Back from Convention

Back from the National Convention - its was a lot of fun, although the kids had issues that pulled my wife back early. See my other blog for more on that.

Met several people from the Vegas chapter. They promised me some lessons learned info in the coming weeks. I'll probably not hound them until the end of April. But, couple of things:

1. Always have back-up speakers for the tours. Several dropped out at the last minute in Vegas.
2. DO NOT give your cell number out unless you want people calling you at all hours all week.
3. Make sure the Institute DOES NOT give out your cell number.
4. We are responsible for staffing the Delegates booth at registration, or at least Vegas was & no one told them.
5. Should probably staff the chapter booth at all times ANYTHING is going on near the booth. This year, the show, continuing ed, bookstore, etc. were all together so basically, from 7:15 AM to 4:30 PM, there were people.
6. Need to have a raffle &/or give aways at the booth. Vegas did the HUGE hottub, but that's not a good idea. They wish they had done DVD players & cameras like we did.
7. Need to have some maps & brochures of attractions & knowledgeable people at the booth.
8. Who does the chapter pins? Vegas didn't do them, but the Institute did - & they're ugly!
9. Might consider doing & selling chapter shirts & hats - either tees or golf shirts. Balto 1998 had a great looking golf shirt - some dude wore his & showed us.
10. Golf outing is getting small or else it was in Vegas. Chris said they had 4 sponsors & 70 golfers. That's not a lot of money to be made.
11. Ask for forgiveness from the Institute, not permission - I can tell you how many people asked for a pin or button from Baltimore. We should have just been giving the things out without asking!

We need a close accounting of what we spent for Vegas so we can know what we need to make up later. It looks like Vegas may have over estimated the revenues from the golf outing. What else can we do to make money? We might be able to make a little of the shirts & hats, but no where near what we spent on Vegas or will spend on Balto.