Re: [AGA-sc] hospitality

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

This is mostly for Larry....

I got a call back from Jim on my way home.  They don't have any room 
suites that are suitable for a hospitality suite, but they do have some 
"board rooms" that might be rentable for that sort of purpose (later night 
private party).  He can ask Jean for rates of that nature.   He wasn't 
aware how the hospitality room thing worked, lasting on through the night.

He is pushing the idea of the friday night "clubs and businesses introduce 
themselves and mill around the vendor room" concept.  I think that's fine. 
FOR AN HOUR or so.  But perhaps this doesn't involve food, or is a cash 
bar only?

Larry, is this enough to go on?  I just don't think we're going to get 
better than that.

Scott:  We have to make a decision on this.  We either need to cut bait or 
pull hard now.  I have chosen to pull, based on the conversations I had 
with Cheryl, Larry, Karen and yourself.  We cannot sit around waffling 
about it, or else we're as bad as SFBAAPS.  Worse, actually.  Yes, SFBAAPS 
kinda sucks.  But we all talked about it.  We all kind of agreed that we 
need to have it, and we probably need to have it in SF.  So let's stop 
with the flipping back and forth and just do this thing.

  - Erik

On Mon, 13 Feb 2006, Karen Randall wrote:

> > Previously, we did a private suite becasue that was thrown in at no further 
> > cost along with the other event rooms. It could be cheaper to buy sodas and 
> > chips and use the vendor room than rent a room for Sat and Sunday. We have 
> > $500 in the budget for Hospitality. Let's limit Hospitaality to that -- if 
> > it means using the venodr room so we can buy food and beverage, so be it.
>
> We need to find that out.  I suspect even adding on the cost of a suite for 
> hospitality for Fri. & Sat. night, it won't come to $500 if we're supplying 
> the refreshments ourselves.  It also gives us that all-important place to 
> sort auction items.
>
> > As far as losing money, I don't think we should let that happen. If it's 
> > really looking that bad this early on, we should just pull the plug on this 
> > thing. This SF deal has been a slippery slope since just about day one but 
> > we ought to have limits.  If this thing is going to be a tank job, then we 
> > should drop it. I think we can do this without losing money and that  we 
> > can be reasonably certain of that once we have a hotel deal. But it depends 
> > onthe hotel deal. If, with that in hand, it looks very probable that we can 
> > break even, then we go forward.
>
> I agree,  But I also think, from what I've heard, that Larry is really close 
> to a workable hotel deal.
>
> > There's no sonse going forward with a convention that half the board won't 
> > even attend, that has such poor general attendance that it can't break 
> > even.
> > In that case since we're going to do all the work, we might as well pick a 
> > venue and agenda that fits our needs.
>
> I'm not sure half the BOD wouldn't attend... I'd like to see a more dynamic 
> speaker line up.  But we can get that going too... It's hard to finalize 
> speakers when we haven't finalized dates.  I also don't think we need to 
> worry about poor attendance.  This isn't an area like Chattanooga, where 
> EVERYONE needs to fly in... If NO ONE came from further than driving 
> distance, I think you could still get 60-70 locals.  The organized hobby is 
> strong in that area.  When I've spoken for SFAS, there have been more than 
> 100 people in the room, and that's not the "plant club" itself.
>
> I am also concerned at this point about moving the convention to the East 
> Coast, when I wasn't a few months ago.  I can't do much running around at 
> this point, something that would definitely need to be done to work out a new 
> hotel deal.  I'd love to believe I'll be fine and dandy by next Nov., but 
> I've been warned that stress causes flares, and a flare like I've experienced 
> in the last month would leave me completely out of the game. That would leave 
> you as the only person on the ground and reasonably local. Are you ready for 
> that?
>
> I feel really bad that I can no longer be the "fall back position", but I 
> think it's better to be honest about it now that to get in over my head and 
> disappoint the rest of you as well as myself.  And I feel that it is 
> CRITICALLY important that we DO have a convention this year, and that it not 
> be an "add on" to someone else's event.
>
> Karen 
>
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--
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com
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