[Lnc-business] Informal Poll LNC December Meeting

Fri Aug 1 19:13:12 EDT 2014

Mr Katz, if you would peruse the attached document you would see that the average LNC meeting is not $2500. It is $6182 for non DC meetings, with  DC meeting saving on staff travel etc. The Hilton actually comes in more than $450 under the national average. I would appreciate your observing the averages and acknowledging your error. Additionally,
as you argued the point that cost of an LNC meeting would be indicative of the cost of a future upcoming Natcon Convention, I would appreciate you this line of reasoning to acknowledge this as well that New Orleans would be a great value for an upcoming convention in that it came in 7.5% less expensive than the national average. 
Also Mr. Katz..as we have now ascertained that New Orleans actually seems to be LESS expensive based on the data, Robert Kraus has presented. When we consider a couple of other factors, one of which, people want to come to New Orleans, as you yourself seem to want to. Then that 2 of our largest affiliates, Texas and Florida are in easy driving distance to the convention, once again, New Orleans will clearly be a stand out when it comes time for us to make the selection. If increasing delegate participation is your goal, you pick a place people want to go. That was my whole point of pushing this for 2018.  New Orleans means greater profits for the NLP because of greater participation that can be used for ballot access efforts etc.

On another note, as you will notice if you have observed the other charts provided previously by Robert, we have unexpectedly had another hotel come in with a good bid.  The Loews is in a better location that will prevent or decrease cab/pedicab fees, it’s prices are very close to the Hampton and its a much higher end hotel chain.  It’s still not a convention capable hotel, but I suspect it is one that could bid on a Convention Center based convention to provide us with rebates in exchange for room rentals and the banquet or some other such event, etc to make one of those happen.  Ultimately thought, I say the Riverside would be a better venue for reasons I previously stated.

Daniel Hayes

On Aug 1, 2014, at 2:34 PM, Joshua Katz <joshua.katz at lp.org> wrote:

> I take no position on whether we use a contractor or not.  I also, as a side note, would love to see New Orleans - it's been on my list for quite some time.  When I moved to Texas, I in fact got off at New Orleans to see the city, but my schedule didn't permit an overnight stay.  Neither did my budget, which is the concern I raise today.  The hotel we are considering for this convention will cost us about $5000 to hold an LNC meeting there.  I am assuming that this is with the knowledge that we are considering them as a venue for a major convention, hence a really good deal (respective to the hotel.)  I understand that the average cost of an LNC meeting is in the neighborhood of $2500.  I am only guess, then, that this will be a quite expensive convention.  Floor fee or no, the more expensive the venue, the less we are likely to net profit/greater net loss, unless either:
> 1.  We have states who have more willing delegates than spots (not too many) and an expensive venue will keep the poorer delegates away, thus increasing sales of larger packages.  I would object to this on moral grounds if I thought it, in fact, were the case, but I don't.
> 2.  We charge more for packages that are substantially the same.  Of course, for instance, banquet tickets will cost more at a costlier location (I'd expect) since food costs will be higher - and of course we don't know where the point of unitary elasticity is, although I strongly suspect (see 1 above) that this point doesn't move when the convention is held at a fancier location.
> 
> Given the cost of this venue for an LNC meeting, I therefore lean towards it not being a great venue for a convention, and would support having the meeting at the Hampton Inn instead.  I would add that, while it's a good idea in any case, we really need to minimize costs for the next couple LNC meetings since we are, in a sense, bankrupt.  So even if using the Hampton Inn will increase costs in the future, I think it makes sense at this particular moment to defer some costs into the future - time preference, etc.  
> 
> 
> 
> Joshua A. Katz
> 
> Region 8 (Region of Badassdom) Alternate
> Libertarian National Committee
> 
> Chair, Libertarian Party of Connecticut
> 
> 
> On Fri, Aug 1, 2014 at 11:53 AM, Scott L. <scott73 at earthlink.net> wrote:
>  
> 
> I strongly agree with what the Secretary wrote below.
> 
>  
> 
> Ms.  Mattson did a spectacular job of creating spreadsheets comparing the competing hotels for 2012 and 2014, but needless to say it took her a lot of time to create those spreadsheets.
> 
>  
> 
> I think it would be a very good idea to use Helms-Briscoe to help us select the 2018 Convention site.
> 
> 
>   Scott Lieberman
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> “Helms Briscoe helps scout out options for meeting sites within whatever parameters we give them.  They solicit the bids for us from the hotels.  We can tell them what data we want to know about each property, and they'll collect it for us.
> 
> The committee we appoint to oversee the process will narrow the field down based on data comparisons, and Helms Briscoe will further negotiate the offers with the finalists.
> 
> Helms Briscoe does not have any authority to commit us to anything on their own.  We have the final say.  In the end, after all the data assembly is done, if we don't like any of the offers on the table, we can walk away and can do it a different way if needed.
> 
> During the LNC meeting at which we were going to vote on the 2016 site, there were two Helms Briscoe agents on site.  While we were debating other business, they were in the hallway on the phones with the finalists leveraging the offers against each other to get additional last-minute concessions.  At the time of the vote, they came in and told us which items on our spreadsheets they had improved in the meantime - this one dropped their guest room rate by $10/night, that one lowered their food/beverage requirement, the other one is offering new perks, etc.
> 
>  
> 
> The LNC is billed nothing for this service.  If we accept one of the contracts Helms Briscoe negotiated for us, then they get paid by the hotel...kind of like how a realtor gets paid out of the seller's revenues.
> 
> Speaking as a person who did a lot of work for the 2012 and 2014 site scouting processes, using Helms Briscoe for 2016 saved me an incredible amount of time so I could do other projects instead.  
> 
> Their people have a lot of experience in event planning and negotiating these types of contracts.  We can have experts on our side even if the LNC members aren't experts in the subject.
> 
> If circumstances change and something goes sour with the contract after it is signed, Helms Briscoe agents will step back in to assist us while we navigate the problem with the hotel.
> 
> I was very pleased with the experience with them last time.
> 
> We should decide early on whether or not to use them for 2018, before we solicit any formal bids from hotels.  If we use them, Helms Briscoe should submit our RFP, collect the bids, and take the ball from there.
> 
>  
> 
>   Alicia”
> 
> 
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