Hi,
Thanks for thinking of us.
The Aquatic Gardeners Association (AGA) has been having an
annual convention since 2000 and welcomes proposals from
local organizations to host the conventions. To help the
local organizations prepare proposals, the AGA has produced
a Requirements and Guidelines document. The document (in MS
Word format) describes what the AGA needs to see in a
proposal plus a great many suggestions for what needs to be
included in a proposal or in the planning and production of
a convention. You can also access the document at this
address:
http://home.comcast.net/~shieber4/Doc_dock/AGA_Convention_Host_Proposal_Requirements_and_Guidelines_ver_4a.doc
The AGA did not establish a formal deadline for submitting
proposals for hosting a convention in 2005. However, you
should note that a deal with a hotel should be basically in
place by about March. The contract with the hotel
establishes the exact dates and location and a most of the
costs. So the hotel contract, in turn, also establishes the
price-base for registration and the banquet. To allow
adequate time for marketing with the relevent information
(such as where, when, how much), a hotel deal needs to be
in place by about March. Hotel contracts can take days or
months to negotiate depending on the hotel, the area, and
the hotel's busy season.
I don't know if the South West Michigan Aquarium Society is
interested in hosting a 2005 or 2006 convention, but it
might be best to focus on 2006. This would give you plenty
of time to line up local resources, negotiate with the
local hotels for the best deal, line up a budget and
marketing and have the convetion and your hosting of it be
announced in Nov 2005 at the annual AGA meeting.
Otoh, if you folks can put together a basic hotel deal and
a proposal in the next few weeks, I'm sure the AGA would be
delighted to consider it.
As for what goes on if your proposal is accepted, well,
basically a whole bunch of people start doing a lot of hard
work immediately and continue doing so for months. This is
on top of the planning, organizing and negotiating (with
hotels) that will have already taken place. I can be more
specific but suggest you first read the attached document
and then, let me know what further questions or comments
you have.
regards,
Scott
--- Kapil Mandrekar <fishboykaps@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hello i am on the Excutive commitee of the South West
Michigan Aquarium Society, i was intresst on what goes
on if our bid is excepted, I plan on bringing this up
at our next board meeting. Also when is the deadline
date for giving a bid. Our club website is
www.swmas.org
=====
_Aquarium Plants_, Christel Kasselmann, will be speaking about plants and tanks
at the NEC 30th Annual Convention
It's not too late to register. Get info at:
http://www.northeastcouncil.org/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=index