What dates to do this year?

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Thank all of you for joining this list and for supporting the Raleigh
CAN'T STOP THE SERENITY event! You are shiny!

I've been talking with our venue, Raleighwood, about the possibility
of doing TWO showings of "Serenity" this year.
Several cities did two showings last year. And, since Raleigh always
sells out its tickets, it may be time for us to expand. This will
allow us to sell twice as many tickets, raise more money for Equality
Now, and have even more fun!

But I need to choose the dates. I talked to Raleighwood about doing
THURSDAY June 19 and FRIDAY June 20, or SUNDAY June 22 and MONDAY June
23.

Raleighwood has two theaters, but it will not be possible to show
"Serenity" in both theaters on the same night. The venue would like to
have one theater open for its regular customers each evening. Plus,
the second theater is smaller (100 seats, I think). We will have more
tickets to sell if we do the big 200-seat theater for two nights.

If we do Thursday/Friday, the venue will waive its usual lease fee for
Thursday night, though we would have to guarantee them at least $500
in food and beverage sales. This is the same deal we had with them in
2006 and
2007, and it worked out well. However, we would need to pay $1,000 to
use the theater on Friday, and guarantee $750 in food and beverage
sales (meaning, if they only sell $600 in food and beverage, for
instance, we'd have to make up the difference and pay them $150).

The reason they won't waive the fee for a Friday or Saturday night is
because those are the nights they make the most money from the general
public. They have been very generous with us, but understandably we
can't ask them to greatly compromise their regular business and their
other customers. And as a little background, many of the other CSTS
cities do have to pay venue lease fees. We have been very fortunate to
have the venue donated to us in 2006 and 2007.

The other option we could do is Sunday/Monday. Monday June 23 is Joss
Whedon's birthday and the date that most of the SERENITY screenings
were held around the world in 2006 and 2007. I haven't heard any word,
yet, from the global coordinators what they plan to do this year,
being as the 23rd is a Monday.

If we do the Sunday/Monday combo, Raleighwood will waive the lease fee
for BOTH nights, and all we'd have to do is guarantee them $500 in
food and beverage sales, each night. The plus to this is that there
will be more money for Equality Now because we won't have to pay the
$1,000 venue lease fee. The minus is that there may NOT actually be
more money for Equality Now, if we don't sell as many tickets because
folks can't come on Sunday or Monday, but would be able to come on
Friday.

I did not talk to Raleighwood about a SATURDAY/SUNDAY combo, but I
assume we'd have to pay a venue fee for Saturday, just like for
Friday, of either the same amount, or more.

Since you are the folks who plan to attend, please let me know your
thoughts about this. Email me directly at RaleighB...@gmail.com
(RaleighBrowncoat AT gmail DOT com) - please don't try to email this
list, it's not set up for discussion, just announcements.

Thanks! Xie xie!
~Flame~

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There is now a poll at the event blog, http://raleighshindig.blogspot.com/
, to vote on your preferred date(s) for CSTS 2008. You may vote for
more than one.