[13031] in APO-L
Re: Summer Conferences, Continued
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ned)
Fri Oct 20 10:51:35 1995
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 10:48:01 -0400
Reply-To: Ned <sbaldric@ROANOKE.INFI.NET>
From: Ned <sbaldric@ROANOKE.INFI.NET>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
In-Reply-To: <199510201354.JAA08179@larry.infi.net>
It seems to me that the arguements pro/con for having conferences in the
summer boil down to:
<pro>
1) Cheaper air fare possible, due to summer price wars
2) Difficulty in getting away from family over holidays
3) Safety issues in long drives over snow/ice
<con>
1) Summer is peak conference time, so hotel costs go up. This would be
reflected in higher room rates AND a higher conference cost. Does anyone
who has worked on a conference have any idea as to what the cost
difference would be? NB: the extra conference costs would have to be
budgeted in to begin with: you could recoup the cost in higher fees, but
that won't be until after the money starts rolling in, which, IIRC, is
AFTER the bills have been paid
2) It conflicts with Co-op/summer work/Summer school.
3) Lack of active chapter support over the summer. Due to the vagrancies
of regular Spring/Fall semester/ trimester/quarter system, the only times
where we could be sure not to conflict with non-summer classes would be
between late June-early August. In this case, a good chunk of the
supporting chapter will be away from the school. Would we have to get a
commitment from everyone working on the conference to stick around the
school for the month or so preceding (without taking that internship 3
states away or heading home and working in the retail store that you've
been working in since high school.)
When you compare these two lists, #1 on both of them mainly concern
money. In this, it seems that you are charging everyone more during the
summer (in increased conference/room costs) to give the minority that fly
in a break in air fare. My suggestion would be that if you can't afford
to fly in, consider a train or renting a van: OK< it will take a lot
longer, but if you get a good chunk of your chapter going, you can
consider the trip as a 20-hr fellowship event.
REV, I do see your point in pro #2. The only question that I have is how
much of a concern is this for most people? Since I was in an unusual
situation for most of my time in college (I was at RPI, my family was in
Germany) this matter didn't come up. Any input from anyone else?
And point pro #3, I've found that if heavy snowstorms are the norm for an
area, the major highways are usually clear by the next day. If you are
driving to nationals and a blizzard hits, by all means, pull off when you
can and find a place to wait it out. If necessary, it shouldn't be THAT
hard to find a cheap hotel. And just think, you have a wonderful story
to tell everyone when you show up a day late
As for the cons: #2: I've always found it fairly easy to get time off
from work, but this is really a function of where you are working.
Still, if yo schedule it long enough in advance, this shouldn't be a
problem. However, schools are remarkably unsympathetic towards taking
time off. You would just have to hope that there are no tests or papers
due right around conference time. That is assuming that you can afford
to miss a few days of class without having your grades slump. From what
I understand about summer classes, this is not a safe assumption.
#3: I see this as a telling point. During the summer, you loose any
seniors not hanging around for next year. Not too many people are
dedicated enough to decide: "Well, I was offered that job on the West
Coast, but I can't start work until August, because I'm working on the
conference" (if you were, I would have serious concerns). Other
brothers head off to home, or to a co-op job, or to an internship. Just
about the only active brother support will come from brotehrs at summer
school (see above note) or working in the area and waiting for Fall. You
will have some alumni support, but that really shouldn't be the driving
force. Even if you do have that manpower, you have a choice of requiring
a commitment to hang around all summer from the beginning (when do
committee jobs get parceled out? Do I need to say in January that I
won't take an internship this summer?) or you have a vast reshuffling of
jobs at the end of the school year (and have people jump into the middle
of a project that they haven't been working from the begining and expect
them to guide it to completion during the last month). If I remember
correctly, one of the reasons why Los Vegas wasn't selected for a
National's site was posted here: there was no local chapter support.
I'm afraid that summer Nationals would encounter the same problem every time.
Just my thoughts on the issue
Zhai'helleva
Ned
Ned Adams aka S. Baldrick Sometimes it is better to light a
sbaldric@roanoke.infi.net flamethrower than to curse the darkness
(540) 890-0212 (T. Pratchett)
