Greetings everyone, I hope that you're having a pleasant summer! Your NSA Northwest Board has been busy at work cooking up some new and exciting things for this year's programming lineup. Our new website is already available, but more features are being added each week. And, ever vigilant, we're examining both our successes from last year and our needs for this coming year.
Moving to a hotel last year allowed the Saturday Workshops to expand and attendance to grow. In fact, attendance was up by 37%! The Board was unanimous in its support of continuing to have the Saturday Workshops in a hotel setting; it communicates our professional attitude, and it gives us room to network and grow.
Our contract with the Embassy Suites is ending and their new meeting room rate is considerably higher. To provide you more value and to continue being good stewards of your membership dollars, the Board has decided to move our meetings to the Coast Bellevue Hotel starting in November. This will provide you more value for your meeting dollars PLUS food. Now is that a delicious deal or what?
Last year's Antion Butt Camp brought in the additional funds we needed to make the move to the Embassy Suites from our previous venue without raising meeting fees. But with the higher room costs (even the Coast Hotel needs to charge us more than we budgeted), the Finance Committee felt that now is the appropriate time to raise fees, but only by $5 per category.
So Members will now pay $25 instead of $20 per meeting, Affiliates pay $40 instead of $35, and Guests pay $70 instead of $65. Just that little bit extra allows us to bring our budget in line with costs. With the move to the Coast Hotel, that extra $5 allows our food purchase to offset the room rental. We will move to the Coast Hotel starting with the November meeting, but the fee increase will start with the September meeting.
Having the food available though means that we must provide an accurate count to the hotel several days in advance of the meeting. As an extra incentive for you to sign up ahead of time for our meetings, the Board has voted a $10 additional cost per category for the Workshops if you sign up after the food deadline (which is the Tuesday night before the Saturday event). We are aware that other associations impose similar surcharges for last-minute registrations, so we feel comfortable with applying the additional cost to cover this financial exposure. Consequently, you'll want to always sign up before that deadline to get the EARLY BIRD pricing!
I'll be sending a series of emails to introduce you to the features afforded by our new website. One of the most exciting opportunities for our Members and Affiliates is the ability to post speaking opportunities directly on our site. We've also set up a special forum where Meeting Planners can log on and post Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for speaking. We've already received 2 requests for speakers and an inquiry from a speakers bureau, so if you Members and Affiliates haven't logged into the website yet, you'll want to check out the "Speaking Gigs" forums!
Members, Affiliates, and Vendor Partners can now directly update their contact information using the login credentials sent to them last month. If you've lost yours, please contact Susan Key to obtain your username and have your password reset.
Your NSA Northwest Board of Directors discussed these changes at length before implementing them, but we ALWAYS welcome your feedback. If you have questions or concerns, please send them to info@nsanorthwest.org. Susan will collect your comments and see that we receive them.
Thank you for your support of this chapter. Your Board will continue to look for ways to bring value to your membership and participation.
Yours sincerely,
Jocelyn 'Toolie' Garner
President, NSA Northwest
http://www.nsanorthwest.org
Toolie the TravelGuide(tm)
http://www.tooliethetravelguide.com
toolie@tooliethetravelguide.com
+1-425-830-0740
NSA Northwest exists to support and enhance the success of those who speak professionally.