Quote:
Originally Posted by Pinehaven  Maybe for future meet-ups, you could think about having a set fee for general admittance into the meeting room. Maybe stamp the people's hand with a special stamp who don't want to stay for dinner but just want to spend a portion of the day meeting YT members and their pups? Just an idea  |
I'm just another local attendee, but having been involved in setting up this type of event in the past, the way it works is that you negotiate everything with the hotel. They give you a "discount" on the room rate and auditorium/ballroom cost based on a projected number of folks renting rooms. Many of us do live very close, and have paid the $85 per person, which, of course, is a steep price to pay for a hotel dinner. What we are doing is subsidizing the room discount/ball room rental/clean up fee and any other costs for the out of town folks based on the money the hotel is making from room rentals, IMO, since there is no way the dinner is that expensive. At least that is my experience having been on volunteer teams arranging professional conferences in the past. I figure that I am lucky that this national meet up is local, so I am happy to subsidize some additional expense for those paying much more who have to travel/rent rooms. The hotel wins becuase this is primarily on the weekend, and most of the business around here takes place during the work week.