Well, I hope the posts weren't addressed to me either, 'cause if so you all missed my point just because I used a cliche' involving the word "business".

In planning out events you need to take a look at what costs are, and how many people will show up, and what will happen to all those plans and funds if things don't happen as per the rosey scenario. If that means you're thinking like a business, so be it. You have costs and revenue, whether your labor is volunteer, paid, or nonexistant.

There's no need to extend things to "I'm buying a service" model just because the word business was used.

But, the truth remains - as a competitor, putting money out for registration involves the the risk of losing that money if I choose not to compete for whatever reason. That's my risk for, um, lets see, new phrase, planning ahead to attend the regatta. I might get a flat tire on the way there, miss the start. I might not want to be seen in public with that big zit that just popped up on my forehead. I may not like the conditions on race day. Either way, I would have no expectation of a refund, and my risk of putting money up has come to fruition. My loss.

And, as an organizer, if I/we/us has to choose to cancel an event because of whatever reason I deemed it necessary, I would think it the correct thing to do give registration money back, unless I stated up front that I wouldn't. Maybe I said the race would be another day, and keep the money. But, I may have put a deposit on the keg, or put up to buy trophies, or bought gas for someone's boat, and I might lose those funds. That's the financial risk as an organizer to bear as a function of, um, lets see, yes, inviting people to come play on the water.

And I think we're making this tougher than it needs to be.

When our club ran last year's Lighthouse Race, the attendance was down due to weather. We took a bath financially, but that was the risk we took in setting things up the way we did. And we were happy to because we all had a damn good time. And we'd do it again, but that's because the risk of losing out financially was deemed acceptable. A couple of years ago we wouldn't have even thought of setting it up that way because in those days the club didn't have the funds to back things up if attendance was down or we needed to cancel.

So, maybe I'll go back a bit. Damn right you need to think of it as a business to some degree. A non-profit one I'm guessing, but similar principles apply - it will cost a certain amount to do a certain thing, I can reasonably count on a certain amount of revenue to cover those costs, and these are my risks and how I 'll handle/accept them. Plan to cover those things and you'll have less chance for surprises and heartache.

rant mode off...