Cultural Conserves Of The Annual Meeting

[thana ag]

Dale,

What excellent points you make!!!

I actually remember well that conference in Poconos --and how disappointing 
it was.

Is it possible that folks who are interested in Psychodrama -are also 
interested in theather,and art -and therefore would shell a bit more money 
to be in S.F or NYC.? It is quite possible that if ASGPP meeting was in 
Manhattan ,rather than in Bklyn  -the attendance would've been a  larger .
There are  some affordable hotels on the Upper West Side,including hostels.. 
-and the commute to theater and museums is only minutes...
anath garber

>From: Dale Richard Buchanan <dalerichardbuchanan at yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: list at grouptalkweb.org
>To: list at grouptalkweb.org
>Subject: Cultural Conserves Of The Annual Meeting
>Date: Fri, 4 May 2007 11:53:10 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Dear All,
>
>I have been concerned about some of the postings
>regarding the costs of the annual meeting.  I think
>before we create a new conserve we should carefully
>review where we have been, where we want to go, and
>the consequences, anticipated and unintended, of the
>new conserve.
>
>We must all take one step back and breathe.  One of
>the reasons why I believe that we have such confusion
>and dissension about the annual meeting is that we
>have not all agreed to the benchmarks that would
>signify success for the annual meeting.  Some of the
>benchmarks  that I have proposed in the past are the
>following:  Net Income (income from the annual meeting
>minus all annual meetings expenses), number of total
>attenders, and number of first time attenders.  Now,
>if we had that information, over time, we could track
>whether or not the annual meeting was a success.  We
>could also do a graph of these with another item such
>as hotel room cost that would give us a better idea of
>the correlation of the room expense with the
>benchmarks.  I know I could get us a very good deal at
>a summer camp in North Dakota, but don't think the
>attendance would be very good even if it was very
>cheap (smile).
>
>To my understanding the Miami Annual meeting was one
>of the least expensive in many a year.  Airfare into
>and from Miami or Ft. Lauderdale are among the lowest
>in the country.  I just paid $149 for a roundtrip
>airfare from DC to Miami.  AIrfares from the Coast
>seldom exceed $300 versus the $440 I just paid for
>roundtrip to Seattlle.  The hotel costs in Miami were
>among the lowest ever with a cost of just $109.  The
>Chairs (Mary Bellofatto, Nancy Kirsener & Sue McMunn)
>also made arrangements for room sharing with up to
>four persons in a room.
>Thanks to the Chairs frugal spending the conference
>made a lot of money but the attendance was very low --
>about two hundred below San Francisco which was much
>more expensive, and about 150 below this year's
>conference which was also expensive.
>
>Beware of unintended consequences!  When Zerka was
>President, and I was her Vice-President we listened to
>the membership nd they wanted a less expensive annual
>meeting.  We tried an experiment by going to the
>Poconos at a retreat center.  We did everything that
>was asked:  leisure time to connect with others, good
>inexpensive food in family style dining, inexpensive
>lodging, recreational facilities to enjoy, etc.  Well,
>in the Poconos we have about 1/4 the attendance of the
>New York Conference.   The worst was that while we had
>met or exceeded all the above expectations most  said
>they would never go to this type of annual meeting
>again.  Why, because they were upset that they were
>not able to offer a workshop.  Due to space
>limitations we only had three or four workshops in
>each time slot and we limited, at the suggestion of
>the members, the number of sessions per day to so that
>people could meet informally.  Thus, this
>disgruntlement over not presenting was a large
>unintended consequence that was not anticipated.
>
>After this I discovered that usually about 40% of the
>meeting attenders are conducting workshops.  When we
>limit the number of presenters then a large part of
>the membership is unhappy and does not attend.
>Trainers from all over the country bring their
>students and want to be recognized for their training
>skills and they want their trainees to see their names
>on the annual program.
>
>I don't know the answers to people's concerns about
>expenses, but I do know that we must first agree on
>what equals success for the annual meeting.  If we met
>in a retreat center with 200 attenders when we had 465
>in San Francisco and 391 in Brooklyn would the retreat
>be a success.  I also think that in many ways the
>"expense" of the conference is a scapegoat for many
>others concerns that we have for the annual meeting.
>
>I am excited about this discussion and hope that you
>realize that no matter what we say or do on grouptalk
>it is the leadership of the ASGPP that will make all
>final decisions.
>
>Peace, Dale Richard Buchanan
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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