I am on the planning committee for our electoral unit convention. I love convention. I loved it when it was one statewide weekend long convention but now we have grown too large and are broken down into smaller units of approx 450-500 Baha'is per unit. Which means the Portland area has about three or four units and we, who used to be a part of Washington County North's unit 162, are now part of unit 159 which is comprised of Clatsop, Tillamook, Marion, Benton, Linn, Deschutes, Crook, Jefferson, and Polk counties. Sort of a large, wide "v" or inverted "j".
In looking for a central location for our convention the concern is fuel costs. Who is going to travel how far for this convention? In asking for prices for rentals on convention spaces one of the most galling things to me is how many require to you to use their catering service and the price that is charged for coffee! All we want are coffee and tea urns set up at the back of the conference room so people can fill their own cups as the meeting goes on. So far, thats a no-no! Each conference center wants to put carafes on the table and charge $8 per carafe that provides 6-8 servings! At a conference that will have probably 150 (maybe 200 at best) in attendance! After the initial charge of $1200 for the facility!
This is aggravating! I am talking about such venues as Chemeketa Community College, the State Fairgrounds, County fairgrounds, as well as hotels/motels! At least with the hotels/motels we can get a cut price on the rooms and people start off with a continental breakfast. Here is an ideal way for a community college to make extra money in rooms sitting empty on the weekend, yet they are locked in with a catering contract. And forget about a snack with that coffee! Eighty-five cents per COOKIE! Absolutely NO outside food allowed!
We are not running on panic mode, yet. Just aggravation mode. I am simply appalled at what should be nominal charges, or even a part of the package, that one can get dinged for. The state fairgrounds have excellent rental fees on the facilities. Then they charge $30 per outlet used, $1.25 per chair used and $10 per table used plus require a $200 set-up fee and you are not allowed to set-up yourself.
It is almost like opening up your phone bill. There's the nominal $14.99 fee for your phone line and then .... when they get done your bill is $35.00 and you don't have a single additional benefit. Forget the cable bill.
Sigh, back to internet conference shopping!
2 comments:
Funny the state fairgrounds charging a "per outlet" fee. Didn't the gov't make that a big no-no for cable/phone companies?
I have to wonder who they think is going to rent the fairgrounds and NOT require an outlet? And what kind of rates are they paying that $30 wouldn't cover an entire day?!?
Basically ... just another gov't "bend over and take it" ploy. Designed to entrap people who don't think to ask if there's additional fees for little things that should be included in the basic rental price.
I have gotten good at read the fine print! We hosted/planned the conference about five years ago at Pacific University. Lovely conference, great reviews, afterwards the bill came from the catering service. One urn of coffee and one urn of tea, a plate of cookies for 80 people and the bill was for something like $600-$800! They literally dropped everything off, we set it up yet they gave themselves a 20% gratuity as part of the bill! And the cookies were small, individually cellophaned wrapped cookies. We wrote a letter showing our contract and that the gratuity had not been a part of it and that the cookies were advertised as bakery fresh. I think it ended up being half price for the catering. I think you have to be diplomatic, but also have to let people know you expect fair treatment. It just seems we have lost that "customer service" approach. It is like the consumer OWES the company something. You aren't a "client" you are a "consumer" and you are judged and treated accordingly depending on what it is you are consuming. Most of the office personnel that I have talked with have been very helpful and even cheerful! That's a bonus, especially on a Friday.
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