2008 - 2009
MASFAA LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS COMMITTEE
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Teleconference
9 a.m. – 11 a.m.
Present:
Diane Borchardt, Nichole Lien, Doug Minter, James Hammar (filling in for Jarod Paulson), Nate Rosckes, Michelle Ahrendt, Cappy Breuer, and Ken Wallace.
Absent:
Jarod Paulson, Brad Riebel, Carol Swenson, Lois Larson and Rick Shipman.
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Roll Call |
Roll Call was taken. Carin Bullerman has left Wells Fargo. LuGail Hamel will be replacing Carin Bullerman as Chair of the President’s Reception Committee. Thanks LuGail! |
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Committee Reports (Membership, Overview of Duties) |
Michelle Ahrendt was absent at our last meeting so she provided her Committee Report today. On July 14, 2008, Michelle spoke with Kathy Mills, the current Chair of MASFAA Vendor Relations. - Kathy had a co-chair, Leigh Cameron from Chase. Kathy suggested at least one other person besides her Co-chair for a total of two or three on the committee. - Kathy was also Chair for Signage and she recommended not to do both and keep it separate (which is what we have done). - Michelle stated she will work very closely with the 2009 MASFAA Corporate Support Chair. Michelle was also wondering when Rick Shipman will elect his committee chairs. - Kathy said they called the Duke Energy Center for advice for a drayage company. Duke Energy Center recommended Academy Rentals because that is who they worked best with. Academy Rentals was also the first company to respond with a bid. If we need drayage, Michelle will need to submit three different bids. Kathy stated that all the bids that came back were extremely high and they had to do a lot of negotiating to work down the price. Their final choice was Academy Rentals because of the close relationship with the Duke Energy Center. We may not need drayage if the Marriott provides it. - Academy Rentals also sent our packets to the vendors and to the Committee chair so everyone knew the expectations. Email blogs went to the vendors later by the committee for reminders. - The committee also worked closely with the Duke Energy Center for maps and room layout for the vendors. - Kathy Mills gave Michelle her cell phone (937) 572-7719 and offered to meet with her and Leigh in October at the MASFAA Conference. - Michelle has added Jana Vanderah, from Wells Fargo, on her committee.
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Evening Entertainment Update |
Due to Brad’s absence, Nichole gave Brad’s updates that she received from him prior to the meeting: Brad spoke with Jason Reinohl, ’08 Local Arrangements Co-Chair and entertainment contact. For Cincinnati, they will have a welcome dinner on Sunday that will start at 5 p.m. with keynote, awards and a buffet dinner as well as a local choir group or band. On Sunday night (after dinner) they plan to have a bunch of big screen TV's set up in the ballroom at the hotel. The TV's will have baseball, football games, as well as a movie and Wii game. Monday night is dinner on your own. On Tuesday they will have "Concessions" in the exhibit area and conference attendees are expected to purchase their own lunch. Tuesday evening entertainment is use of the Freedom Center which is an underground railroad center and museum. They will have a buffet dinner and cash bar at the Freedom Center.
After our last teleconference, Brad was going to “save the date” with the Mall of America for Tuesday, October 20, 2009 in case we decide to go with having our entertainment at the MOA that evening. The tentative plan is that we would have approximately 350-400 adults for dinner and drinks from approximately 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sue (from MOA) said the room use fee is normally $1,500 but she would be willing to work with us on that based on our food and beverage purchases. ***The Mall of America is requesting a $500 deposit by August 1, 2008. If we decide to go with booking the MOA and hosting a dinner with possible light entertainment or free time for members to shop, view Underwater Adventures, attend Nickelodeon Park, and/or visit bars/restaurants we need to make sure that we have transportation options lined up before we pay any non-refundable deposit (and make sure that this is something that we want to definitely do). (Cincinnati is estimating 400 people so we
will use the same estimates for now) 2. Busing: If we do plan an event at the Mall of America, Brad recommends that we set up busing as our main mode of transportation and the light rail would be the "back-up transportation" for those who would just rather take the train to the MOA or want to stay at the MOA after 10 or 11pm. Brad contacted the Richfield Bus Company and they could provide 6 buses (58 passengers each) to take people to the MOA and drop at the Mall's North Entrance. Brad is thinking they would have three buses (between 8 and 10 or 11pm) available to bring people back from the MOA to the Marriott. Of course we can hire more buses for longer periods of time if we want to pay for it. The cost for the motor coaches would be approx $2,500. Busing is not cheaper however Brad believes that it is a better way to transport this large group. Brads contact at MOA suggested that motor coach would be much more visitor friendly, compared to the Light rail train that drops people off at the transit station in the dark sub-basement of the Mall and would require a fairly lengthy walk to the Great Room.. 3. Meal Expense. If we plan for 300 - 400 people attending, the meal expense can range from $30 to $50 per person. The MOA seems to be willing to work within our budget to give us what we want. Brad believes that $40 per person would be a very safe estimate. It's not cheap but it's probably not much different than what hotels charge or what they have spent on other conference activities of this nature. Cincinnati Tuesday evening entertainment has an estimated budget of $23,742 with a Projected Budget so far of $12,900.
MOA Estimated Budget $1,500 Great Room Fee $2,500 Busing $14,000 Meal Expense ($40 per person x estimated 350 people) $18,000 TOTAL
The committee discussed the MOA option and had a few concerns regarding having enough ‘free time’ for participants to shop, go to Nickelodeon Park, Underwater World, etc. The last session on Tuesday usually ends at 5 p.m. On a Tuesday evening, stores and the Nickelodeon Park close at 9: 30 p.m. and Underwater World closes at 8 p.m. It was suggested that we could advertise the MOA and transportation to and from and this could be an option for people to do on Monday evening when they have free time on their own. This would allow them more time to shop and visit the attractions. The committee also felt that we should view the Great Room if we were to rent the room out.
The committee would like to look into other ideas for Tuesday evening and suggested the following:
The committee would like Brad to look into these other entertainment options with the help of his Entertainment committee members. If Brad needs more assistance, please contact any of the current Local Arrangements Committee members to help. |
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Theme / Logo Update |
Our Theme is “Time To Refocus”. EAC created several logo designs that were emailed to the committee last week. The committee members preferred the logos on page 7 and 9 of the 3rd Edition. Logo number 9 (top of the page with primary colors) was the logo that we would recommend to Rick Shipman. Nichole will send all of the logos to Rick with our suggested top choice. The logo needs to be sent to the current Local Arrangements Chairs (Jason Reinoehl and Michiale Schneider) by August 1st in order to be included in the Cincinnati program. After Rick confirms which choice he wants, Nichole will provide it to Jason and Michiale.
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Cincinnati Promo for MASFAA 2009 |
One of Nichole’s assignments was to contact local Art Schools to see if any students would be interested in creating a video for our promo for a small fee or preferably as a school project / internship. Nichole contacted three schools (McNally College of Music, College of Visual Arts, or College of Art & Design) via email and received responses from 2 Alumni from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Both alumni charge for video creation. One charges $15/hr and the other $1,500 for the finished video. So, both of these options have fees involved. When Brad was working with the Mall of America, he spoke with Dan Jasper (the Director of Public Relations) to see if they have a promotional video we can use and they do. In fact they are doing a brand new one that should be available for us. Brad told Dan that he would plan to use the new video and get back in touch with him in September. Brad noted that of course we will want to view it first. Doug suggested that we obtain a copy of the current promotional MOA video and see what we think of the current one. Brad will contact Dan Jasper for a copy of the current video.
So, one option for our promo would be to use the MOA promotional video and having our committee members hand out copies of “Fun Minnesota” brochures while the video is running.
The committee also discussed looking for promotional videos at the State Tourism Division; Explore MN website (there is a “Meet Mpls” link on this site); MN-Visitor.com; or seeing if the Republican Convention is using a video to promote their event. Nichole will look into these options.
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Cincinnati Attendees
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The following committee members confirmed whether they will be attending MASFAA 2008 in Cincinnati:
Yes: Ken, Brad, Jarod, Carol, Nichole, Michelle, Cappy and Diane No: Nate and LuGail Maybe: Doug |
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Next Meeting |
Nichole will set up a teleconference for September to review final Promo options and any committee tasks that should be reviewed before the conference in Cincinnati. Please let Nichole know if you have any agenda items or issues that you would like discussed before we leave for the Cincinnati Conference.
For the next meeting, Nichole will work with Dick Battig to obtain Marriott Room information (all levels that will be available for us to use; room sizes; etc.) so we can map it out for Cappy’s Program Committee so they know how many sessions / room sizes / they will have when creating their Program.
Continue to think of a charity that would be good to use for our conference and provide the information to Carol.
Next Meeting:
Wednesday, September 3, 2008 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. Teleconference
Please let Nichole know if you are unable to make this teleconference
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Respectfully submitted by, Nichole Lien Local Arrangements |
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