Re: GWAPA Proposal rough draft2 (fwd)

["Karen Randall" <krandall@rdrcpa.biz>]

Neil wrote:

> When I picked up my registration for the convention on the first day, I
was
> handed a nice set of note cards AND a picture (as you know i was only a
> "focus speaker"). I didnt want to take the picture with me, so I asked if
> it could be set aside for a later pickup. When I came back i was politely
> informed that offering me the pic was an error -- that they were only
> intended for the main speakers.  Totally understandable. However, later
> during the weekend - when i passed by the desk, someone called me over and
> said that they had a picture for me after all. I dont remember who this
> was, but was pretty sure it was someone from the Dallas group. At that
> point, i think i was given a choice from what seemed to be only a few
left.
> I really appreciate getting the picture- thanks Karen.
> --Neil

Glad you enjoyed it, Neil.  And as I said, it's not a big deal, it's just
something that could be smoothed out the next time around.  For that matter,
I could have printed out enough prints for all the Focus Group speakers as
well, if they's asked me ahead of time.

> BTW, I really liked the idea of the focus groups.

Me too.  They were interactive, less formal, and a lot of fun.  It might
even work to do them in the middle of the day, just to get people out of the
dark lecture room, and wake them all up.<g>

>This brings up another
> issue. When the concept was first presented to me, I was asked to be a
> discussion leader. During the convention, I was informed that I was a
> "speaker" and that there was another person designated as the moderator. I
> also didnt know ahead of time that I was doing 2 sessions. Not a problem,
> but just another example of apparently adhoc scheduling and decisions. To
> me this is very consistent with a brand new organization who have never
run
> a convention and implementing stuff for the very first time.

That's very true.  And I certainly wouldn't want to take away from the
wonderful job the DFW folks did.  There was MUCH more that went very well
than there were problems.  I do think, however, that it makes sense to
discuss things that didn't go so smoothly, and try to make _different_
mistakes next time around!<g>

> Wouldnt expect this from the NEC. Even the Raleigh Aq Society who has had
> conventions for the past 20 years will have a screwup every few years -
one
> serious example had to do with bad or late publicity. Usually we get 125+
> attendees. One year, 50-60. Another time, an extremely unorganized
auction.
> This actually hurt even more, because not only did the club miss out on a
> lot of expected money, but regulars stopped coming for a few years. For
> RAS, I believe the messups were attributed in part to cycling of club
> leadership and a new group of relatively unseasoned conference committee
> chairs. Continuity of knowedge is great but not always easy to achieve.

I always wonder with a bit of trepidation what will happen when the Banks'
get worn out and decide to pass the baton to a new crew.  We had a REALLY
smooth change-over from the Fauls to the Banks' because Janine had worked
with Penny for a number of years before she became chairman.  I don't think
they have a "strong second" at this point.

> On the subject of silent auctions, I thought the first one AGA had in TN
> which i believe was organized by Mary  was great. Like others indicated
> here thru emails, not the case with the first few rounds in Dallas.  I am
> still amazed that so many things appeared to go well at Dallas given the
> amount of stuff that they had going on.

The silent auctions in Chattanooga were NOT organized by Mary.  That's
another one of those things that she volunteered for and then didn't follow
through with.  The Tennessee Aqyarium volunteers are well versed in running
silent auctions, because they do them regularly for Aquarium fund-raisers.
Charlene just imported a crew of their volunteers, and they did ALL the
work.  It madeit very easy for us, but the down side was none of us learned
to do it.  Even in Houston, those of us AGA'ers who helped with the auction
simply took orders from Charlene... I certainly didn't get a good feel for
the whole process.

Karen


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