Reading a club KakaoTalk thread: hedged refusals and an RSVP deadline

Confirmed: 1 (민지). Report a planning range, not a number.

Read each message by what it does, not what it says:

• 민지 "넵 저는 가능합니다" - explicit, unqualified, first-person commitment. Count it. "넵" is a chat-register variant of "네/예"; it is informal but does not weaken the commitment.
• 태윤 "집안 행사가 있어서요... ㅠㅠ 다음엔 꼭 갈게요" - a completed refusal. The -서요 ending leaves the reason as the operative cause, the ㅠㅠ softens the face threat, and "다음엔 꼭" compensates for this instance. He is not a maybe. Treating him as a maybe would force him to refuse twice.
• 유진 "애매한데... 최대한 맞춰 볼게요" - a hedged non-commitment, functionally a soft no. "애매하다" (it's unclear/awkward) plus "맞춰 볼게요" (I'll try to adjust) puts the burden on circumstances rather than on her will. In Korean this pattern protects the relationship by avoiding an explicit refusal; it is not an expression of 80% probability. She has not said 가능합니다.

Planning judgement: chair count is a physical commitment you cannot walk back, while a follow-up message costs nothing. So set chairs for the confirmed plus the 회장 and yourself, and hold spares.

Also note the notice requires 개별 연락 to the 회장 by 13 March. A group-chat reply is public and non-committal; even 민지 has not formally RSVP'd. One private message each is the correct next step.

Goal: convert an ambiguous answer into a decision without exposing that she hedged.

Sample: "유진 님, 안녕하세요! 총무예요. 이번 모임 준비 때문에 자리랑 음식 수량을 미리 정해야 해서요. 혹시 토요일에 오실 수 있을지 오늘 안으로만 알려 주실 수 있을까요? 어려우시면 전혀 부담 갖지 마시고 편하게 말씀해 주세요 :)"

Design choices:

• Give her a face-saving exit. "어려우시면 부담 갖지 마시고" makes "어려울 것 같아요" a permitted answer. Without an exit, a hedger will hedge again and you have lost another day.
• Name a reason that isn't her. The deadline is imposed by "자리랑 음식 수량", an external administrative fact, not by your wish to know. Asking "오실 거예요?" makes it personal.
• Set a same-day deadline so she cannot defer past the booking. "오늘 안으로만" is a request, not a demand; "까지" would be sharper.
• Register: -요체 with "님" is correct for a club peer you do not know well, even if the group chat runs looser. Do not mirror 유진's "애매한데..." tone - you are the person who has to decide.
• Never quote her hedge back: "애매하다고 하셔서요" would mark her as unreliable in front of the group.

If she replies "최대한 맞춰 볼게요" a second time, treat it as a no and stop chasing.

No. The lexical items transfer; the stance does not.

What cannot transfer:

• "넵" - chat-only. The written equivalent is "네, 알겠습니다."
• "다들", "~죠?", "요" - collective, rapport-building forms. In a one-to-one email to staff you cannot presume shared membership, so "다들" becomes "동아리 회원 여러분" or is dropped entirely.
• "ㅠㅠ", "^^", "~" - emoticons and tildes signal intimacy. Acceptable with a 회장, not with a faculty officer you do not know.
• The whole "공지 봤죠?" move - a tag question assumes the reader's compliance. In writing, a request must be explicit.

What transfers:

• -습니다체 is not required to be stiff. A plain "3월 16일 오후 5시, 학생회관 3층 정기 모임에 관하여 문의드립니다" is already appropriate.
• Humble verbs become more necessary, not less: 문의드리다, 여쭤보다, 송부드리다.

Sample opening: "안녕하세요, 한국어 동아리 총무 ○○○입니다. 3월 16일 정기 모임 장소 사용과 관련하여 몇 가지 여쭤보고자 연락드렸습니다."

Rule of thumb tested here: in Korean, medium is not the same as level. A chat and an email can both be polite, but the email must be polite at a distance - fewer shared assumptions, more explicit naming of who is doing what.