The gist was basically, could attend, could probably attend, could not attend for each destination.

This.

If we go the way of the top choice vote, I'd like to see it amended to the top two choices and then narrowed down from there.

I think, if there are two close choices, it might be worth it to get bids in both cities. I think it will depend on how the city vote turns out.

Ooh! I found it, Jess did it.

2004 Poll: [link]

2004 Results: [link]

I think it worked well.

(I think that must've been a top two narrowing poll. Not sure how it was narrowed to that point, but a similar poll with more destinations listed would probably work fine, too, to get to the top two contenders.)

Vegas is always cheap to get to, it seems, and I know they're good with conventions. I hate the place -- they took a beautiful desert and plopped Disneyland for adults in the middle of it, and it jars my senses -- but for Buffistas, I'd go there again.

Otherwise, I'd be happy with either Seattle or SF. I do think that unless we go for a Vegas or an Orlando, where the hotel staff handle five zillion groups a year, picking a city with a high quotient of locals is important.

I did a quick search on Yahoo's low price thing, and Seattle, San Diego, LA and SF all came in at $233 from Cleveland. Portland (though I don't know now why I searched on Portland) was around $400.

it just seems like a centralized location would be most accessible and affordable to the largest number of people.

Yeah, not really the case, it's about flight routes. It's almost always cheaper for me to fly from LAX to JFK than to just about anywhere in the midwest. So the flight things is really not geographically linked.

The whole We Have To Decide This Before Such And Such Date seemed to create more stress than it was worth, for everyone involved.

Well... there are upsides and downsides to the timeline thing. THe timelines allow us to make decisions early, and the earlier their made, the easier they are to change to accomodate situations. But, as you say, it does cause stress on everyone involved.

seemed to create more stress than it was worth, for everyone involved.

It actually lowered my stress knowing that decisions were out of the way and not still looming. Different organizers work different ways, but for me having a deadline and getting decisions made and then being able to move on to the next decision makes it much easier to manage.

Maybe the LAistas can rent a big ole RV and drive to wherever.

I'm thoroughly amused by the notion of a Buffista Urban Assualt Vehicle.

I like the SF and Seattle notions, because they are both cities I've wanted to visit for a long time, but whether I can swing it or not is a whole different thing.

Wow. I can't believe I used the word 'everyone' in a post last night. I mean, obviously I *did*, but that was pretty stupid. Even for me.

Okay. Let me try this again. From my own POV, the process last year seemed to have been more stressful than it was worth. Primarily due to the earlier deadlines. Maybe I'm just failing to see where the earlier deadlines helped because for *me*, they felt like more of a hinderance. Was there a substantial payoff to the earlier deadlines that I'm missing?