face value as you seem to think, I probably wouldn't have used the smilies I did to indicate that there was some humour in it. I guess you didn't realize that...

I never implied that you would be looking out for yourself by volunteering; I meant that you might see things from the other perspective by being a part of it. For the record, some societies do offer members discounts on tickets. That's one of the benefits of being a member, nothing to be ashamed of.

We have an unwritten rule in our society that whenever someone complains about one of our events, we always respond, "Great -- what will you do to help us make it better?" Sadly, most people say, "I'm too busy", "I didn't mean that", etc. They're willing to complain about something, but when called to help, they suddenly lose their enthusiasm.

Again, though...you seem to be making some judgements on these people -- do you know them personally, or are you making assumptions? And your comparison to a church committee is an ironic one, as many St. Andrew's Societies use part of the funds raised at events like Burns Suppers for charitable functions -- the whole original purpose of St. Andrew's/Caledonian societies, etc. was mutual-aid for distressed countrymen, after all.

Yes, you may have used smilies, and you may have been talking "tounge-in-cheek" -- all I'm saying is to walk a mile in their ghillies before you make assumptions. Our Burns Supper is at one of the "swankiest joints in town", yet we present a quality program for the cost. We had a lady make a similar statement about finding a cheaper venue and cheaper cost this year; when we asked her to join the committee, she declined.

Regards,

Todd