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Financial Risk (not to mention added stress) for G (Munich)

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Internations’ events operate, almost exclusively, on a voluntary basis and rely heavily on the good will, trust, respect & ‘hard word’ of those members motivated enough to organise them. I’m talking about relatively small events here, with perhaps a maximum attendance of 20 members. I’m sure many of us have organised, attended and thoroughly enjoyed such events... Long may they continue!!

However, what happens when group members ‘sign up’ to attend one of these smaller events, don’t have to make any personal financial commitment (up front) and then decide not to attend? Ok, there may be genuine reasons for this, but fellow members giving either, ridiculously short notice of non-attendance, or perhaps none at all, is inexcusible and in my opinion downright disrespectful. This goes completely against Internations’ general guidelines.

The moral issue apart, the event organisers are then left to ‘pick up the pieces’ of their now poorly attended event. Perhaps brokering some kind of deal with the event venue, which had planned with the original number attending and then, worst of all, asking those that DID attend for extra money to cover the difference, or cover the difference themselves!! This situation must not be allowed to happen in an organisation that prides itself (and relies) on trust, good will, etc etc. People will simply stop taking that risk and these smaller events (involving cash) will cease to be organised... Is this what we want?

I propose that Internations adopt a 100% secure payment system for ALL events, whereby attendees MUST pay for an online voucher, print it out and present it to the event organiser on the evening: Regardless of whether it’s 5,-€ or 200,-€. This removes ALL financial risk from the event organiser and may even encourage others to ‘take the plunge.’

I don’t know what the operating costs of such a system are, but I’m sure it’s a small price to pay to protect members, and the ‘name’ of Internations at the venues we all love to attend, in and around Munich.

I’m attending the ‘Improve Internations’ event next Thursday and would happily discuss things further. In the meantime, I’d really like to hear your comments and, if you’ve had any similar experiences, let’s hear about them.... Stu ;-)

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