IMPORTANT RSVP Updates Based on Last Night's Meeting

Dear Monica, Thank you to everyone who came to our meeting last night! You ladies sure threw me for a loop. :) I had 3 people show up without the correct RSVP. I also had two ladies RSVP late for a total of 5 people extra to juggle. I didn't have my usual helper to check in people so I was all on my own to do everything. Since I was only expecting 7, I didn't think I needed help but boy did I! There will be changes again to how you RSVP to our meetings... I tried to set up a virtual zoom at the same time as our in person meeting and it didn't go as well as I hoped. It also made it confusing for the people who thought they were rsvp'ing to the in person meeting when they in fact RSVPd for the zoom meeting. So, thank you to those people who helped with this experiment but going forward, the only virtual meetings will be our happy hours. I apologize for not explaining this better at the meeting but when you pay me $5-10 to attend, it includes a beverage like Coke, lemonade, tea or coffee. You must ask for your beverage at the bar and our server will bring it to you. If you want wine or beer, please pay the venue directly for this option. I am also going to change the beverage RSVP to needing it 24 hrs in advance as well. If you RSVP late or show up at the door, it will now become $10. Once I give my headcount to the venue, it becomes more work for me to update them later to add more seats. Usually, the venue sets extra places for us but since the last two meetings had less people than we expected, the venue didn't add extra seats this time. I will be padding our headcount in the future so we have more room. We have few enough people to maintain 6' away from each other but when we have to add 5 extra seats at the last minute, it means that everyone who is already seated needs to move a little. However, their previous spot has been contaminated and the safety protocols are now compromised. This is just not ideal. Also, the venue handed out meals without checking with me first. Again, since we only expected 7 people and 6 meals, it was supposed to be an easy distribution. All the things that could go wrong, seemed to go wrong last night. Thank you to those people who helped me!! We made it work and PLEASE don't feel like you can't come to our meetings or that you will need to eat upstairs if you arrive without an RSVP. I am sharing this information with you so there can be a better understanding about the extra work involved and why I need to charge more if you cannot RSVP more than 24 hrs in advance. Let me know if you have any questions!  ~Monica~