Members and WISP followers,
We would like to better understand some of the challenges that many of you face on a daily basis as we continue to fine tune the Regional Meeting Agenda. As you know the 1st Regional Meeting is scheduled for July 21st and 22nd in St. Louis. We have been pleasantly surprised at the response we have received from vendors in our industry in committing to exhibit at our Regional Meeting. One thing we have noticed during the signup period is that many WISPs that are attending are traveling long distances to come to St. Louis in the first stages of signup. We originally picked St. Louis because of its central location in the US and because there are a tremendous amount of WISP companies throughout the Central US. We really anticipated that 70% of our attendees at this meeting would come from a 500 mile radius from St. Louis. This does not seem to be the case and we find ourselves wondering why this to be the case. My first inclination is to blame it on weather. I realize that weather in the Central US has been extremely volatile this summer with persistent storms continually moving across the region. I am asking if this is really the reason preventing many Midwestern WISPs from signing up for this meeting or not. If it is something else, I would like to investigate further. We believe it is our obligation to the Vendors who have committed staff, money and resources to attend the meeting, that we ask these tough questions. Our goal and the budget for the RM are based on a count of 200 attendees. We are pretty sure we will reach this goal but if we are not going to get there, we need to start preparing now. As you may or may not know, we do have a price increase of $50 per attendee beginning on July 1st. It would be silly of me not to point this out to any prospective attendees. This week, we were able to negotiate a much nicer hotel and meeting facilities at the Renaissance Hotel in St. Louis. The Renaissance actually lowered its room rate surprisingly to $79 per night and threw in free internet, parking and shuttle. These concessions are saving our participants nearly $60 from the previous hotel. The catering and AV budgets alone exceed the registration fees we are charging for members. Therefore, I ask that everyone describe your intentions for attending or not intending and send a brief description why. If it is summer vacation, that is fine, that is a risk we took when choosing these dates. If it is summer activities such as 4H fairs, baseball tournaments, or whatever, just let me know. If it is the weather and damage has not allowed you to book because of excessive repair bills, that is also fine. I am just trying to get a feel on the pulse of the industry as we analyze the success of this meeting and possibly plan the next one. If there are other challenges you wish to discuss, let me know. I would rather the Board be aware so that we can formulate policy and programs to alleviate these concerns as we move forward. Respectfully, Rick Harnish President WISPA 260-307-4000 cell 866-317-2851 WISPA Office Skype: rick.harnish. rharn...@wispa.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
