[MR] The importance of pre-reg

[Kelly Keck]

On 10/27/06, Alan MacNeill <gormofberra at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> None of these adjustments are pleasant, but they are all possible, if
> you have adequate pre-reservations.  If the attitude of "Meh, I'll
> just show up if it's a nice day" is prevalent, then none of these
> adjustments are possible.


That's an excellent point.  For Dun Carraig's Middle Eastern event back in
February, we started with a modest feast cap of 50, logical for a new event
with no fighting.  Pre-registrations came in, and we eventually bumped up to
75 and still ended up turning 20 people away.  The cook for the event was
more than willing to cook for 100, so had those people pre-registered, we
could've made the necessary adjustments when we found out that our event was
more popular than we expected.  (This example shows both how the event stafe
made needed adjustments when the pre-registrations showed it was necessary
and how, if pre-registering were more common, we coud have done an even
better job with those adjustments, based on more accurate info.)

Not only that, but unnecessary adjustments might be made when people don't
pre-register.  Only 20 people have pre-registered, and the autocrat is
nervous, so the cook scales the feast back to 50, and then 100 people show
up.  Not only is there wasted effort on needless adjustments, there are also
disappointed people who don't get to enjoy feast.

In Service,
Adriana