Call to Meeting: Wednesday, June 28 @ 7pm - 8:30pm

wbilyeu

wbilyeu

Guest
The Convention Planning Committee has voted to present three (3) venue bids to SLEC for the 2024 Texas State Convention.

I am calling an electronic meeting of the SLEC to hear and consider the proposals, approve a venue, and authorize the Chair to negotiate a contract. I will call the meeting to order at 7pm CST and plan for 90 minutes. The agenda will run 30 minutes for presentation by Jodi, 30 minutes for Q&A, and then a vote to authorize the Chair (me) to negotiate a contract with the chosen venue.

Update: Google Meet or Zoom will likely be the meeting platform we use. I ask that you check your technical capabilities in advance of the meeting to ensure you will be able to participate. I believe both options offer a call-in (by phone) feature, as well. More details to come…
 
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That is the purpose for which the meeting is being called. However, it cannot be confirmed that SLEC will, in fact, actually vote because the calling of a meeting does not compel a vote.
 
I was under the impression that we were going to El Paso. Is there some reason I had that impression. As a matter of fact, Kyle and I even had a discussion about getting there via train. Someone help me out here.

Secondly, another board I serve on has conventions twice yearly, fall and spring. We have an Events VP who notifies us of where the conventions will be held based on what is best for the organization. He or she reports to the board regarding why the best venue was chosen. We trust this person to do his or her job. Is there some reason the committee is unable to select a city and venue?
 
I likely missed it, but is there a compelling reason why we aren’t doing this at a normal meeting? And is it possible to schedule this when the entire planning committee can be in attendance?

For those who might not have been on SLEC the last time, we weren’t given advance info and were asked to vote on the recommendation at the time it was made. Many on SLEC trust the committee to make the call and are happy to follow their recommendation without question. I am decidedly not one of those. This is the largest single financial transaction that this body has the authority to make. While I appreciate and respect the committee’s efforts, I personally would find it a dereliction of my duty to the members of this party if I didn’t do my due diligence.

I hope the committee will provide the following but if there is no plan to, please let me know so that I may provide it to the body to assist their decision making process. I’m also willing to assist the committee in putting something together if they are so inclined. I’d like to see a year on year type comparison of the past several conventions including pertinent information such as Gross Revenue, Total Expenses, Number of Attendees, etc. Any data that might help the body determine if a particular location and cost is the “right” call. If I recall correctly, last time came down to really 2 options and one was about twice the cost of the other (something like $70,000 vs $40,000). I was very concerned about our ability to raise the money necessary given we had never spent that level of cash on convention before. We were effectively going out on a financial limb…and while I do this a LOT with my own money, I have a difficult time risking the money of others. My main concern here is that if we are again asked to approve a high dollar venue, that we have the data to be able to say “This is a safe bet and here is why” instead of what we were told last time that effectively amounted to “If we don’t raise enough to cover all the costs, no biggie, that’s what we have the standing account for.”

I can also say that if we aren’t provided info ahead of the meeting, I won’t be voting during the meeting. We are 3 days away from this meeting as it is. Maybe some of you have made $70,000 decisions on the spot, but that’s not something I’m used to doing. Being on this committee was the first and only time I’ve ever done it and I promised myself I’d never do that again.
 
The committee made its decision on Friday night, and I called the meeting accordingly. The proposals have expiration dates, all of which are well before our next in-person meeting. One expires Thursday, in fact. This decision is already late in my opinion, and should not be delayed until August.

Update: Proposal details will be sent to your SLEC email for review.
 
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