The Seattle Vegan March Meetup

A return to the ever-popular Vegan Garden, home to delicious Vietnamese cuisine. We'll set up a pseudo-buffet like last time. I'll work out the pre-order and fine-tune the cost, but last time I asked for $11 to cover appetizers, entrees, tax, and tip, and I ended up putting in a bunch extra out of my own pocket, so this time the per-person charge will be about $14, based on ~30 people showing. If we have fewer it may cost more, or individuals can chip in more and take leftovers. Please please bring cash so that the staff aren't overwhelmed with credit cards, and to make it easier for your humble leaders to sort it all out.

Please note that a Yes RSVP here means "Yes I will *definitely* attend barring alien abduction", not "I might drop by if I can't find anything better to do". Despite repeated requests for honesty, we still have a big problem with no-shows filling up slots, and I may be forced to require pre-payment (which means more cost to you to cover the online payment service fees) in order to allow people who really want to come to do so. Notice that these events have tended to fill their RSVP slots early? That means that those who don't RSVP immediately can't join us, yet history shows that half of the Yes RSVP's will silently not materialize. Generally we can make room or expand the event, so *please* don't RSVP early squatter-style if you're afraid of the event filling, but you're unsure if you'll actually come.

Alternately, repeat offenders may simply be banned. Draconian? Perhaps, but repeated appeals for responsible behavior have been widely ignored and mass no-shows put the rest of us in something of a bind when we have to pre-order food like we're doing for tomorrow. I need to order for an expected number of people, and if we only get half that number in the seats, or a bunch of them come and don't eat, then the rest of us (ie.,your humble organizer) get stuck picking up the tab. In the future I'm going to try to set up prix-fixe arrangements. The selection will be limited to one or two items instead of the thirteen we'll have tomorrow, but the cost will be much more predictable.