Tuesday, October 8, 2013

...The Art of the RSVP




R.S.V.P. stands for a French phrase, "répondez, s'il vous plaît," which means "please reply.”  So why is it so hard for people to do just that?  Or respond to an RSVP saying the will attend something and then not show up.  So two of my biggest pet peeves as a person who likes to have parties/gatherings are the people who just don’t bother to RSVP and show up or the ones who RSVP and then don’t show.  It’s just plain rude!

I know we are all busy but we all have these handy little things called calendars.  That way you can organize your day and your week. Don’t get me wrong, I know things come up at the last minute and sometimes we just can’t be where we said we’d be, but I think this happens way too often in our society. 

I wonder if respect for other people’s time and money is the issue.   When people put on events especially involving food, there are costs associated with those events. When too few people show up when they said they would or more people show up than RSVP’d then there are problems.   I hate it when my nonprofit goes to the expense of food and not many show up compared to the number of people who RSVP.  The same thing goes for meetings. It’s tough to have a meeting with six people who RSVP only to have two actually show up.

So think about it the next time you promise to be somewhere or want to attend an event. Think about those people responsible for that event and respect what they are doing.  

Suzanne Cormier
Executive Director
BizWorks (Small Business Incubator)
Follow Suzanne Cormier on Facebook and
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