At least, the way it is, there should, in general, be at least 1 year out of 3 when a given person (in the continental US) can expect to be able to attend.

Even if that means the F2F is sparsely attended, like this year's?

(That's NOT a challenge; that's just me wondering what people's opinions are.)

Heat, it is in the middle of the desert. Crowds, I dunno, I have no idea what the busy season is. Figure it's the land of dental conventions and B.P.O.E. herd-ruts all year round no matter what, so, crowds anywhichway you go.

Good point (crowds). And I have no experience with the desert heat. Only sticky, humid, swampy heat. I pretty much hate all heat, even the kind I haven't met yet. Oh, duh, my sister and her family are in Vegas right effing now. I'll have to ask her what her impressions were. Duh.

For this year, the emphasis seemed to be less on maximizing attendence, and more on maximizing the attractiveness of the destination. I don't think the system was flawed, but, rather, some of the specifics of the situation led to a difference in incentives.

I think the benefit to having the F2F location move around is that tyhe set of people who are able to attend and the set of people who aren't able to attend because of lacation changes. A lot of people didn't come this year because it was in New Orleans. If it had been anywhere else, there's no way I could have gone. it seems fairer to me to give the people on the coasts who can't travel very far, for whatever reason, opportunities for closer F2Fs then to make the average distance for everyone shorter all the time. Outliers are important, I guess is what I'm saying.

Another thing about NOLA was that the only really local people were -t and her DH. All the other F2F's had large groups of local folks attend who otherwise have never gone. Both LA and DC had large numbers of people who were able to drive to the F2F, and large populations of localistas. The same would be true for the Bay area, and to a lesser extent, Seattle.

Just for a rough idea, May 19-22, hotel and flight, sorted by 'lowest' on Orbitz (now with more city goodness):

Cincinnati - San Francisco 461
Cincinnati - Phoenix 387
Cincinnati - Seattle 388
Cincinnati - Las Vegas 430

Dallas - San Francisco 438
Dallas - Phoenix 413
Dallas - Seattle 373
Dallas - Las Vegas 402

NYC - San Francisco 498
NYC - Phoenix 443
NYC - Seattle 427
NYC - Las Vegas 426

Boston - San Francisco 543
Boston - Phoenix 537
Boston - Seattle 415
Boston - Las Vegas 459

These all tend to be 'outlying' locations, naturally.

For this year, the emphasis seemed to be less on maximizing attendence, and more on maximizing the attractiveness of the destination.

FWIW, I think this was a mistake. I had a blast in N.O., but I'm sorry so many people had to sit this one out. Kind of demoralizing for the organizers, too.

ETA - as far as the fares go, remember that this far out they'll be higher. I looked at mid July Chicago - Seattle and NYC - Seattle just to see what airlines came up and the range from both locations was about $275 or so to $400 depending on airline. From Trudy's links, it looks like the various locations are pretty similar, with Seattle generally a notch lower.

I think Debetesse said it earlier, but I think the poll used to decide what ended up being the DC F2F was great. I can't remember specifics, but ... well, maybe I can go find it. The gist was basically, could attend, could probably attend, could not attend for each destination. So, it gave a decent approximation of possible headcount for each, which was a help.

IMO, I think the primary reason it helps to have a good number of local-istas in a chosen F2F location is because they usually have floor space or couches for those that can't afford both flight and hotel rates at the same time. It makes a huge difference and allows for a larger attendance. The more options there are for people to save money, the more people there are to hang out with. Again, that's just my opinion.

And not to sound preachy but I'd like to request that we don't set so many timelines this year. The whole We Have To Decide This Before Such And Such Date seemed to create more stress than it was worth, for everyone involved.