Orange County Branch Newsletter

August 2006

Secretary's Column

The Cost of Lunch


Kenneth H. Rosenfield, P.E.
Your ASCE Orange County Branch has a long and stellar history of service to its members which, in one form, is represented by the monthly lunch meeting and program (save two dinner meetings per year). Over the decades, the Branch has held its lunch meetings in different venues but always with the intention of presenting to its members a business meeting for presentation of ASCE information, a professional meeting for networking amongst Orange County Civil Engineers and an informational meeting by bringing topics of current interest to its members. These lunch meetings require the attention to detail of a group of your peers that volunteer their time to coordinate all aspects of the event. The ASCE Orange County Branch monthly lunch meetings and programs are the best! Your attendance at these lunch meetings reflects your professional commitment and support for the Branch activities.
 
One of the key details framing the lunch meetings is the cost of lunch. Currently, the member cost for lunch is $38 prepaid, $40 at the door with reservations, non-members and walk-ups without reservations are $45, and students are $20. Your Board of Directors recognizes this lunch cost is of concern to some of the members and we continue to explore all alternatives to keep the costs down. Nevertheless, the lunch programs are generally break-even in our annual budget. As a side note, we are working on the ability of the members to pay for the lunch meetings electronically by credit card when making your reservation on line.  Watch for this opportunity in the near future.
 
How does our costs compare with other professional organizations? Comparisons to other organizations are difficult because many other professional organizations do not offer consistent monthly meetings, few other professional organizations are solely Orange County based, strength of membership (attendance at lunch meetings) changes the base costs, and the venue and format for lunch service have a dramatic impact on the cost of lunch. However, an informal survey of other organizations provided the following information for recent events. The Southern California Chapter of the American Public Works Association (APWA) has a lunch cost of $30 member pre-paid and $35 walk-up, the Orange County Chapter of the Consulting Engineers and Land Surveyors of California (CELSOC) has a lunch cost of $40 for members and $45 for non-members, the Southern California Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) has a lunch cost of $25 for members and $30 for non-members, the Orange County Water Association (OCWA) has a lunch cost of $25 for members pre-paid, $30 with reservation, $35 member walk-up and $40 for non-member walk-ups, and the WTS (Women in Transportation), a Los Angeles based group, uses rates of $55 for members and $75 for non-members. The member lunch cost for these organizations, which many of us also participate in on a regular basis, range from a low of $25 to a high of $55 in comparison to the ASCE Orange County Branch base lunch cost of $38.
 
The cost of lunch includes the basic food charge of about $26 per plate, a 21% service charge, 7.75% sales tax charge, audio-visual support costs that vary upon need, parking fees (we provide validated parking that costs the Branch $3 per vehicle), the guest speaker(s) lunch cost and gift. The final cost to the Branch varies from about $36 to $38 per person depending upon the meal selected, the number of parking validations and the audio-visual support. There is not much opportunity to reduce these costs and, like the price of gasoline, the cost of lunch will likely continue to rise over time. One offset to the cost of lunch is the sale of table display space to vendors and this opportunity is available to all for a fee of $100 per event. You can also help by making suggestions for cost savings and by car-pooling to the monthly lunch meetings to reduce the parking costs. 
 
In selecting our current venue (the Costa Mesa Hilton), your Board considered the quality of the banquet facilities, the central location, the food choices, the cost of parking, audio-visual support and the bottom line cost to the members. Our current venue is the most cost effective central Orange County facility that was found to meet the Branch’s needs. However, annually, and as needed, the Board will review the venue and the cost of lunch and do our best to keep costs down.  We welcome your comments!

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