Sorry if I'm sounding snippy.

It's just very frustrating to be dealing with hypotheticals when there are decisions we can actually make (and which the hotel I'm dealing with demands).

Isn't there one way we usually do this? As in a certain order to what we choose first, etc.? I don't remember because I couldn't come last year and didn't participate, but it seems like it might be worth hammering out one agreed-upon way to choose date/location each year.

As I recall, we go back and forth, usually someone suggests one way or the other.

I don't know all of the stuff going on in Philly this summer, but I do know that there are two triathlon weekends during the proposed dates. The Philadelphia Insurance races take up the weekend of June 25-27 and the Philadelphia Women's Tri is the weekend of July 10-11. The June one is a lot bigger than the July one but both might impact hotels and restaurants.

This is exactly why picking a date before a city is difficult. Either we eliminate all dates that conflict for all cities, which leaves us with fewer options for people to actually be able to attend, or we settle on a date and then automatically rule out cities that have conflicts. I get that the pimpage can't be perfect with hypotheticals, but I think we can do good pimpage without it. Trudy, it seemed to me like you've already done your pimping. You've suggested a good hotel, mentioned some of NYC's attractions (not that you need to do much there since NYC sells itself), and most importantly have taken point. We just need the same from Philly and Providence in order to vote on the city, right? And then that city can propose good and bad dates given its specific issues and we can get hotel quotes to see which is the cheapest or best weekend to vote?

I put the survey together as a data collection tool because we still seem to be waffling weeks after starting the process, not to be annoying or control-y. Anyone else who wants to herd us Buffista cats is welcome to do so.

Instant Oatmeal:

To be clear, last post was not meant to be snarky. I feel like I'm just making things more controversial. Maybe I should stop herding and just be a cat. Who needs to be herded, no doubt.

I can make a quick list of all the reasons Philly would be a fun city. I do have a problem doing a whole lot more than that until after April 1 at this point, because ... I am crap about writing deadlines until I'm right up against them, the way I am now.

But I'm more than willing to sell the city, for now, if we want to choose location first.

Nah, it's tricky, Kristin.

I do think that picking a city before we have an idea of cost is not the greatest. I know that getting bids from a hotel for two or three weekends is complicated, but it at least gives us a ballpark for comparison.

Speaking for myself, while I have city preferences, date and cost are the more critical factors.

So Brenda, do you suggest we eliminate all weekends that conflict for the three cities? I honestly don't care if we vote date first if that is what everyone prefers. I just was concerned that most people picked dates on that poll that sound like they will be eliminated because of hotel conflicts in one city. Cost and such are my biggest concerns too, so I hear you.

I would probably not eliminate, actually - if the conflict is big enough to impact us that'll show up in the bids pretty quickly.

So if we start with three dates and we end up

NYC: Prohibitive
Reasonable
Prohibitive

Philly: Prohibitive
Reasonable
Reasonable

Providence: Reasonable
Prohibitive
Reasonable

Well, that gives us some good data anyway.

An alternative if people don't want to argue with hotels is if we have some hotels in mind, do like an Orbitz gut check of those weekends and see if that rules some out.

Most big cities have something going on most weekends - barring a SuperBowl, it's hard to know how much they'll really impact us.