Ok, for what it's worth, here are my thoughts. If you have no desire to "see and be seen", aka what it could do for your career, then I wouldn't worry with going. It's not something you want to do and you have a previous engagement already which should be honored. If they are not providing a reason for the dinner, then you cannot be expected to understand how important/not important it really is and they should be willing to understand you have a prior committment for that date/time. As you stated it is not something you want to do, then I'd give a negative response and push on from there. If they come back with more information due to your negative response, then perhaps you'll have enough information to make a completely informed decision on whether or not to continue to decline the invite or to notify your volunteer obligation that you must ask for coverage while you meet this new work obligation. With as little information as is provided to you, it's very difficult to make an informed decision so you must go with your gut.
Let us know the outcome please... I'd be interested in how it shakes out.
I had a response typed out and was trying to make it make sense and then I read CG's response and thought, "Well, that's what
I was trying to say!" So, uh, yeah.....what CG said.....
