[Carwy]

Originally Posted by BriOnH

Proposal of current comittee positions:

I President
II Director of Event Organization - Organizes attendees and physical location
III Sponsership Director - responsible for the networking of diabetic companies to sponser the event. Where the $$ is at could well dictate where the event is held next.
IV Treasurer / controller - Cost analysis / net & gross margins (net margin spending TBD).
V Marketing Director - Spread the web with it. Old fashion paper fliers and face to faces are always best.
VI Operation Volunteers - The most critical piece of the event organization.

Lets try not to turn this in to Animal Farm. I have a lot of experience in forming companies and comittees. These are the steps I usually take:

1) brainstorming - ideas, no problem solving
2) Positions
3) Requirements (location, attendees, sponsers etc)
4) Design Plan - how the requirements will be implemented
5) Implmentation of the event
6) Event Realtime Check points - Quality Assuarnce
7) cost / reward / event conclusions - did we make a positive difference?

I like this set up Brion. I think that there should be one more person on the committee. This person should be anonymous to all. Just the President of the committee should know.

[valc3]

Perhaps the place to start is to gather information(from this forum) on how many are interested, time of year, locations(taking all suggestions).

Then have several people do the research on area attractions, camping facilities, nearby hotels(for those who don't camp)costs, etc. Once this info is gathered and shared, with the forum, a tentative place and time can be decided on. From there, you can put the other pieces together.

I think having multiple people research the various places, vendors, etc might work better. Lives do get in the way sometimes and sharing the load is easier than one person carrying it.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

[JediSkipdogg]

Val, I agree.

The huge problem is sponsorship depends on location and location can depend on sponsorship. In my experience planning events many times you have to contact the rep for that area. Therefore, you need to know what area you are talking about. It would be useless having the even in say Califrnia and expecting Omnipod to give any sort of sponsorship (I may be wrong, but I don't think the pod is available in CA yet...if it is, choose a state that it's not.)

I also think if an area is picked where there is an ADA or JDRF office locally they may be happy to sponsor as well. I guess I'll start making a list of polls and then start posting them to get a good idea of where it could be held and what inerest level there would be for one.

[princesslinda]

What if we planned a 3 or 4 day cruise? One price covers all food and entertainment, there are things for every age to enjoy. It could be booked well in advance to allow ample time to get it paid for, everyone could choose their own cabin preferences and we'd have a definite head count. People could "Meet & Greet" as often as they wanted, yet still have opportunity to do things separately.

Our 20 year class reunion did a cruise...they put everyone in a block of cabins and offered a group rate and had a meeting room at our disposal.

Hubby and I took a 15 yr anniv. cruise a couple of years back and it was the best vacation we ever had. We spent about the same as we'd spend on a typical beach vacation as we booked in advance and got great rates.

[RLK]

Originally Posted by princesslinda

What if we planned a 3 or 4 day cruise?

I love that idea!
Granted, we'd have to agree on a location for the cruise and its departure. My only other concerns would be a) the cost of air fare, and would that become prohibitively expensive for some and b) aren't many cruise lines requiring passports now? That could also be a cost factor.

But a cruise would provide lots of dining and entertainment opportunities for individual tastes and is worth considering IMHO.

[JediSkipdogg]

RLK....yes on the passport. Heck, I'm sure by 2010 we will need them to cross state lines anways. LOL

I guess the cruise can be either cost effective or cost prohibitive. For someone like me, it would be cost effective. My trip to Vegas costs me around $750 when all said and done (that's an estimate.) A cruise for me out of Fort Lauderdale would be about $450 for the cruise and $50 for airfare (Skybus.) Therefore alot cheaper. However, on a family of say 3-4, it would cost more because you are paying for more rooms. I guess it all depends on the individual.

[BriOnH]

Originally Posted by valc3

I think having multiple people research the various places, vendors, etc might work better. Lives do get in the way sometimes and sharing the load is easier than one person carrying it.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

That's fine, but someone needs to own it. If someone doesn't it's usually my experience that it won't get done.

If you have ideas for the lead person, or want to be the lead speak up.

If we follow my architecture (or ammend it) I would be happy to run for el presidente. I usually never put myself on the frontline, I usually architect from behind the scenes and take the heat when the sh#$ hits the fan and give the credit to the chief and team when we hit it right.

[Cyborg]

There is even a Disney Cruise liner with lots of things for both adults and kids to do. I think they even have baby or kid sitting services...

[JediSkipdogg]

Originally Posted by Cyborg

There is even a Disney Cruise liner with lots of things for both adults and kids to do. I think they even have baby or kid sitting services...

Problem is they generally cost at least twice as much as a standard cruise with rates starting around $700 per person.

[Keezheekoni]

I'd be happy to take on the Event Organization position. I'm great at telling people where to go and what to do! Oh, that came out really bad!

Seriously, I've had quite a lot of experience with organizing trade shows, GS camps, family reunions, etc.

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by JediSkipdogg

Problem is they generally cost at least twice as much as a standard cruise with rates starting around $700 per person.

That would still cost you about the same as your Vegas trip.

I agree that the price can't be too prohibitive, but at the same time I don't think we need to cater to the lowest common denominator...

[BriOnH]

Originally Posted by Keezheekoni

I'd be happy to take on the Event Organization position. I'm great at telling people where to go and what to do! Oh, that came out really bad!

Seriously, I've had quite a lot of experience with organizing trade shows, GS camps, family reunions, etc.

This is what Kevin is leading right now. You can help by responding to threads he has already put up and talk with him about it.

[JediSkipdogg]

I call trash collector, since't that all I've done so far.

[Tony]

Originally Posted by JediSkipdogg

I think if too many get involved in planning then it gets nowhere. Yes, more ideas are great, but I think as the decision makers the group should stay small or else you get nothing done. Like say the committee was....you (Dew), me, and Brion....there's nothing to say that Camjen couldn't be in charge of say hotel research for that area and just feed the information to the group. And then maybe Carwy in charge of the comedy acts, lol. And Rikki in charge of say local event research.

Originally Posted by Valc3

Perhaps the place to start is to gather information(from this forum) on how many are interested, time of year, locations(taking all suggestions).

Then have several people do the research on area attractions, camping facilities, nearby hotels(for those who don't camp)costs, etc. Once this info is gathered and shared, with the forum, a tentative place and time can be decided on. From there, you can put the other pieces together.

I think having multiple people research the various places, vendors, etc might work better. Lives do get in the way sometimes and sharing the load is easier than one person carrying it.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

These both are good ideas!

There is no reason why anyone can't do research for the meet like Jedi and Val said. The more I think about it, It's a great idea. This way everyone is involved in the meet.

Still have a committee, but keep it limited to three or maybe four people. The committee should be small. To many people will be to many ideas going back in-forth at each other. You have to remember everyone has different ideas let other members on the site help with ideas and research. The committee will have the final say as where, when and such. I don't think we should have a leader for the committee, working together as a group would be best. If need be I can intervene but, I rather not.

Everyone please post your thoughts on this so we can move forward.

P.S. Does anyone remember trying to pick a date and location of this last meet in the chat room?

[notme]

I wasn't going to say much since I also bailed on Las Vegas. However, my suggestion would be to keep it simple. Simple in the respect that the location doesn't have to be a tourist dream, just a nice location where we can be the entertainment. Heck I think Dewey is hilarious.

The idea of forming committees is ok, just not to elaborate or you will run into a lot of head butting.

Camping on the beach or renting a couple of houses could be very entertaining. A cabin at Tahoe can hold up to 20 people or more.

Heat is an important factor as many people have health conditions that bar them from 100 degree weather with humidity.

The abilitlity to make last minute changes is important. Just like Cyborg and myself, unforseen circumstances shouldn't cost someone a huge amount of money.

How about a monarchy? I will be King and everyone else is nothing. Then I would be King of Nothing! I would be excellent at that!

Back to the regularly scheduled program.