Hi Everyone
I had to take my wife to the hospital last night and I just got home again
tonight. She has a bladder infection and an intestinal bug. I will staying
home tomorrow to nurse the sick so no work, school, or LBS work for me
tomorrow and nothing Thursday night either.
This is our first time at doing an event like this. Lets learn to walk
before we try to break the sound barrier. If we over extend ourselves it
will only make things much worse. Especially if we commit money that we
don't even have. We should get over or losses, note the businesses that are
coming through for us, maintain our focus, and do the best we can with what
we have. Murphy is a good friend of mine and he told me that chances are
this will not be the only setback. If you check the LBS Registration Counter
you will see what he means and it is up by two since last week. I know that
most if not all press releases are out. We even learned a few things doing
that. To my knowledge we have yet to post any flyers or notices and we have
just over three weeks to the event!!!!!
I'm not trying to be pessimistic. I just don't think we need to start
cavitating over situations that we cannot control. We need to keep on
focusing on the things we do have control over and lets do them now and do
them well!!
Next year we need to charge Lotus and Taos $1000.00 minimum(non-refundable)
for participation in our events. We will justify it by calling it a high
risk vender fee. This is what they (and anyone else)will get for stringing
us along then bailing out at the last minute. If they get upset with this
then @#$% them!!!! (My apologies for those that understand @#$%).
This is really a big learning experience for us. Next year we start much
earlier. Lock in venders with money to participate. As long as we have fun,
learn from our mistakes, and do the best we can, then nobody could ask for
any thing more.
Rick
:-)
PS: The Office at NHCTC closes at 7:00pm sharp(if not a few minutes
earlier). Someone needs to get there a few minutes early to ensure room 29A
get opened for the people working on the demos.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jerry Kubeck [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2000 3:44 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: GNHLUG Steering Committee meeting
I am requesting as many of the GNHLUG Steering Committee and the Linux
Business Planning group as possible come and meet after the April 20th
meeting at Martha's Exchange.
There are only two short topics that I want to discuss but I would like
input.
If you can't make it, here are the questions and you can send me private
email or public and I will print them and take them to be voiced Thursday
night.
They are both tied to the GNHLUG fund that will be created by any profits
from the sale of merchandise at the show or anytime actually.
As I have stated, the proceeds (all cash from t-shirts, mugs and transfers
will go into my company (BearPaw Technologies) account, since that is where
all the cash for the items originated. I will keep a ledger with expenses
and sales of each item. The account (the GNHLUG savings account and sales
records) can be audited by any one who requests it and will be available at
any GNHLUG meeting.
If we sale 250 of the 288 shirts and 50 mugs, we will profit approx $900 to
the GNHLUG (an estimate at this time)
I will also be getting with Ed Lawson soon after the Linux Business Show to
start the process to explore the costs and involvment of GNHLUG doing the
formal non-profit organization with the State.
Ok, here are the items I want to talk about.
1) It appears that Lotus has bailed on us for the major sponsorship for the
LBS and the Red Hook hosted party afterwards (I will be happy to give you
the deatils of the Lotus sage at the meeting Thursday night).
Unfortunately, the president of Taos, Inc has also declined to be backup
sponsor since we are outside their Boston office's core marketing area. (I
am going to ask one more major vendor if they would be interested, but it
is kind of late).
So, the alternatives are this....if we sell enough to make a GNHLUG profit,
do we want to spend the $300 to pay Red Hook for the room and have a cash
bar party? This is of course a gamble on selling enough merchandise to
warrant thinking about this. We do have to let Red Hook know soon whether
or not to hold the room for us. The other option would be to advertise the
party and sell tickets when people register as a way to get together with
Linux sys ops, etc in an informal setting for $3 0r $4 bucks a head. Still
a cash bar. If we get more than $300, we have more for the GNHLUG fund or
order appetizers, or?????
Obviously, this isn't a disaster, just a setback to a reward for the work
involved for doing the show. But I would like feedback from all of you.
Of course, we can't spend profits till there are some, so if we only sell
100 shirts and 50 mugs, expenses come first, so the entire question os
spending profits amy be moot.
2) help for last minute flyer distribution in everyone's town to as many
places as possible.
Thanks
Jerry
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Jerry Kubeck Customer Support Appropriate Solutions, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] www.AppropriateSolutions.com
