Scottish Branch Technical Evening Attendance

Recent Scottish Branch technical evenings have seen a high number of people booking to attend and failing to turn up. This is without cancelling or doing so at too short notice. When this happens the Branch still has to pay the venue for the meal as these are pre-booked. The current rate of no-shows will cost the Branch around £1000 for the current September to March season on wasted meals.

You may not be aware that the Scottish Branch receives no funding from the IAT central account to pay for the meetings we arrange for our members. All the money to provide the service enjoyed by the Branch members and their guests is generated by the Branch Committee through fundraising activities and initiatives.

We do not begrudge our fellow members the evenings and hospitality arranged for them, far from it, all are very welcome and we appreciate them making the IAT a great Institute by taking the time and the effort to come along. However, you will appreciate we cannot afford to effectively throw our funds away at an unsustainable rate.

All we ask of you to help remedy the situation and keep the branch as an asset for all for the future is to notify us of any cancellations in good time. This will enable us to give a final chargeable booking number to the hotel which is accurate.

Up to the night before, cancellations can be made on the IAT website by going to your booking and unticking the "Attending?" box. This can be easily accessed if you click on the link in your invitation or reminder email. You can also email the Branch Secretary, Gordon Steel, gordon.steel1@blueyonder.co.uk or telephone 07887 614 211 if it is at short notice i.e. within 24 hours of the meeting.

I hope you will help us in rectify the current situation so that we may all continue to enjoy our evening technical papers without charge and we look forward to seeing you there in the future.