" We originally picked St. Louis" With total and absolute respect for the board, we had an online discussion of where and why among all of us and St. Louis really wasn't in the mix. The timing is also "weird" because the summer, at least for me, is the busiest because the weather is damn best for fixing everything and getting new AP's installed. I'm working like hell to beat the snow. (Just got in from a new AP install)
Get me in mid-January and I'll have plenty of time. Look at the volume of list postings and you'll understand. The winter gives us all lots of time to list post thus empty time in our schedules. Graph it out, you'll understand. Yeah, travel in the winter sucks............. But I got's the time then! Besides............... St. Louis? I went to the Dayton Hamvention, met some WISPA members, saw some great "junk" and spent some cash. Not to push Dayton (Dayton blows) but as we talked about before, a hook up with another similar event is the cool thing for me. No matter where it is. I really don't care where but the Hamvention is well known by a lot of WISPA Hams. Anyhow, just no time and no incentive in going. Ticket price and hotel price have no bearing on my lack of attending. Anyone with similar issues??? Bob- -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rick Harnish Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2010 3:28 PM To: [email protected]; 'WISPA General List' Subject: [WISPA] What are the Challenges? 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. [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
