First refusal

Sadly, I must now announce that the exciting looking envelope turned out to be our first ever written refusal:

Dear Mr and Mrs Main

SPONSORSHIP PROPOSAL

Thank you for your recent proposal to sponsor your walk from York to Edinburgh. We have considered your proposal carefully but unfortunately our sponsorship programme for this year has been decidde with budgets and resources already allocated.

I am sorry that we can't help you on this occasion. Can I wish you every success with your holiday.

Now, this raises two issues. Firstly, we didn't want them to sponsor us! We don't want anyone to! We hate people doing sponsored things as much as, if not more than, the next person! You see, sponsorship involves saying to all your friends and colleagues "We're going on holiday. Please therefore give us some money, a large proportion of which we will use to pay for our holiday." An entirely different proposition from "We're holding an enormous contest. Would you be interested in donating a prize and/or entering it?"

And the other issue: surely if the resources etc had already been allocated, there would have been no need to consider our proposal carefully? Ha - try and escape from that one!

But there's no need to go further with this churlishness. It was genuinely nice of them at least to take the trouble to write back.

Oh well.