Pizza to be Discontinued at Meetings

Post by **krisw** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 7:18 am

The board and I have decided that it is in the best interest for our club interests to discontinue the purchasing of pizza/lunch at our meetings. We will still provide light snacks and beverages.

The reason for this is purely financial. We have been losing money nearly every meeting this year. Pizza costs the club roughly $60 to $90 per month, depending on the projected attendance, and current specials at pizza locations. When you tack on the extra cost for beverages and snacks, we're averaging about $100/meeting for food. Auction proceeds rarely cover this, averaging closer to $50/meeting.

Therefore, the board has decided that it is more important for us to spend our minimal revenue from membership dues and auction proceeds on growing the club, and further providing benefits to our members. To remind you of some of our expenses, which add value to your membership, here is a list:

- Subsidizing Aquascaping Contest Materials
- Aquafest 2009
- Group Order Insurance, covering DOAs
- Bringing in Speakers (Luis Navarro last year, Jason Baliban at Aquafest)
- Workshops (i.e./ Tissue Culture Workshop)
- GWAPA Forum and Website (Yearly Hosting Fees)

Please remember that if you have any suggestions for the club, regarding food at the meetings, or anything else, you can always reach myself and the board at gwapa@gwapa.org . Please don't hesitate to send us your thoughts.

Sonny Disposition · Post by **Sonny Disposition** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:02 am

Good decision guys. I'll miss the pizza, but making better use of our limited resources is much more important. And I'm getting too fat anyway.

chris_todd · Post by **chris_todd** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:33 am

Good call, I (for one) was getting tired of pizza at every meeting anyway. What we found when we hosted was that the soda and chips were almost as expensive as all the other stuff we got, so I'm not sure you'll be saving all that much just going with that.

I don't want to hijack the thread, but I didn't know the club took a portion of the auction proceeds, and I don't see that described anywhere on the website. It's not uncommon, of course, but PVAS and CCA both describe their auction rules clearly on their website.

I'll post a question about the auctions in a separate thread, as I don't want to hijack the thread any more than I already have.

Judi · Post by **Judi** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 11:11 am

I'm more than happy to give up pizza at meetings if it means we can keep the wonderful benefits Kris outlined above.

PaulS · Post by **PaulS** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 11:28 am

I agree. Light refreshments and snacks is fine.

ddavila06 · Post by **ddavila06** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 8:31 pm

i will defenitly miss it and will have to plan further ahead for us (or mainly me) getting pizza was the only food from about 11am til 6-7 pm...

but if it helps the club im willing to give it up!

ingg · Post by **ingg** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 8:43 pm

chris_todd wrote: I don't want to hijack the thread, but I didn't know the club took a portion of the auction proceeds, and I don't see that described anywhere on the website. It's not uncommon, of course, but PVAS and CCA both describe their auction rules clearly on their website.

You know, I know it, knew it, thought I'd read it, but couldn't tell you where!

I can't find it in a cursory search, we (the board) need to get that up and better posted - thank you for noticing.

The club takes a 25% cut for the record, always has. I don't know how I knew.... but we need to make sure folks do know. Look for that update soon.

To give an idea of pizza costs, we've bought like a dozen pizzas for one meeting before. Even at $5 each, that is $70+ delivered..... that's an awful lot of soda and chips.

(The club pulled like $30 last auction to put it in perspective. Spent more than that on the pizzas alone.)

2 liters are $2-3, bag of chips $3-4.... 20 bucks of soda (which we buy regardless), $20 of chips (which we always have some regardless), $10 of salsa whatever.....should save us a bit. Should we get to a surplus situation again, we'll rebuild a war chest!

tigerlover · Post by **tigerlover** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 5:34 pm

2 words. Hot dogs.

Would they cost much

I mean, well, we had them at the June/ July? meeting, so why not

chris_todd · Post by **chris_todd** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 7:46 pm

tigerlover wrote:2 words. Hot dogs. Would they cost much I mean, well, we had them at the June/ July? meeting, so why not

Katie,
One word: vegetarians

There are several vegetarians in the club, and even meatatarians like myself don't want to eat hot dogs at *every* GWAPA meeting.

Cavan · Post by **Cavan** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 11:09 pm

Darn.

Pizza to be Discontinued at Meetings

Pizza to be Discontinued at Meetings

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