I have to make a general announcement to the readers of The Little Pink Clubhouse. For the next week, I’ll be blogging the Romance Writers of America’s conference in San Francisco. I will be covering other subjects (my Seattle Seahawks are in training camp!) but it’s all romance, all the time till next Sunday!
Without further ado, let’s introduce a subject that’s left a thorn in the side of a large number of those attending RWA’s national conference this year. The workshop handout binder that’s typically given to all attendees? They’ve decided not to print them this year.
Another attendee has spoken her mind on this issue.
http://www.leeannburke.com/blog/2008/07/16/rwa-national-conference-handout-fiasco/
Ok so I have to print my own copies of 279 pages pack it and hope like hell it won’t increase my luggage weight over the minimum now enforced by air carriers. Have they refunded us the amount of this cost? No. Are they sending out a clear and precise note to everyone who registered that they are to print their own copies? Nope, the note they sent told us we could now download the handouts and hidden deep in the email was a tiny little note about not having handouts at the conference.
Rawk on, Leeanne.
I’ll be attending my third RWA national conference this year. I am a note-taker to the tenth power, because it’s how I learn. When I am taking notes, I’m taking them in the conference binder attendees have been given for years now. Yes, it’s 250+ pages. I pack that thing around for several days. When I come home, I read over the notes I’ve taken again, and again, and AGAIN. (I have the notes I took from Deb Dixon’s “GMC” class in Atlanta two years ago on my desk right now, for instance.) It’s a handy method of keeping them all together. Plus, I can read the handouts from other classes I didn’t have time to go to. This is how I justify the expense of National — the classes are something I can’t get on a local level, for the most part. If they were so concerned with “going green” and the expense involved in printing 2,000 handout binders, why not print them for those who expressed the desire at registration to receive one, and give “the majority” the CD they asked for instead? RWA can negotiate much more favorable printing rates than a conference attendee standing in the hotel’s business center can (which is one of the suggestions they’ve made for those unhappy with this decision).
There are probably those who are wondering why I have my panties in such a wad over something that ultimately, I can do nothing about. The decision’s been made. (We’ve received three different excuses as to why the decision’s been made. I’m wondering why an organization populated by writers can’t seem to improve their communication skills, but that’s a rant for another day.) Here’s my damage: This is the latest in a long series of takeaways by conference organizers, and I’d sure like some truthful explanations as to why.
Our conference is in San Francisco this year. San Francisco’s expensive. Most would agree. Our conference fee went up $75.00. The conference hotel “sold out” almost immediately, as it does every year. The official word is that the hotel “won’t give more rooms”. I’d like to know how the hotel doesn’t give more rooms to a group of two thousand when we’ve rented it for the week.
We lost two meals. Not a big deal, you’re saying? One of those meals is the Saturday afternoon luncheon. Saturday is the longest day of this conference, seeing as how classes begin at 8:30, run till 5:30, and attendees are then getting ready for the awards ceremony at 8. We have a forty-five minute lunch break at noon. I talked to a restaurant one block from the hotel last Thursday while making a reservation for three on Wednesday for lunch. They had no idea there was a conference in town. Imagine how fun it will be for them (and every other eatery within running distance of the hotel) when they’re descended on by conference attendees that have 45 minutes to order, eat and run back for the afternoon sessions.
I’m at National this year for the classes and for my RITA nominee friends. Yeah, I have a good time. At the same time, this is my career. When the frustrations involved in attending National outweigh the value received, perhaps it’s time to really “go green” and offer another alternative. How about suggesting that the three main regional conferences — New Jersey, Chicago and Seattle — be used as “mini Nationals”, with $upport from the main organization? How about streaming National’s workshops and the awards ceremony on the Web for a fee?
It’s ideas. In the meantime, I’m back to packing!
-S
