Committee pauses crab feed planning for this year; volunteers and budget to carry over to 2026 planning

Committee members agreed not to proceed with a full-scale crab feed this year and to focus on planning a larger, better-supported event for the following season.

Speakers said the event lead has been ill, the committee had not yet secured a crab broker, volunteer capacity is limited, and rising uncertainty in crab availability and price raised risk for producing a successful fundraiser this season. Committee members and volunteers said they prefer to postpone rather than deliver a smaller or poorly staffed event that could disappoint volunteers and attendees.

Participants asked that small, non-recurring expenses already paid for event preparations be reimbursed. A committee member requested reimbursement for a licensing fee paid by Claire Grant; the committee discussed reimbursing clerical or licensing fees but did not record a separate formal motion or vote on the reimbursement during this meeting.

Committee members asked staff to keep the crab feed on the agenda at future meetings, to produce a month-by-month timeline for tasks (vendor/broker outreach, volunteer recruitment, budget line items) and to treat the postponement as a planning delay rather than a permanent cancellation. Several members suggested issuing a public statement explaining the postponement as a delay for quality and planning reasons and promising active work toward a next-year event.

No final budget appropriation or formal cancellation was recorded; the decision at this meeting was to pause active planning for the current season and continue preparations for a future year.