"At the March Executive Committee meeting, the committee made two decisions which directly effect PARCR members and other general meeting attendees in terms of meal charges and meal payment procedures. The changes are as follows:
1) Effective with the July 2020 general meeting, the meal charge for each attendee will increase from $10 to $12.
We have been charging $10 per attendee for lunch. PARCR has been subsidizing an additional $2 per person to cover the host community $12 charge per lunch. After surveying a number of CCRCs for comparative catering charges, we have found it necessary to increase our payment to the host communities to $14 per attendee to cover the increasing costs for food, plates, cups, utensils, napkins, staffing, etc. Obviously, it is important for us to be fair and equitable with our gracious hosts for their hospitality. PARCR will continue to contribute $2 per attendee to cover the charge of $14.
2) In addition to the above, the Executive Committee adopted a new procedure for registration for meeting and the payment for the lunch. The new process requires meal payment at the time of registration, rather than on the day of the meeting. The process will be clearly defined in your meeting notice letter. It will be very important for our members and attendees to have their payment to Susan Martin by the deadline specified in the notice. Your payment will not be refunded in the event your plans should change and you are unable to attend. We will no longer be able to accommodate “walk-ins” at our meetings.
There are two primary reasons for this change. First, we are required to give a final count to our host community a week prior to our general meeting. The host community is counting on that as a reasonably accurate number of persons attending and eating lunch. When we have a substantial number of “no-shows”, someone needs to cover the cost difference. Up to this point, our host communities have essentially absorbed that expense.
The second reason is to reduce or eliminate the bottlenecks and confusion at the registration table. We are having more and more persons attend our meetings and as this happens, in any given scenario, it requires appropriate change to accommodate the increase in volume.
We realize that change isn’t always easy, but we trust that you understand the rationale for these adjustments to our process and will do your best to support them. Thank you for your kind attention to these items.
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