@Anderson -- good variety of rooms and "free" is great. It'd allow us to keep the registration price low -- or allow us to do something interesting. IMPCL or IUPUI would be the only real competitors at this point if only due to the new facilities.

I think BSU is a good choice too. The campus is beautiful (compared to when I was there) and it will still be fairly quiet in early August. The catering prices seem somewhat pricey though...correct me if I'm wrong, but I think our box lunches last year cost somewhere between $5 and $6.

I wonder if there would be any way to get the parking fees waived at BSU?

You're right. BSU sounds good too.

Of course I would like to have it here too, and the Dean probably woluld also, but, unfortunately I was told by the Assistant Dean for Public Services the attendees would have to pay for parking.

If we can keep cost for all other things low, even though we have parking cost, we may still able to keep the registration cost low.

speaking of registration costs ... I spoke with an organizer from one of the ILF district conferences today and they are having an interesting experience with their budget. Over the past couple of years, they've been running good profits. As a result, this year they decided to lower the fees, etc anticipating being able to draw off their balance. They apparently were just instructed this week that that due to the economy, they will not be able to touch their tidy balance and would have to more than double their conference fee. That's all she knew at this point.

Does it mean that it is required for conference organizer to increase their conference registration fee no matter what, or they need to increase the conference fee just because they can't use $$ in their backup account/fund?

@Vincci -- Both I guess. They were told they couldn't touch their fund and ILF suggested and/or told them to up their registration fee. I'll see the person again on Monday and I'll see if I can get more/better details. I have no idea if the situation is specific to their situation or if it's federation-wide.

I think that you always have to plan your conference financial plan to make a small profit, but you can overestimate your expected number of attendees to keep the overall fee lower per person. If fewer people actually register, that is not the committee's fault, and ILF will have to cover the deficit from the Conference Profit Account. I asked Linda Kolb once, and she said that ILF cannot touch the individual profit to cover any other ILF expenses, though I suppose they do provide an appearance that ILF is in the black, even if their operating expenses accounts are dwindling.

Have we decided on what we are going to do for breakfast and lunch yet? If not, is there a deadline that we need to make a decision and notify catering?

Excellent questions, Vincci!

We're getting Ball State's University Catering to do our lunch... A bit ago, we'd voted on the box lunch option...

Steve and Stacy at BSU have been really great at helping getting all the pieces in place for our food and parking (Thanks guys!)...

We're thinking of bringing in snacks for the afternoon - granola bars, chips and pop sound good to people? BSU is letting us bring in "outside food" for the snacks - so this will be cheaper...

Question: Do people want breakfast?
- I'm open to it, but we'd not talked about it... Perhaps, if yes, we could bring in outside stuff?
Or should we nix it altogether?

Best,

Alison

Hi All -

My Apologies! My memory failed me (not the first time) - we'd all voted on the Italian Buffet option from BSU Catering!

Alison

Do we have room no. for where sessions and lunch will be held? If yes, we will need to do the room assignment and set up sign for it? Do we need any other signs?