Friends and Members of the Charles E. Hawkins Squadron:
After lengthy discussions with Fisherman’s Wharf, other potential venues, and the officers of the Squadron, we have scheduled the next meeting of the Squadron, on Thursday, May 3, for the McCullough Room at Rosenberg Library at 1900 hours. Some of you will recall our first meetings there in 2016. It’s a fine facility, and well-suited to our organization. We will have some light refreshments available for the meeting.
As noted previously, we had hoped to move to a more structured and efficient arrangement with Fisherman’s Wharf, that would avoid the problems and delays that come with individual ordering and payment. We’ve had an ongoing dialogue with Fisherman’s Wharf since January, including two face-to-face meetings with their management staff, as recently as last week. Unfortunately we were not able to develop a workable plan. The specifics are complex, but it reduced down to this – the Squadron would have to guarantee a certain number of meals in advance, at around $40 each, and there would be no flexibility on the menu. We would be billed that flat rate for anyone attending, whether they ate or not. If someone wanted something other than the (very limited) buffet, they could go downstairs and order it themselves, on their own nickel, but the squadron would still be on the hook for their buffet dinner. It would be a very rigid and costly arrangement, and the general consensus is that it simply won’t work for our small membership’s needs.
Fisherman’s Wharf has been a fine venue for our meetings, and it’s unfortunate that we could not develop a plan for further meetings there that would meet our needs as a group. At some point, circumstances may change in a way that makes it more practical for us to hold our regular meetings there again.
We will have an announcement shortly on the program for the May 3 meeting. It’s gonna be a good one, so please mark your calendars now.
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Image: “The Sea Cook,” by N. C. Wyeth.
Charles E. Hawkins Squadron 