Hey! No fair ND bogarting all the organizing fun! I'll definitely help out, starting with revising the RFP (request for proposals). I'd be up for sending it out to convention & visitors bureaus in whatever cities we want to consider. Or, it could be used as a template for gathering information. I strongly suggest using an RFP to gather the info, either directly or as an organizing tool used by individual Buffistas, rather than have people make random Internet searches or phone calls. That way, when you evaluate, you’re comparing apples with apples.

It wouldn’t hurt to discuss what the evaluation criteria are, though. Price seemed to trump all. I walked by the Wardman Park Marriott that was a strong contender, but $30/day more than HIOTH, and you know what? It’s a 5 star hotel in a great location. It would have been a better value, but – the price broke it.

Also, I linked to a place I found very early in the year that was a retreat center with a huge kitchen and central gathering area, and nice cabins with beds, not camping, and it was loudly shot down. If price is truly a priority, and there is a genuine desire to spend more time with each other and less on tourist-ing, then I think the evaluation criteria should be revised and places outside major urban centers should be considered.

Here’s what the RFP said this year:

Selection Criteria:

A hotel will be selected based on cost and ability to meet our hospitality suite and dinner/dance requirements. Proposals should be responsive to all items listed on Attachment A, and submitted to (me) at (email). Email is preferred.

[Attachment A, in a listing table, with a column for replies]

Rooms

Cost -- Single? Double? Bedroom suites? Are they located near the hospitality suite? Note: rooms and suites, and a range of prices is preferable

Hospitality Suite(s)

Cost -- One suite? Two suites side by side? Does it/they have a full kitchen? Is it available to us from normal check-in time to normal check-out time? Does it have a TV, VCR, and/or DVD player? Note: We don’t need beds in these rooms at all, just lots of comfortable living room style seating.

Saturday Dinner/Dance

Cost -- hall rental? Menu samples and prices? Can we decorate ourselves? Can we bring in our own beverages, including alcohol? If one of our local members does not have sound equipment & amplification, do you have it? Cost?

Location

Where are you located? If you are in an outlying area, is a transit station to the major metropolitan attraction nearby? How far away is the transit station? Is there a charge for self-parking?

Special Needs

Is the hospitality suite(s) wheelchair accessible? Is the Saturday Dinner/Dance wheelchair accessible? Do you have a wheelchair accessible room with drive-in shower?

Please list any other amenities your hotel has Note: Internet access is appreciated

Okay, so we're in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, which is much more touristy than the rest of Zimbabwe. We (my four friends and I) go out to dinner at the big, old, elegant Victoria Falls Hotel, a remnant from the colonial days. We take a taxi there, after having been informed by the hostel where we're staying what is a fair price to pay for the taxi ride. The dinner is memorable for me, mostly because I nearly stabbed my friend H. with a fork after he made a comment about my table manners (perfectly adequate, for the record, but indubitably American).

We ask the hotel to call us a taxi to take us back to our hostel, once again making sure that we know what a fair price is (of course, I can't remember the figure--let's say 200 Zim dollars, which was at the time equivalent to either four US dollars or about sixteen US cents, depending on whether you exchanged your money at the government exchange bureaus or on the black market). The taxi comes and fetches us, but when we reach the hotel, he tells us the fare is 400 dollars, twice what we were told to pay. We refuse, and pay him 200 instead. He gets angry, shouting in our faces, and won't let it drop, even when the hostel staff come out to warn him to go away. When it becomes clear that he won't budge an inch, we give him the extra 200 and he finally leaves. We shrug it off and climb up into our tents (perched atop the truck) to go to sleep.

Several hours later, J. and I are awakened by something heavy falling on top of our tent, which makes a loud noise. We scream and generally freak out, J. yelling "Hilfe! Hilfe!" (Help!) as loud as she can. We are disoriented and scared, and the first thing that comes to both our minds is: it's the taxi driver! It takes us a few minutes to register that whatever it is, it's not actually attacking us. Our screams have woken up P. in the next tent, and he thinks it is baboons. Eventually we realize that it's gone, and we gradually calm down. S., who shares a tent with P., sleeps through the whole thing.

In the morning, it happens again: crash! And now it's walking on top of the tent, until I shove it off and it drops to the ground with a yowl. We look down and see that the offender is, in fact, neither the taxi driver nor a baboon: it's the hostel's resident cat.

We are suitably embarrassed. But it became a running joke for the rest of the trip, particularly Jude's frantic calls of "Hilfe! Hilfe!"

...okay, now that I write it all out, um, maybe you had to be there. But it was really funny! Once it wasn't scary anymore.

If y'all are bored with this already, just say so and I'll keep it for LJ. But I've been saving it up, since I was computer-deprived, and I wanted to share it with anyone who's still interested.

Cont.

Hanging out drinking coffee on Friday morning deciding how to get the Miracleborns, Sean, and all their luggage to the hotel, pick up Askye, and get her and her luggage back to Anne’s was an exercise in logistics, but Anne managed womanfully. Almost as soon as Askye had arrived, she, Anne and I set off for the park & ride and took the Metro into DC. It was fun! especially for a rube who lives far away from an urb large enough to have decent organized public transport. A short hike from Union Station to the hotel later, and we were amongst foamy Buffistas! It seemed like no time at all until the hungrier of us had formed a party, Emily, vwbug, billytea, DX, Sheryl, Anne and I, for the Irish pub, where the waiter with dubious accent waited on us. Anne and I decided to make an early night of it and left the others heading off to fun and jollity playing pool and karaoke-ing, etc. The Metro at night is a little more exciting than in daylight. IJS. Decompressing from unaccustomed peopleness, I found Touching Evil on tv, and we watched that before trundling off to bed. Saturday morning we packed up our things for prom, loaded Askye’s bag into the trunk, and set off for DC. Whoever provided the directions did good.

Anne joined the zoo trip. I have zoo issues (I want to open all the cage doors and Set them Free!), and didn’t go, although zoo-going with billytea has to be a rare treat. Deb and I had loose plans to meet (! For the first time ever!) around lunchtime. I’d not been able to get my laptop’s wireless card to work at Anne’s, so Ginger invited me down to her room to use her computer to check my email. I was frustrated all weekend at not being able to check in on the board, but there never seemed to be enough time on someone else’s computer. While Ginger was getting ready to head out again, there was a knock on the door. I opened it and there was Deb, big as life and gorgeous as expected. I think I squeaked in glee. Vortex whisked the three of us off to Georgetown for a quick trip to Lush, Sephora, MAC and an art supply store, where it was difficult not to drool at all the pretties. First, though, there was a delicious lunch at La Madeleine, during which I inadvertently triggered Deb’s allergy. She’s fast on her feet though, and managed an almost instant antidote and averted catastrophe. We had to hustle back to the hotel to pick up Kristin, who needed lunch, so we all trooped into the hotel grill to keep her company. Vortex tried to steal her pickle, and wouldn’t be fobbed off with fries like the rest of us, so the waitress brought her her own pickle. And then it was off to get Deb dressed and her hair done at Vortex’s apartment. Vortex did her hair, too, and got dressed, all but her amazing corset, since she equated driving in a corset to the most severe pimp lean ever.

TBC

This summer would be great for gathering. Toronto definitely is not far!

Woot! You are in then. Right now I'm looking at the weekend of August 7-8 as a possibility. I'm going to do a little investigation and see if it will work. The main party would be Sat the 7th, but really people could come stay a couple of days. I'm off work, so it's not at all an imposition. (I love having company!)

I can't get too serious about this until work has calmed down, seeing as I have been blithely ignoring it for the past week and a half. But...save the date, anyone who might want to join!

If price is truly a priority, and there is a genuine desire to spend more time with each other and less on tourist-ing, then I think the evaluation criteria should be revised and place outside major urban centers should be considered.

Java, I think we've definitely established that you're way more outdoorsy and un-urban than most of us. :)

I envy Java's outdoorsy-ness. Seriously. I'm awed by the beauty of the natural world....from a distance. When I get up close and personal with Mother Nature, she tends to give me a noogie.

Java, that list you put together is fantastic, and should be very helpful. Should we take out the references to dinner/dance and just leave it at dance, though? It seemed to cause some confusion before.

I talked to Jon a couple of hours ago; he's back in Somerville safely.

Maria! Hi. I loved talking with you. And I totally wasn't exagerrating your hotness, yo.

Corruptor! The easy-staying-in-touch part is crucial.

And JSw: NEENER! I totally have the upper hand, as I get both Buffistae you have met and Buffistae you haven't met, all in the same city. So there!

I'm awed by the beauty of the natural world....from a distance.

World of seconded. There's a couple parks near my apartment building, and while they're cute and friendly and park-y, I enjoy them for the three seconds it takes to walk past them on my way to the el.

Well, yeah, but I'm not talking about everyone camping next to a lake with me. There's a middle ground that's not the middle of a city, where there are things you can walk to do in a town, and you get more bang for your buck staying in a beautiful location hanging out with other Buffistas. For example, if, for the same amount of money, the hosp. suite could have been located on an outdoor deck overlooking the ocean in say, Carmel or Monterey, or in a lovely mountain town like, say, Telluride or Santa Fe or Jackson Hole - wouldn't that be worth it? I only use those because they are first thing to come to mind. There's a TON of stuff to do in a Monterey or a Carmel AND it isn't San Francisco. I'm just saying, maybe it doesn't have to be the middle of A Big City.

eta: I get that a group of you don't like the outdoorsy stuff so let me reemphasize I'm not suggesting you camp out with me. But there are a number of people who say that they'd like more time to chill and hang out with the Buffistae, and if a gorgeous place can be found to do that, that has restaurants and bars to go to, then why eliminate them from consideration?

Let's say this was the same price as DC just was: [link] It's in the heart of wine country. Worth considering? I think so, and I think others would consider it. It's just an example.