[Lnc-business] Meeting costs

[Scott L.]

To do a thorough analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of meeting in
hotels vs. other types of locations, one needs to take into account:

 

1.	Convenience (how long it takes to commute from your sleeping
quarters to the meeting site, and how long it takes to walk to and from
lunch on Saturday, and maybe on Sunday)

 

 

2.	Ambience.  Despite comments from some of our members, the hotels at
which the LNC holds its meetings are NOT luxury hotels.  

 

                 http://www.hotel-price-index.com/2014/spring/

 

 

"The HPI was started in 2004 at 100 and includes all bookings across all
star ratings from one-star to five-star. More than 150,000 properties around
the world make up the sample set of hotels from which prices are taken."

 

     The average price paid by travelers for all hotel bookings in the USA
during 2013 was $131 per night.  Compare that to what the LNC will pay for
our hotel rooms during the last 2 LNC Sessions of 2014.

 

 

 

3.	 Do you really think that meeting in a barely large enough meeting
room in a Denny's or some other coffee shop is going to be conducive to
holding a productive meeting?  Sometimes LNC members need to go to their
hotel rooms in the middle of the day - how do you do that 

      if the meeting site is 3 miles from your hotel room?

 

 

The problem isn't the amount of our member's money that we spend on Board
meetings.  The problem is that after 42 years of existence we haven't
created a successful political party.  Because of that, we are still
scrimping for every dollar.  That is why the amount of money we spend on
board meetings seems "excessive."

 

The answer to this "problem" is for us to encourage, cajole, and help our
affiliates to elect many more Libertarians to public office, and for us to
retain ballot status in 40 or more states on a semi-permanent basis;  not
just in October of even numbered years.

 

If we do those two things, and we pay just an average amount of attention to
fund raising, it won't matter if the party spends $10,000 or $20,000 per
year on Board Meetings.  


   Scott Lieberman

 

 

 

  _____  

From: Lnc-business [mailto:lnc-business-bounces at hq.lp.org] On Behalf Of
Joshua Katz
Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2014 9:26 PM
To: lnc-business at hq.lp.org
Subject: [Lnc-business] Meeting costs

 

"Ron posted an excellent letter from Starchild on the costs of conventions.
I thought the $2500 I had heard was high.  As I said a few days ago, when I
was corrected and found it was much higher, I was shocked.  

 

I do not want to meet in DC every meeting.  We should use the office we own
when feasible, but it's just not fair to hold every meeting in the same
location.  If LNC members want to bring a camper instead of staying in a
hotel, that's fine, but irrelevant, since it has nothing to do with what the
LP pays for our meetings.  But, really, $3000 for a room for 18 people to
meet (or $2000 in food and beverage to get the room for 'free?')   I used to
work at a school that weekly held meetings for 40 people.  I assure you we
could not have rented out the room we used for $3000/weekend.  And we were
on the beach!  

 

18 people can meet in a park in nice weather.  18 people can meet, as I said
before, in a suite.  18 people can meet in a coffee shop.  18 people do not
need to pay $3000 for a room - and we wouldn't if it were our money.  We
should be as careful, if not more so, with our donors money, as with our
own.

 

Convention is one thing.  This is quite another, and is quite insane.  




Joshua A. Katz

 

Region 8 (Region of Badassdom) Alternate

Libertarian National Committee


Chair, Libertarian Party of Connecticut"

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