America 1982-Chapter 231 - 79: Preparing for the Charity Dinner_3
"I can assure you, as long as there is someone to drink, there will always be an unlimited supply of alcohol. Or should I say, what the hell is a limit?"
"This is the most generous you’ve ever been, Tommy. Do you mean that you’re willing to personally cover some of the alcohol expenses?" Ian and Ted were very satisfied with Tommy’s generosity. "Choosing you as the party manager was the best decision."
"Of course it was the best decision, but it’s not me who’s paying. That idiot Jason will be getting the bill for the alcohol at the end of the year." That was Tommy’s shameless reply.
"I have to make sure that for the next three years, he has enough presence at SSD. One may not be with the brothers in person, the heart may not be with the brothers, but his money certainly has to be with the brothers."
"On behalf of all the current students of the SSD Stanford Chapter, thank us for the contribution made by alumnus Jason," Ian said to Tommy with a sanctimonious air. "Make sure to thank him sincerely, and as a friendly tip, don’t forget to buy some personal accident insurance for yourself. SSD takes no responsibility for injury or death of members."
As for the rookies joining SSD, Tommy didn’t specifically select any. He was SSD’s party manager, and choosing a successor for this position to groom wasn’t urgent. Although the roles of party manager and external affairs manager often provided more exposure and increased the chances of being elected as president or vice president, Tommy had no interest in managing SSD and didn’t plan to force an election and seize power before Ian stepped down voluntarily.
His focus would now be on...
"SSD Stanford Chapter Veterans Association fundraising charity dinner?" Ian and Ted looked at Tommy. "You mean, we’re taking it on this year?"
Tommy nodded. "SSD has been around for over 140 years, and it’s been over a century since the Stanford Chapter was founded. Our Chapter has never hosted it as the main organizer."
"But we send people every year, and we also donate or raise funds through various other events. Honestly, Tommy, this is California. I’m afraid the brothers wouldn’t be interested in hosting such an event. We’re a private university, not a military academy," Ian said after a moment of contemplation, looking up at Tommy.
The Veterans Association charity dinner fundraiser was an annual event organized by SSD, and the location would change with the host—but since World War II, it mainly took place in Texas, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Connecticut, and even Tommy’s home state of Rhode Island. The California Chapter never hosted it primarily because the event was branded with a military stamp right from its inception.
Chapters filled with SSD military alumni such as West Point in New York, the Naval Academy in Maryland, the Naval Officers’ Academy in Rhode Island, Texas State University in Texas, and others were the main forces behind hosting this event.
"California has the soil to host charity dinners; we have Hollywood, stars, celebrities, not inferior to West Point’s New York. Why can’t we host one?" Tommy questioned.
"Tommy, we don’t have the kind of funds they do, and more importantly, we don’t have that much influence in the military. At most, we might be able to invite Major General Ott from the California National Guard, but they could get the Secretary of Defense to attend. That’s the difference," Ted added.
"When Charles was around, he once considered this issue. But after meticulous thought and calculation, based on a charity dinner ticket price of a thousand US dollars, Major General Ott could only sell about thirty invitations—that’s just thirty thousand bucks. This figure would only make us a laughing stock. Meanwhile, West Point’s lowest fundraising record is a fucking one hundred and eighty thousand, which is six times higher than ours."
A so-called charity dinner is about selling tickets at high prices and then donating the money earned to the Veterans Association.
You need to make wealthy SSD alumni and ordinary people who want to attend willing to pay for the tickets and then get a chance to converse briefly with the big shots at the dinner, take a photo, and later use it as bragging rights.
For the Stanford Chapter, the challenge is to invite big shots who will compel the rich to buy tickets, while satisfying all the living SSD alumni that the event is worthwhile.
For instance, you can’t invite someone like Jim Carter, the former President who’s willing to make appearances for money. This guy actively advocates for racial equality and black political participation, he even hung Martin Luther King’s photo in the congressional hall. If you invite someone like that, you wouldn’t need outsiders to destroy the charity dinner event—the SSD brothers would blow it up with explosives themselves.
Inviting a few big shots from the computer industry wouldn’t attract members from SSD Chapters at military academies; they’re not interested in paying out of pocket to learn about computer history.
So, every year, two or three rookies led by Charles Salmon would attend the dinner, contributing a few thousand dollars for tickets, handing over the funds raised by their Chapter through various activities, and then take some commemorative photos at the end.
"What I mean is, if you guys don’t object, I’ll have Jason from EFF make a donation of five hundred thousand in the name of an alumnus specifically for the dinner. Then I’ll design the entire charity dinner plan around the budget of five hundred thousand," Tommy proposed.
"Jason sure hit the jackpot having a brother and boss like you, Tommy. If you had said earlier that you were putting up half a million yourself, we would’ve saved all this talk," Ian said, stunned for a moment by Tommy’s words before speaking to him irritably.
