Ok everyone, I have a real update. I have found another vendor as the original would not budge on the MOQ of 54. New vendor has an MOQ of 40. I am awaiting final pricing, but have been told it will be near the original quote.
I will give this GB another week and then will start sending out notices for payment. There will be 2 rounds of payments: first round for the hoodies, and second for shipping. I am doing this so that I can get each individual order packed and ready to ship so that I only have to charge the exact amount of shipping. I don't have the budget for significant errors and don't want to overcharge. This is a non-profit group buy.
One note that the screen printer wanted to stress was that our design for the back logo will not be visible like the rendering. It will be nearly invisible until it catches a reflection (which is how I wanted it). I just want to make sure everyone is still on board for that.