Good points, sj.

Also, I wasn't implying that cost isn't a factor. It just seems that the interest isn't there in general the way it used to be, as evidenced in the historical F2F discussions.

I'm curious what people consider a cheap option. To me a hotel room for $99 is a very cheap option. For most of the cities that I travel to I expect a decent hotel room to be $159-$209 a night. Perhaps we could lower hotel costs by going to small off market cities, staying in the suburbs, and then optioning for a Motel 6, but I'm not certain that is where everyone would like to end up. When I stay in smaller markets for travel I usually opt for a Holiday Inn Express, which is typically a decent room and is present even in small towns, but even there I usually expect to pay $99/night.

ND, I'm with you in considering $99 a night to be a very cheap option. As I said, airfare is more of a concern for me.

I agree. I think airfare is often the biggest money factor, but so are other factors like children and home expenses. I think waning attendance also links to the fact that we often haven't nailed down plans until a few months (or less) before the event. I agree with Java, though--I think we should just make plans and hope people can come, and scale back if the numbers are low or cancel if a year goes by without much interest. I also plan to re-propose the October F2F pimping and planning month this year, fwiw.

Oh holy cow, $95 is great, I've said it 95 times -- but if it were a priority and we built in a enough time and people we could get it cheaper and have better attendance.

And, people clearly aren't as into it. And we could deffinately consider changing the procedures.

But for nine years running we had a big "I just can't afford to come and I thought I could" at the last minute contingent which seems to have remained pretty much proportional (with a New Orleans bubble). I doubt that will change with number ten.

The smaller the group, however, the bigger hit each individual takes. I'll go. I always go. And I'll take the hit.

And then next year I'll post this post for the ninth time. It's tradish.

(Or maybe I'll just start C&Ping them ;)

I also plan to re-propose the October F2F pimping and planning month this year, fwiw.

I still think this is a good idea too. The holidays seem to eat up a lot of people's energy and by the time we've recovered it is getting close to F2F time.

However, I would prefer not to cancel a year altogether unless there is no interest at all. I still enjoyed seeing people last year, and even though it was a very small group, I think we still managed to enjoy ourselves.

sj, yep that sounds good to me.

I think the other consideration is that we seem to be loathe to repeat cities, but as we do that, we move further from the cheaper airfare hub cities. At year ten, I think we could go back to those more major cities.

Oh holy cow, $95 is great, I've said it 95 times -- but if it were a priority and we built in a enough time and people we could get it cheaper and have better attendance.

This is the thing. I'm not certain that we could get it all that much cheaper. I think under $99 for a hotel that isn't a total fleabag hotel or doesn't have some other serious limitation like lack of space for our party or a no booze rule is asking a bit much.

Just popping in to say that interest has not waned from this corner of Buffistadom - shitty finances are the only thing that's kept either Hec or me or both from going. (I was really hoping for this year, but an ill-timed yet necessary car repair is probably going to wreck that, damnit.)

And now Matilda is constantly reminding me that we need to make another playdate with her friend Lilly and her friend Iris, so if the economy ever either improves or at least stops decaying so badly I fully expect another generation of eager F2F attendance.