The point is still that nobody (well, nearly nobody) can get a free ride for an event like this, no matter how much they volunteer. The meeting of financial obligations requires that money be collected from all who officially register for the event--again, no matter how much time and effort they volunteer. Volunteers can be considered to be serving above and beyond the call of duty but still they pay full price if they are going to attend the event. Those extraneous volunteers who are not going to attend the event can and will be dealt with on a special basis as required by the peculiarities of the event and by unique and special arrangements. It's the same with TCR and TSA Convention and other such events. Even the cooks and registration workers are expected to register and pay the registration fee. They may be reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses but are not supposed to be getting in for free--though inevitably some do due to sloppy registration practices. We have never been severely overbearing when it comes to registration enforcement. We trust our Texas cavers to put logic and sense of duty above personal hyperbole.
If not, with some events, everybody would have to be let in for free and no money would be collected. It's important to remember this philosophy should you ever come into a position of power and have to explain the concept to those errant souls who think that their volunteer efforts should be equivalent to the price of registration. Remember to tell them that if they volunteered for 6 hours at $10 an hour we would have to be paying them to attend and not making any money at all to pay event expenses--which are sometimes substantial. --Ediger
