Melvin--I'm with you on this one. The relative seems to want the committee to FINANCE HIS IDEA. Let him have his cookout at his own expense whenever. He already knows the limit of finances. If he wants to encourage his family not to participate--everybody is grown--then it's their choice. Isn't it just ridiculous that you can't plan to come together 1 time a year, meet, greet and 'remember way back when', without all this 'children stuff'. The vote of the committee is what determines everything not one person.