- Convention Committee –John Rosa
We had a few resignations over the year…the vice-chair and secretary. Chicago gave us the names of the officers for their CAWS convention. We will be electing officers for this committee for next year. 138 referrals last year. We addressed 40-some, worked on the guidelines and will work on changes if necessary. We have the pass-it-on from NY.
We had a referral to make the guidelines more user-friendly. We received a referral from Chicago regarding info going out…we’d like to compile information on results from previous conventions to show to hotels for bargaining reasons.
We will have a report on the New York Convention. I’ve asked Phil to report…
- Phil: For those of you who came to NY, I hope you had a great time. We worked our …off, and had good results. 672 paid registrations, 120 scholarships, 300 from H&I’s. There was a lot of talk about breaking even – we did make a 32,000 profit, that was less than projected. Out of all committees, came in 12,000 less in expenses. The evaluations that came in were very much positive. When a host city is putting this on, the only gauge they have to tell how many people are coming… 1600 room nights were booked, 857 room nights were actual. We had based a lot of our purchasing on the 1600 number, which is really the only number we can use to determine attendance, since registrations traditionally don’t roll in till a month before.
- John: We have 12 new meetings directly related to holding the Convention in NY. There was some talk about scholarships… anything that was done at the convention was done by the committee as a whole. I feel that it was a big success.
Are there any questions?
- Rick Hoffman – Program Chair for the 2002 CAWS Convention in Portland. Our planning is proceeding smoothly. Fundraising is going well, and is related to wonderful regional support. Our speaker selection is scheduled to be completed by November 30th. We have some great fellowship events planned and confirmed. Please note that there are space limitations on some of these events, so please sign up early. We had a change in the hotel liaison, and we realized through this how critical this position is. The registration deadline for meals is…we do not plan on selling any meals on site, so please register early.
- Chair: Any questions?
- Susan Doch: At the NY convention, there was no room space for the on-line committee to meet.
- John: Amy can answer better than me.
- Amy: The committee had offered a room with a sign up sheet, and it was believed that the on-line groups would use that. The trustees felt that to make that room available and to allow people to sign up, there would be no control over what would be appropriate, so the convention committee was told by the trustees to close the room.
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- Susan Doch: Is this now policy for future conventions?
- Amy: Yes.
- Ronald: Does that mean that HFC would not be able to have face-to-face meetings at conventions?
- John: What she meant was…the convention would not provide a room for special needs. This does not mean hat your group could not book a room to hold that meeting in.
- Leon: I’d like to clarify this/put on hold…because my recollection of what the trustees decision on this was is different than what was presented.
- Rick D.: Why were there no Spanish speaking meetings? I was given information that the committee was told not to…
- John: I was asked by several delegates to have a Spanish-speaking meeting. It was never a committee decision to not allow these…
- Kellie: Are you planning on having a cigar-smoking meeting at Portland.
- Rick: There is no smoking allowed in the hotel.
- Kevin: Are you planning on having men/woman stags.
- Chair: Kevin, you are out of order.
- Is the Portland convention going to have scholarships, and if so, how do we find out more about them?
- Rick: No one will be turned away.
In the process of the hotel liaison thing…we ran into a problem with hotel space, so we had to cancel the Jazz event on Friday night. It was going to cost $8,000 for the room, and we just couldn’t justify it.
- John: Kevin F will report on 2003 Chicago Convention.
- Kevin: The theme is, “The Miracle Mile.” We just had our first organizational meeting. The Executive Committee is as follows: Michael Richker-Chairperson, Kim Sherwan-Vice Chair, Kevin P. Flaws-Program Chair, Vanessa Matthews-Hotel Liaison. We need to find a new Secretary, our elected secretary needed t step down for health reasons. We have only one major position to fill, and that would be our speaker chair. If you haven’t heard, it will be at the Hilton on Michigan Avenue, overlooking the Lake.
- John: We have come along way lots of positive change. Please come join us on our committee.
- Chair: Any questions?
- Spencer Barton: The secretary replacement… will that person have to go through the same process for approval.
- John: Yes
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