Dear Friends- Greetings from snowy Colorado! It's been a while since I was on this list, but I just wanted to pop in and say howdy! I hope the new year is treating everyone well.
What has interested me recently is the flurry of e-mails about this years IOLI convention. Being in the throes of planning the 2005 convention, I have watched the plans for the 2004 convention unfold with great interest. I admire the Keystone Lacers for trying something different. I think it was a bold and courageous venture to revamp the convention and risk the kind of criticism they have been receiving here. I hope their convention is a tremendous success. Each and every one of you should hope the same.
Planning a convention is an exciting and horrible task. :-> Balancing budgetary constraints with participant want is tricky at best. We would like it very much to be all about the lace, to have 100 teachers and 500 participants come and stay where they want, offer only the kinds of classes YOU in particular would like to take, and give away registrations and meals and gifts galore. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Always, ALWAYS, there is a fear of losing money. Budget drives convention planning. A convention budget runs about a quarter of a million dollars, and usually it is only a dozen (or several dozen, if you're lucky) people with little experience but a lot of enthusiasm who are trying to please lace makers across the world for one week in the summer.
Historically, we have had it very easy with regard to registration fees for IOLI conventions. At most conventions nowadays, registration fees run between $200-$300. We are lucky to only be paying $150-ish! Everything you get at convention comes out of this registration fee. All your gifts, your meals, the evening programs, and even things you don't think about, like security in the vending room, and copying costs for the packets you get from your teacher, etc. etc., all comes out of this one little fee.
Also, it is commonplace now to have a commuter fee. People who attend the convention but do not stay in the convention hotel are literally costing the host group HUNDREDS of dollars. The same holds true when people get their rooms through "CheapRoomsRUs.Com" The hotel (and thus the host group) does not "capture" those rooms nights, and it costs the host group money. Therefore, it is best for the host group if you stay in the convention hotel and give them the room nights needed to help make a successful convention.
It is not just up to the host group to "make" a successful convention. It is also up to YOU, the participants. My plea today is to remind people that the Keystone Lacers are doing the best they can under difficult circumstances.
They are hoping for your support. Please give it to them.
Regards and love,
Vasna Zago Many people don't realize that playing dead can help not only with bears, but also at important business meetings. - Jack Handey
- To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
