Yep, it has been used, and useful. The info was very helpful.

I think I have everything ready now for the conversation tomorrow.

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Since I've now been hammered with e-mails questioning my handling of this proposal document here was my reasoning.

My experience when setting up conferences has been that hotels like to have a single point of contact with organizing groups. I was concerned about us either jumping the gun with getting proposals from hotels before we chose our city, or then from having a large number of people contacting the same hotels again and again. It's not that folks wouldn't mean well, but rather that in a flurry of energy we could confuse our efforts.

It seems to me that when Kristin asked for this information it was fairly easy to get from Heather and -t, who, as point people for New Orleans, had all of these documents. No one was being kept from it, no one is trying to withhold it.

I'm in the midst of trying to get moved this week, and Kristin was kind enough to take some of her vacation time to work on tying up loose ends on the F2F so that we are good to go for May. Suddenly it's a crisis that a document can't be had NOW NOW NOW NOW! Amazingly she got a copy of it, as she requested, from Heather, who has had it for months, and who used it as intended to get our hotel quotes.

Okay, I'm off again, I'm on a borrowed internet connection as I'm still mid move and between two apartments until the end of the week.

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I am fine with having the hospitality suite Friday through Sunday only, and also with having no food at Prom if the only other choice is a full dinner.

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I am fine with having the hospitality suite Friday through Sunday only, and also with having no food at Prom if the only other choice is a full dinner.

Yep, me too.

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Okay, it's all set. I spoke to Marvin, got the final questions answered, and am on the verge of signing the contract and putting down the deposit on the St. Louis Hotel [link] .

To review: we aren't asking for a "ticket" per person cost this year. We are simply going to publish the final costs, open a PayPal donation pool, and once we have enough to cover the general costs, we will have extra for people who would like help with personal room costs etc. ND will explain those details better.

I know a lot of people, myself included, are a bit tapped out for actual cash money right now. I think we'll leave the PayPal gates open for some time, so please please don't worry if you wanted to donate but are unable to right now. However, if you are able to donate sooner rather than later that would be great since I'm paying the deposit on my credit card now. For those who won't be able to donate to the general fund, no worries--there are a lot of people who have already said they are going to give extra. The overall costs are not too daunting when tackled as a group.

So, general info:

• Hospitality Suite, Friday afternoon (5/20) through Sunday afternoon (5/22): $220/day = $440. The Suite is a very pleasant room with tables and comfy seating. It is fully ADA accessible, as is the Prom room described below.

• Prom, Saturday night (5/21) 9PM-2AM: Normally they don't allow events go after midnight, but they are giving us

La Louisiane room, which is gorgeous with big French doors leading out into a faux French Quarter alley...it is also located directly OVER our hospitality suite, so we can party until 2 since we won't be disturbing anyone! It will have a dance floor (we can provide our own music, no problem) plus seating and will be purely private--no sharing with any other group. There is no room rental fee if we hit a drink minimum of $1500. That's roughly $25 person. I know many people don't drink, which is fine--there are many of us who will be...ehm...exceeding that $25. If we don't reach that minimum, then we would have to pay the difference as a room rental fee (so, for example, if we only drink $1200 worth, we'd end up owing $300). In the event planning I have done, this is a very standard set-up; it would be difficult to find a hotel that didn't have something similar.

• There will be a cash bar (drink prices linked to in my original post) at the Prom and some

free appetizer and finger foods. We cannot (overtly, at least) bring our own food/drink (again, typical hotel restriction), but there should be plenty to nibble on. Heather has generously offered to cover the costs of the bartender and cashier, so that is taken care of. Thank you, Heather!

• We have a block of rooms reserved for Thursday (10 rooms), Friday and Saturday (25 rooms), and Sunday (5 rooms) at the reduced rate of $109. There is a 30 day cut-off for this rate. If we don't have enough takers, it will not affect the rest of our deal, so no worries in that sense. If there is a big turn-out early, we might also be able to get more rooms at this rate. The sooner we reserve, the better. The cut-off is April 19th.

• There is an airport shuttle that goes directly to and from this hotel for $26 round trip. Cabs are about $25 each way. The hotel is also convenient to the French Quarter (trolley line, I believe). [ETA: As explained below, it is IN the French Quarter. My bad!]

• There is free wireless high-speed internet throughout the hotel, and there are also DSL drops in all meeting rooms and hotel rooms.

If this all sounds good to everyone, I'm signing and depositing by tomorrow.

Phew!

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The hotel is also convenient to the French Quarter (trolley line, I believe).

Just to clarify, there isn't a streetcar line that goes through the Quarter. It's not far from either the Canal Street or St. Charles streetcar lines, but if you want to browse through the Quarter, you'll be walking. Which isn't really a problem, because the Quarter isn't that big.

Edit: To clarify my clarification, the hotel is very centrally located in the Quarter.

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You people rock my world. That is all.

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The hotel is also convenient to the French Quarter (trolley line, I believe).

It's actually in the French Quarter.

It all sounds good to me. Thanks Kristin.

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Actually, -t used the doc to get the quotes. I used it to narrow down hotels to ask. Things look great Kristin!

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I so hope I can go this year. Thanks everybody for your hard work.

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