Re: [Harp-L] re: Spah Convention Locations

Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx> · Sat, 25 Jul 2009 21:39:07 -0400

On Jul 25, 2009, at 7:46 PM, Warren Bee wrote:
I see this thread is growing. I am new to the SPAH team so I have  
little

depth of knowledge to many of the how's and why's on many things.  
The one

thing I have to say from my early experience here on the BOD is  
that many

things  can look a lot easier from the outside than the inside.

Someone
mentioned hotel guarantees. Good point. These decisions are ten's of
thousands of dollars.

Ok...why? A hotel doesn't know from one week to the next how many  
people are going to book rooms. What difference does it make if there  
are 200 regular citizens and 200 empty rooms OR 300 regular citizens  
and 100 empty rooms OR 250 conventioneers, 100 regular citizens and  
50 empty rooms?
Point being: What's with the requirement that spah 'guarantee' a  
certain number of rooms WILL be booked OR spah will have to pay the  
difference. This is crazy Warren. We humans don't know if we will get  
up next morning. I'm tired of these motels bullying us when WE are  
the ones bringing in the money.
They don't just make a hundred dollar deposit for the
local VFW hall and roll the dice!

Well it shouldn't be tens of thousands either. Even if NO one shows  
up, the motel is in the SAME position they would have been on the  
same week in August on any other year that the convention wasn't  
there. I can almost guarantee that these motels have as full a  
capacity as they will EVER have when the convention is there. Think  
about it. How many people were planning to stay at this motel on this  
week in this town?. (Take into consideration that travel is down  
EVERYWHERE.)
What you need is a negotiator. The room rate is fine, but negotiate  
the restrictions/deposits. Call in William Schackner.
Why I can even remember once when the hotel was aggravated because  
the booze tab was way lower than they expected.
As a non profit, financial decisions and commitments are very  
sensitive issues. There are a number of these types of

decisions that have to be made. Please remember this is a NON PROFIT

Organization run by volunteers for 46 years.

Of COURSE it's sensitive. I would never center my queries on spah. As  
far as I'm concerned, I have never seen a spah team that wasn't top  
drawer. The problem is that too many people have a cavalier attitude  
when it comes to prices. Not everyone has deep pockets. For example:  
The Suncoast jazz fest takes place at TWO hotels simultaneously.  
Cheapest rooms are $125.oo per night. And that's DISCOUNTED from  
$188.oo to $250.oo I asked why so high and the people running things  
told me in no uncertain terms "Our membership has been accustomed to  
the finer hotels, they SELL OUT, so why should we change, We get over  
45oo attendees".  In other words...p on u.
Besides the financial decision

the logistics of running a fairly smooth convention are not easy  
either.

Remember that almost every decision made that will please someone  
will most

likely piss someone else off. If any of these matters really matter  
to any

of you I suggest supporting what exists now as best you can and  
throw your

name in as a volunteer in some way. It all starts with being a paid  
member

of SPAH. I might also suggest that interested folks attend the general

meeting that takes place on Saturday morning at the convention.  
This is a

forum where members can speak there mind in person.
FYI: SPAH has over 800 members.

When I joined (18 years ago), there were 888 members.
We just had an election of officers this
year. No new candidates participated. Not many votes were cast.

My candidates are in there right now,  :)

WB
--
Warren "Bee" Bachman
SPAH Publicity Director
631-981-1241 / 631-521-0472
www.spah.org
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