When sending an event planner (me) a list of invitees, to whom I am mailing invitations to an event, MAKE SURE THEY'RE ALIVE FIRST!
No, I couldn't make this up.
This really happened.
One of our local county chapters, which is actually always a problem child, sent me a list of names for an event mailing and not only were some of the addresses wrong, at least one person who received an invitation has been dead for 10 years. Ten years!! Talk about not knowing your membership!
I was mortified.
Fortunately the people who called to let us know were very kind...and got my voicemail.
Unfortunately our organization's name was on the invitation.
And far from being mortified like I was, when I contacted the staff at this chapter, they were like, "Oh, thanks. By the way, the invitations looked neat." Bloody fucking hell!
*Ninja edit: The funniest was yet to come. I e-mailed a friend who is on their board and explained what had happened. She wrote back, "Did they also send you a list of - WAAAAAAAAAIIIIIT!!!!! There might be dead people on THAT LIST, TOO!!" She subsequently made some edits and sent it to me.*
I asked my volunteers to remove my name from the invitation list if I croak off before the event.
