Re: 2014 AIS Convention


Goof morning, Terry:
Thank you for your words of wisdom regarding conventions.
As a past president of our local club for a number of years, and chairman of the 2010 AIS Convention in Madison, I agree with what you say. We were happy to receive a large check from the Kansan City Convention committee prior to our convention, and we sent one in return to Canada for their convention. However, if every club that can afford it would make a contribution to the AIS for an insurance to cover the hotel (OUR BIGGEST DOWNFALL) it would help everyone hosting a convention. We all know in advance what the buses, food, convention bags and give-aways are going to cost, but the hotel always has to be the big question mark for any convention, due to the unknow attendance. We were absolutely sure that we were going to hit 500, but planned for only 300-400 which seemed positive. As for the iris sale, it was a salvation to uur club. We had several very large orders from around the country which amounted to a few thousand dollars, and made $14,000 on our three-day iris sale at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison. This was our salvation, truly! I understand that the AIS Bulletin is going to be late again, forcing the California people to push the higher registration fees from March to April. This is a loss of money to those people. I have already gotten myself into trouble with Kelly Norris regarding my outspoken views on his job as editor, but I feel that the printing deadline is something that should never be overlooked. How would he like to receive his daily paper a couple weeks (or even a month) late?
Enough said on that subject!
Thanks for your words of wisdom, and for your many years of service to the AIS.
John Baker
----- Original Message ----- From: "Terry Aitken" <terry@flowerfantasy.net>
To: <aisdiscuss@aisboard.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 6:29 PM
Subject: RE: [AISdiscuss] 2014 AIS Convention


Hi "All"
The local committee does all of the negotiating with contractors, be they
hotels, buses, meals, whatever.
When all of that is added up, they should allow about a 10% contingency.
The local committee then sets the registration fee.
So far, so good. AIS advises but is not responsible. Thank you, Paul
Gossett!
The big unknown is ATTENDANCE ?!?!? and nobody can predict that if there is
no history of iris conventions at a specific location.
On any committee, there will blatant optimists and blatant pessimists. Being "REALISTIC" is a crapshoot at any time and many circumstances are beyond the
control of the local people. I hear that there is insurance against a
financial disaster but it is very expensive. It covers the hotel fees for
"under" attendance. It would be nice if the successful conventions could
donate some money to AIS as a backup fund so that AIS and the local
committee could be "self insured". (No idea where that money is going to
come from!)
Another big unknown is the distribution or sale of plants after the
conventions. Sometimes they can bail out a convention that is in a
precarious financial position.
Terry Aitken
Planning for the 2015 convention.
Conventions are for the dissemination of information and nobody owns that.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org [mailto:owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org]
On Behalf Of R. Dennis Hager
Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 5:53 AM
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] 2014 AIS Convention

There are underlying questions that need to be considered as a part of this
question.

Who OWNS the Convention?
How should the Convention be promoted?
Who owns the intellectual data that is generated at each convention?
Is that data used to promote and improve subsequent conventions?
What functions of the convention should be administered by the Host?
What functions of the convention should be administered by AIS?

These questions are NOT about how things ARE done, but how they SHOULD be
done.

Dennis Hager
Irisarian, Pharmacist, Restaurateur, Councilman, Former Mayor and General
Pain in the A....





-----Original Message----- From: Maureen
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 10:40 AM
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] 2014 AIS Convention

Hi Paul,

I think we all suspected that a discussion on AIS policy on conventions was
going to happen sooner rather than later.

I expect that the current ad hoc help at the back end should a club suffer
catastrophic losses from a convention is not going to be sufficient going
forward.

I would suggest that board discussion consider the following.

If AIS takes on the riskiest and costliest expense of the convention, should

AIS then also receive some part of the revenues generated by the convention?

(for example, collect a fixed portion of registration fees and receive all
revenues from silent auction)

Should AIS get involved in fund raising for conventions?

What is the impact on the long term financial health of AIS?  While AIS
manages its finances fairly well by managing its expenses with variable
revenues. How will AIS manage with a significant variable expense?

The last question is probably the most important.

Unfortunately, I won't be at the national convention this year. I will see
some of you at the Siberian convention.

Maureen Mark
Ottawa, Ontario
(Not a current board director)

On 2012-01-11, at 3:00 AM, "pwgossett@juno.com" <pwgossett@juno.com> wrote:

Good Evening Folks,

The weekend of December 3 & 4, 2011, I had the pleasure of meeting with
the Delaware Valley Iris Society at their winter board meeting in
Pennsylvania. After they concluded their board meeting they allowed me to

tell them my thoughts about them hosting an AIS Convention in their area
and what AIS can do to assist them. We discussed all aspects of hosting a

convention and had volunteers to be the Chairperson, Guest Iris Chair,
Transportation Chair, and Treasurer all from the area.  We also discussed
4 or 5 gardens that might be on tour along with local non iris gardens and

historical attractions that could be used as an optional tour. They would

like to receive guest plants but, will have to have a limitation on the
number and also 2014 would be too soon for them if they would be receiving

guest plants.

We also discussed financial concerns and obligations.  I believe their
greatest concern is how much of a role would AIS be willing to take in
both manpower and financial.  On the financial side the hotel is the
biggest expense of a convention.  I believe if AIS would be willing to
sign the hotel contract and take on the financial responsibility of the
hotel we might have a convention site on the east coast probably not in
2014 but, maybe 2016 or 2017.  They are thinking about it now and will
make a decision by the end of January.  I am hoping for a positive
response from them on hosting an AIS Convention.

My question to the AIS Board is....  Would AIS be willing to sign the
hotel contract and take on the financial responsibility of the hotel?  I
would estimate the cost of the hotel expenses would be about $25,000.

I would like to have your suggestions as to what I need to do and what
role will AIS have in this convention and also future conventions.

Thank you,

Paul




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