Are we just discussing the options at this point? I enjoy the pimping of possible locations process.

Yeah, at this point, we're just pimping out ideas for various cities. Deb's taken a big lead on San Francisco possibilites, and Susan has chimed in with some Seattle ideas.

There's been some San Diego and Las Vegas talk, but there's no point person for those cites, so until/unless somebody takes initiative on those cites, they're more inklings than full ideas.

I honestly think that unless we've got someone willing to take point for a city, we ought to leave the city out of the running. So, say I had a burning desire to do this in Vegas, rather than Seattle or San Francisco--then I'd have to put up, or shut up.

It's still early, someone might step up on one of those cities, but yes - right now, Seattle and SF are the two nominees.

Looking at this discussion and people's comments, and in the hopes of keeping the process as clear as possible, I have a couple thoughts:

1) There is no perfect time for date picking. It's going to be too soon or too late for someone, at any point, just by the nature of our various job/school situations. That said, do we want to bump voting up a couple days, to Thursday-Saturday?

2) I think it would be helpful, especially for the people who can't read in detail all the posts there will be about each city, and for the rest of us, too, for local coordinators, before the vote, to put together a "this is what we can reasonably expect from this city, and here are approximate prices, based on talking to these places (and I really think specific citations on hotels and venues is key)" worksheet, just so the info is all in one place.

3) The thing that's making me itch, just a little, is that SF is the only city talking right now. Nothing to be done about it, and there's loads of time, so I'm not saying change anything (actually, that's not true. If you have questions that need answered by the group, could you bold them or put them in their own paragraph, so we know what needs decided?), but, well, in the interest of my own self-knowledge.

4) At this point, the goal is under $100 per room per night. If this proves impossible, we can re-evaluate, but, for the time being, we need to stick to that (And I swear that this isn't a "the lurkers support me in email" thing.).

I think a rock and roll prom would, well, rock. And the limos.

From what I understand the spaces Deb's talking about would be more affordable than renting a room at a hotel, especially if there's no in house hotel catering.

Susan's getting info about Seattle right?

As soon as I get the info/bid sheet from Debet, I'm going to tweak it a bit and send it to Las Vegas Convention Planning people to gather some bids.

I honestly think that unless we've got someone willing to take point for a city, we ought to leave the city out of the running. So, say I had a burning desire to do this in Vegas, rather than Seattle or San Francisco--then I'd have to put up, or shut up.

This is the rules. Like Sean said, right now we have 2 complete nominations, and a couple partials.

Debet:

1. Yep. Totally agreed.

2. Sounds reasonable to me, and I intended to do that anyway. But I think you're being incomplete, here, or specifically, unclear on your definition of "venue". I've already asked this, above: the question of whether Prom has to be onsite is a biggie, period. It affects the hotel choice, the hotel price, the overall cost (using their catering), availability, etc.

3. I can only talk for San Francisco/Bay Area. I get to have a slight jump, because Susan has a busier life than I've got. with a tighter time schedule. But Susan will be on it (and she has minions!) soon enough.

4. I'm all about the under-$100 per night. But in the event that isn't possible, there's yet another reason to know whether or not I'm locked into an onsite food expenditure at the given hotel; if we're saving $500 on catering costs, that can go into the hotel fund, for instance. If we book 25 rooms, that $500 gives each room-booker, what? an extra $20 bucks off the room? Not a lot, but it adds up.

The only reason I can see for wanting to keep the Prom at the hotel is to facilitate costume changes.

That said, it's not important to me. The rehearsal space idea is intriguing.