End-of-term dinner invitation messages for student clubs

• ·The event. A catered dinner, a banquet, a potluck. Members plan differently for each, and a banquet may need a change of clothes.
• ·Date, time and room.“Friday 27 November, 6:30 pm, Student Centre Room 204”. Campus buildings confuse first-years, so add a landmark.
• ·Cost. Free for members, or what it costs and how to pay the treasurer. Say so up front.
• ·The RSVP. A direct question and a date, with the reason: the caterer needs a number.
• ·Guests. Whether members can bring a friend, and whether the friend pays. Ask them to say so when they reply, so the count is right.
• ·Dietary needs.A short list with a “none” option.

Send the reminder only to members who have not answered, two or three days before the deadline. More wording is in RSVP reminder messages.

The caterer sets your real deadline. Carleton’s campus dining service wants the guaranteed number two business days before the event, and takes your original estimate as the guarantee if you miss it (Carleton Dining Services). At the University of Toronto Mississauga, the campus caterer wants it three business days before, or seven for 300 guests or more (UTM Hospitality).

Ask your caterer for its date, then set the RSVP deadline two or three days before it. For a Friday 27 November dinner with a three-business-day guarantee, the caterer needs the number on Tuesday 24 November, so ask members to reply by Friday 20 November and remind on Wednesday 18 November. Hold the dinner before exams start, when members still read club messages.

When the deadline passes, message the last few members one to one. If the club has a group chat, one general reminder there is fine, as long as it names nobody.

A club dinner brings together members with a wide mix of needs. Ask the members who say yes, in the same exchange, with a fixed list and a “none” option:

Pass the counts to the caterer with the final number, and the allergy details word for word. More on the wording is in collecting dietary requirements.

Save a copy of the list of yeses on the day you give the caterer its number. If someone asks later why you ordered 40 meals, the list answers them.

If your student union reimburses food costs, ask its finance office what records it accepts before the dinner. Do not assume an RSVP list is enough: it shows who said they would come. If your dinner has door check-in, the “checked in” column shows who came, and when.

In Avently, the first 25 invitations each month are free, then the club pays per invitation sent, so a small club’s dinner can fit inside the free 25. The pricing page has the rates for anything bigger.

At the end of the year, the member list is the thing most likely to be lost when the executive changes. How to pass it on cleanly is in handing over a club contact list.

1. Step 01

   Build the dinner and add your members

   Enter the event name, date, venue and organiser in the web wizard. Your guest list lives in your own Google Drive: Avently can create it, or you connect one you already keep. Up to 250 guests per event.

2. Step 02

   Each member gets their own invitation

   Avently sends every member a WhatsApp message addressed to them by name, with the dinner’s name and date, Yes and No buttons, and a link to an event page with the venue and a map link. Members who say yes are asked your dietary question as a list to tap; members who say no are thanked and left alone.

3. Step 03

   You get a count before the caterer’s date

   Every answer is written to your guest list as it arrives. From the dashboard you remind only the members who have not answered, at most twice each. Invitations and reminders do not reach US phone numbers, so invite members with a US number another way.