So, are you old enough to remember the days when you would send out an invitation and request an RSVP (répondez s'il vous plaît, which in French means "reply, if you please") and folks would respond either by mail or phone to let you know whether or not they were attending?
The purpose of the RSVP is to assist the event planner in planning for the accurate number of attendees in terms of food, drinks and sometimes even the venue.
Well, it seems RSVP is dead, kaput, no more. What is an amateur "event planner" like me to do????
On December 4th, The Julissa Jumper Real Estate Team is holding a "Cookies with Santa" client appreciation event for my clients' families and my friends in Fayetteville, NC. I mailed out the invites with a request for an RSVP by the 10th of November. I tried to make it as simple as I could think to do. I created a button on my website that would allow them to complete a short form indicating how many were coming.
On the 10th I had only one RSVP. I began to wonder if it was going to be worth it for just one family. I have undertaken the expense and resources to make this a special treat for my attendees and only ONE family is coming????
I decided I would call those who I had invited to 1. make sure they received the invite and 2. didn't just forget to RSVP.
Well, what I discovered after calling the first 10 people is that of those ten, four were planning on attending and had just not RSVPd. That realization frightened and excited me all at once.
What that means is that I AM going to have attendees because I am sure those ten I spoke with may be a somewhat close representation of what the rest of the other people were planning and that also means I'll have NO IDEA of how many to expect!! Especially since I also invited a neighborhood that I farm and I don't have any phone numbers to call and ask who's coming.
After commenting about it with to some colleagues, it appears that I'm not the only one that has experienced the death of the RSVP. In fact, just the other day someone complained about that same thing on FB and it appeared from the remarks to the post that the issue is of epidemic propoprtions. I don't think people are being rude by not RSVPing. I just think they don't think about the purpose of the RSVP and why it is helpful and important to the event planner to receive it. It is a courtesy.
So, what's a girl to do?? I do believe there is somewhere a "rule" as to what percentage of people attend events they are invited to but I don't have the time to search for it because I have an event to plan and I have a Santa to prepare for the possibility of having 100 children sit on his lap that day.
I am looking forward to a lot of happy children on December 4th!!
Comments (66)Subscribe to CommentsComment