I was only recently made aware of the fact that HashCash is actually a crypto something or other that was designed to reduce spam in email or something.
This is not about that
Hash Cash is a part of all Hash House Harrier groups and it is sort of an admission fee to the international events. It varies widely depending on where you are in the world but it normally ends up being a huge bargain.
The purpose behind hash cash is not to make money for us or any HHH located around the world. Quite the opposite actually, in many cases, depending on consumption, a lot of hashes stand an excellent opportunity to operate at a loss during events. For example: A few of our serial abusers pay the standard run fee of 250 Baht (this is around $8) and get transport to and from the events, and then proceed to drink about 8 beers during the circle. Obviously, this doesn't cover the expenses. Thankfully not everyone is so much of a glutton.
Each individual hash kennel has a representative that reluctantly takes on the job of recording who has paid and then painstakingly writes it down in a ledger. Supposedly this is meant to be some sort of accurate tracking of how much money is spent but I don't believe it. If we start running out of money we just ask the hashers for a bit more - we never try to restrict what anyone is allowed to drink
Many of our events will actually have a buffet of food as well as unlimited beers and this is where we really start to lose money because most of our members attack the buffet like they have not eaten in days.
probably 2-3 minutes after the buffet opened
I was once in NYC doing a hash run as a visitor and the fee was $20, which seems like a lot until you consider that there was 2 hours of booze and pizza that was provided after the run... in New York City. If they didn't lose hundreds of dollars on that event i would be surprised.
To be honest with you I have no idea how it is that we have managed to not go completely bankrupt with these extremely irresponsible spending practices but I suppose if there is one lesson out there for new Hashers, don't sweat the "Hash Cash" entrance fee - no one is profiteering off of this.
