[Lnc-business] Informal Poll LNC December Meeting

Fri Aug 1 19:51:57 EDT 2014

I stand corrected on the prices of typical meetings. I'm puzzled they are
so expensive, and still say we could, except maybe when scouting for a
convention, meet in a suite. I acknowledge my error.

I'm glad that New Orleans seems to be able to give us a good convention, as
I would indeed like to go there.

Joshua Katz
On Aug 1, 2014 7:13 PM, "Daniel Hayes" <danielehayes at icloud.com> wrote:

> 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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>>
>>
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