We've had a number of rally cancellations in the last week or so and there has been a bit of irritation felt by some of those who've had to cancel.
Why rally attendees have to cancel their rally registration varies. And honestly, their reasons are their own. Julie and I have no reason to judge them. Life happens and we understand that.
Sometimes, rally attendees forget about seeing and acknowledging the Rally Terms and Conditions. Among other things, here's what it states regarding cancellations:
This means that we processed refunds in the amount of 90% of rally registration fees for all cancellations through May 21. It also means that cancellations after May 21 will not be refunded in any amount.
We understand this policy doesn't sit well with everyone. We've been given many legitimate reasons for cancellations, from illness, to accidents to deaths. The way we've structured it, we're not putting ourselves in the position of having to be a judge of any sort. We just administrate the policy.
What some attendees may not understand and what we try not to make a big deal about, is that we have expenses that are not reimbursable. Some of these include:
I really don't mean to belabor the point. And I am not trying to be judgemental or unsympathetic or insensitive to cancellation reasons. I just simply don't have the money to give back as it can't be unspent.
What we did decide to do, was to refund 50% of the site costs, less 10%. 50% because that's the rate the rally is being subsidized by Heartland. That means that for rally cancellations from May 22 and onward, we've been processing refunds of $54. Not a lot of money, but something none-the-less. We can refund this because Bethpage is not charging us for unused, contracted sites. This is not always the case at other venues.
My hope is that this post serves to better clarify:
1) Why we have the cancellation policy for these rallies, and
2) To point out the unadvertised "attendee favoring" variance that we made to our written policy, where beginning May 22, we're processing refunds in the amount of $54
Thank you everyone for your understanding.
Why rally attendees have to cancel their rally registration varies. And honestly, their reasons are their own. Julie and I have no reason to judge them. Life happens and we understand that.
Sometimes, rally attendees forget about seeing and acknowledging the Rally Terms and Conditions. Among other things, here's what it states regarding cancellations:
This means that we processed refunds in the amount of 90% of rally registration fees for all cancellations through May 21. It also means that cancellations after May 21 will not be refunded in any amount.
We understand this policy doesn't sit well with everyone. We've been given many legitimate reasons for cancellations, from illness, to accidents to deaths. The way we've structured it, we're not putting ourselves in the position of having to be a judge of any sort. We just administrate the policy.
What some attendees may not understand and what we try not to make a big deal about, is that we have expenses that are not reimbursable. Some of these include:
- Rally Hall Rental
- Games boards we've had Bethpage make for us
- Games administration Bethpage will be doing for us
- Site costs to bring in 10 show coaches
- Catering costs (note that all catering head-counts are turned in and we can only increase our counts)
- Door prizes are purchased
- Travel expenses for factory reps has been expended
- Rally bags and stuffers have been purchased
- Rally t-shirts have been printed and shipped
- Rally documentation has been printed
- Entertainers (2 each) have been hired
I really don't mean to belabor the point. And I am not trying to be judgemental or unsympathetic or insensitive to cancellation reasons. I just simply don't have the money to give back as it can't be unspent.
What we did decide to do, was to refund 50% of the site costs, less 10%. 50% because that's the rate the rally is being subsidized by Heartland. That means that for rally cancellations from May 22 and onward, we've been processing refunds of $54. Not a lot of money, but something none-the-less. We can refund this because Bethpage is not charging us for unused, contracted sites. This is not always the case at other venues.
My hope is that this post serves to better clarify:
1) Why we have the cancellation policy for these rallies, and
2) To point out the unadvertised "attendee favoring" variance that we made to our written policy, where beginning May 22, we're processing refunds in the amount of $54
Thank you everyone for your understanding.
