Always did a monthly meeting over a meal and drinks, Xmas dinner at a nice restaurant for them and a partner plus the occasional bbq in summer. Plus plenty thank yous for jobs well done
Yep, the monthly meetings used to finish with the beer fridge being opened for an hour or so (& everybody put in $2 for a beer, so no cost to the group) but that stopped last year. Yes, you can say that it's on the "bosses" head if anything happens to one of us while driving home after having had a couple of beers, but ...
We also used to have a sit-down dinner once a year for awards night, with local dignitaries invited, but they've stopped as well. His comment was that they're too much work to organise (although he has never done any of the organising for them
) & (I think the real problem
) that it doesn't feel good to him sitting at the top table with guests & their partners, while there are "only" 40 odd members & partners out there - he apparently wants a cast of 1000's
Unfortunately, as with all small groups, there's no-one else (including me!) even remotely interested in taking on the job, so there's nothing likely to change