The Mystery Tour!

Alkers

What a load of rubbish, a bit of notice would have been good.

The_Minister

Simona1986 wrote:

What a load of rubbish, a bit of notice would have been good.

I was thinking that after al the effort that you went through that of all people you might be pissed.

Alkers

Yeah, I mean, what was left 'till this minute befoe being organised??? " Due to reasons beyond our controll" - I'd love to hear what they were?:mad:

griffdaddy

ah what a pain in the arse. anyone going to bar instead?

Blush_01

Hullaballoo just stated the reasons. It's unfortunate, but such is life. Societies have huge responsibilities when it comes to their members at events, so I do feel bad for B&L and Q-Soc because the whole thing has been in the works for a lot longer than you've had tickets.

Keep in mind, people have put months of work into organising the event. I'd be surprised if the societies in question didn't lose money on having to cancel the Mystery Tour - they'll have had to pay non-refundable deposits for the buses and venues and might even have to pay cancellation fees, not to mention the costs of the band. You're not the only disappointed ones here.

Spare a thought for the organisers. They're probably a lot more annoyed than you - and in my opinion are certainly more entitled to be. They've put all the hard work in and now get nothing for it.

Sorry to all who're missing out though. It's really not nice that this has happened.

Alkers

I was picking up on this "Apparently Richard Butler said that the societies weren't fulfilling their duty of care to the students." - surely personal liability insurance would be one of the first things organised by the organisers??? I can understand how something could be overlooked (e.g. 2 venues instead of 3) but not how something serious enough to cancel the whole thing outwright wasn't considered before?

The_Minister

Simona1986 wrote:

I was picking up on this "Apparently Richard Butler said that the societies weren't fulfilling their duty of care to the students." - surely personal liability insurance would be one of the first things organised by the organisers??? I can understand how something could be overlooked (e.g. 2 venues instead of 3) but not how something serious enough to cancel the whole thing outwright wasn't considered before?

Richard could have raised the standards nessacery from the first one last year, and they could have been measuring themselves against last years standards. I heard that some of their supervisors got pissed last year as well.

Alkers

Just got a text from B+L - free bar all day tommorrow, free meal and free into Crawdaddy? Does anyone have the details - any limits on the free drinks, can't see how this will work??? Nice one if it does.

XchampagneX

Simona1986 wrote:

Just got a text from B+L - free bar all day tommorrow, free meal and free into Crawdaddy? Does anyone have the details - any limits on the free drinks, can't see how this will work??? Nice one if it does.

yeah i got it too! no idea how, but we'll soon find out!

Alkers

I've aranged to meet two seperate people from the boards at the busses tommorrow - not sure where this leaves us??? Uterly confused, some more details would be good.

hullaballoo

It's simple enough, the tour was cancelled becuase Butler didn't feel it was going to be safe anough.

Insurance and ambulances were all organised, but unfortunately, there are other considerations.

You don't really have too much to give out about given that the societies are offering refunds.

Anyone remember the year Slane was cancelled?

XchampagneX

hullaballoo wrote:

It's simple enough, the tour was cancelled becuase Butler didn't feel it was going to be safe anough.

Insurance and ambulances were all organised, but unfortunately, there are other considerations.

You don't really have too much to give out about given that the societies are offering refunds.

Anyone remember the year Slane was cancelled?

You know that text from B&L saying to exchange your ticket and get free bar all day, free meal etc...is that instead of a refund or what?

Stabshauptmann

How Senior are you hulla in B&L cos one of the top honchos has just told me:
A)It wasnt butler, it was the insurance company who cancelled the event. Apparently some IT (waterford iirc) had a similar thing last week and caused €30,000 damages. The insurance company wanted profession security staff on the buses which couldnt be arranged on short notice. So nothing to do with butler, hes just a messenger

B)The meal and free beer is instead of the refund. Check this quickly ppl but I was told (by a not as senior person as point A) that there is to be no refund. Personally I cant believe this but if you are a ticket holder dont go by word of mouth, be sure.

Alkers

The text said you could hand in your ticket for a free bar all day. This translated into three free drinks. There was never a mention of there not being a refund, it was an either are. Once hearing that you only got 3 free drinks a good 50ppl left the bar (which wasn't too packed) so there would be a lot of very unhappy people if there is no refund.

smartblaa

OK am I missing something or have the Qsoc and BL society strongly defended their people, and then when asked for clarification shrink in to the corner??

I don't know about the rest of ye, but paying E30 and having nothing to show for it, but a blue piece of paper with tin-foil on top is really getting to me.


It's my understanding that there are two types of people affected by this schmozzle:

We have the people who had their ticket and then went to the "free bar" today so that they could get their paltry three drinks(whoo-hoo some session.)

Then we have the people who still have their ticket, and didn't avail of today's bonanza.

We have two questions(I say "we" because i'm speaking on behalf of several housemates in the same situ.)

1) Was this free bar in exchange for the ticket refund?(if it was, then it's a disgrace.)

2) The people who didn't exchange today are still entitled to their refund. Is this still going ahead on Wednesday(Or was this a sly plan to avoid paying out to everyone.)

Sorry if it sound OTT but I am well angry.

mloc

Both Auditors should resign over this one. You're talking €24,000 in money from tickets from what i've heard (from commitee members). That is a serious amount of money.

Whilst Butler had every right to cancel and the decision was his, it could have been avoided through better liasing and organisation by the societies involved.

Scraggs

mloc wrote:

Both Auditors should resign over this one. You're talking €24,000 in money from tickets from what i've heard (from commitee members). That is a serious amount of money.

Whilst Butler had every right to cancel and the decision was his, it could have been avoided through better liasing and organisation by the societies involved.

I think thats a bit much, as long as the money is paid back then theres no need for the auditors to resign. Sh!t happens and sometimes no matter how much prep and planning is put in there's that chance that something will crop up. What is the official reason for the cancellation btw? I'm not in UCD and I'm getting conflicting reports [basically versions of hulla and Kap's]

hullaballoo

I got my information from the B&L auditor. I'm not sure what the official line is though, because it's always way more diplomatic than what you hear on the grapevine.

I would be surprised if all they were offering was the three pints and that's it. I'd be expecting three pints plus €30 in cash. Not vouchers. Not promises of €30 in the future. €30 in cash. In my hand.

Clearly anything less than that would be poor politicking.

singingstranger

smartblaa wrote:

1) Was this free bar in exchange for the ticket refund?(if it was, then it's a disgrace.)

2) The people who didn't exchange today are still entitled to their refund. Is this still going ahead on Wednesday(Or was this a sly plan to avoid paying out to everyone.)

Sorry if it sound OTT but I am well angry.

OK, this is completely a non-affiliated answer but from what Hulla has said here and what I've picked up from home (knowing both of the auditors in question):

1) Yes, it was exchange for the refund - for those who wished to avail of it. Three pints at E4, plus a meal in the bar (I dunno, about another E4?) and free entry in Crawdaddy. Net value of about E22 maybe. Like I said, for those who wished to avail of it and wanted to go on the semi-lash regardless of the tour being cancelled.

2) If you didn't avail, you still get your refund as earlier advertised, next Wed in the Student Centre.

Don't think there's any cause for confusion tbh.

humbert

I can't help but suspect that some of the ticket money was already spend and they're trying to get away with not having to give it all back but I'm a cynic.

The_Minister

Since this whole thing went belly-up, could we remove the that is beside the thread title? It just seems so inappropriate, like a clown at a funeral.

random_banter

Net value of about E22 maybe.

Plus free entry to Goldie Lookin Chain who are a HUGE act to bring to UCD.

Im on the B&L committee and can I just clarify that, of course, people who chose not to avail of that offer will get their money refunded- how evil would we be if we didnt refund everyone??? QSoc and B&L now have to take the losses that come from this and of course we're very VERY gutted the Mystery Tour didnt go ahead- but it was completely out of our control.

The gig in the bar last night was very entertaining for those who decided to take us up on the offer. Of course for those who didnt avail of it all we can do is apologise to those who were looking forward to to the Tour for the huge letdown, give them their money back, and hope that it wont affect their decision to come to our future events.

elmyra

The_Minister wrote:

Since this whole thing went belly-up, could we remove the that is beside the thread title? It just seems so inappropriate, like a clown at a funeral.

I think it's quite ironic.

I can't help feeling a little sorry for both societies though, in particular Q-Soc given that they were only re-recognised quite close to Freshers Week and had quite a short time to organise themselves anyway, as I understand it, and are really trying to prove themselves this year.

It wouldn't be unthinkable that some of the money is spent given that they would have had to lay down large deposits and venues and busses etc, but I still think the 'free bar' text was a little misleading and I think the problem with the bar comes down to what you were getting for 22 euro compared to what you would have gotten for 30 isn't a great trade off.

At the end of the day though, both societes are trying to renumerate their members in some way for what you can be sure was a disappointment on their part as well.

Blush_01

Pip pip.

doflnin

As two senior members on the Qsoc committee, we would like to set the record straight about the cancellation of the MYSTERY TOUR. Both B&L and Qsoc had been working hard to bring this event to you since the beginning of the year, everything was perfectly in place from insurance to event management, but for reasons beyond our control the societies officer still found reason to pull it at the last second.We can't apologise enough for the short notice and the inconvience caused to any of our members.

As for the event in the bar "APOLOGY PARTY" on Thursday. We provided it at a huge financial loss to ourselves, we did this so people could still have a fun day out. It was not a ploy by either society to reap any financial gain from the situation, we felt it was merely the least we could do. And we did make sure people knew they had a choice of a refund next week or a day in the bar. As for the text message you received stating there would be a free bar available this was before we had confirmation that "Goldie Lookin Chain" would be playing the student bar, we are sorry for any confusion this caused. For those of you who went i'm sure you would agree it was well worth the ticket exchange as it was an amazing gig!

As for the comment calling for the resignation of both auditors, this was to say the least an over reaction. Both auditors put so much of their time and hard work into this event, and no one was more devasted than them. As societies we are all there to make your time in college as enjoyable and sociable as possibly and so we feel so sorry if we have let you down in anyway, and we are already working hard to bring you the mystery tour as promised in the new year!! We hope that you will support both Qsoc and B&L in the future....:)

hullaballoo

Thanks for your response. In terms of the comments made on this forum in relation to (a) that there was any underhandedness or financial ploys, and (b) that both auditors should resign, please remember that this is the internet, and comments represent the opinions of the individuals who posted them.

They may be cynics, or they may be easily excited. Either way, it's good to get an official line on what went wrong.

Personally, I feel for the auditors. Talking to the B&L auditor, he was genuinely devastated about the whole debacle.

Chakar

hullaballoo wrote:

Personally, I feel for the auditors. Talking to the B&L auditor, he was genuinely devastated about the whole debacle.

I would think he would be, hopefully with the Observer and the Tribune coming out soon that there will be balanced articles.

cast_iron

Sorry is all well and good, but you still don't state why it was cancelled.
Why not state why it was "beyond our control" as opposed to hashing out a well used excuse.

Why did Richard Butler pull the event?
I think those whose paid in good faith deserve at least that, no?

Assuming neither Soc was at fault, you should not be blamed, but judged on how you handled things afterwards.
In fairness, you appear to have made a decent attempt at giving people the oppurtunity to have a good day regardless.

But telling people there was a free bar for the day was just wrong. So you expected/hoped the band would be confirmed, but sent the txt out anyway? Why not clarify this when confirmation was recieved? And anyway, did ye really think you could cover the costs of a free bar for the day for whatever no. of students anyway? Between QSoc and B&L, surely someone could have figured out that the books would have difficulty balancing after that!

Also, is this the first apology people have recieved. Almost 2 weeks later? I'm not a member so wouldn't have got any txts to know this. No one will doubt that all the organisers are devastated by what happened. It reflects badly on the Socs as a whole.

But as i said, it should be how you handled the situation afterwards people should judge you on....

Stabshauptmann

Long post that said nothing. What was "beyond your control". Seems like you're just shifting blame to butler...

Stepherunie

cast_iron wrote:

Also, is this the first apology people have recieved. Almost 2 weeks later? I'm not a member so wouldn't have got any txts to know this.

Not a member of either soc so no biase here, but the mystery tour was only meant to happen last thursday so the apology was up here in around 3 days? That's not too bad.