The potluck at Monroe was awesome...that with an entire seperate room with tables....but not so at Chehalis..............As for my thoughts on a potluck at the Chehalis show. I completely understand CR's position. He just doesn't have the space for it in his booth, and it's very distracting. We have also had other fall out over the potluck. The sponsor's have had a problems with the outside vendor's complaining about the potluck cutting into their profits. They also have had problems with simply not being asked about it first. I guess I have a problem with that theory, because I doubt that I would have bought anything from a food vendor at the show regardless of a potluck.
Still there isn't really a room for us to gather for a potluck that would be unobtrusive at the Chehalis Show. I would be interested in seeing if CR's trailer would work for a potluck. We could try the trailer out, but I do have questions about power, and seating.
I would be willing to try and get things set up. I do think that this time we should include the sponsors into the planning. In the past we haven't done this, and I really think that this is the real problem. I think if we hosted a closed potluck for just active BYC members and their families, then it would be difficult for a vendor to complain. I would be willing to include the sponsors of the show in the invitation, but we would need to somehow control the open door policy of the past.
I do know that many people attending don't understand that the potluck is not part of the WFF's show, nor do they understand that the potluck is part of our BYC group. I don't have a problem with sharing, but I do think that we should be asking people that are mooching to join our group. I am not sure how to control the group in order to keep it to just a BYC membership. The only thing that comes to mind would be to create name tags, that could be mailed out in advance of one of these shows. We could have a member badge, and a slightly different family member badge. I would be willing to be part of creating, and covering some of the cost towards the project, but I am not manage the cost entirely by myself. As for everyone else this idea would require the impute of your mailing address, and number of badges needed. Maybe it could be done with simply sending in a pre-addressed postage included envelope to a central location, or badges could picked up at the show.
I think that there are still some funds leftover from a previous potluck, and maybe they could help pay the printing costs, and the onetime purchase of badge holders. If we do this then we should commission CR to make us an official donation piggy bank. We unfortunately would have to make sure that it would be locked and chained to a table.
Okay those are my ideas for a potluck at the show's. Does anyone else have ideas? Or have any revisions on my thoughts? I am wide open to any and all ideas about trying to continue our traditions of getting together at the shows. It doesn't hurt that I do love getting a potluck together either.
