[19754] in APO-L
Re: 2000 National Convention
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lisa M. Covi)
Fri Dec 11 08:49:15 1998
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 08:46:38 -0500
Reply-To: "Lisa M. Covi" <covi@scils.rutgers.edu>
From: "Lisa M. Covi" <covi@SCILS.RUTGERS.EDU>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
Concerning the advantages and disadvantages of bid cities, I URGE both
bid committees and any who have an opinion on the topic to remember
not only the importance of the site selection, but also the dedication
that brothers from bid committees and convention committees have
already shown in their work to produce a wonderful convention for us.
Please keep your comments on a positive level and reserve the debate
for the time and place committee and the floor when all the issues can
be revealed. There will be winners and losers in the site selection
decision and a lot of heartbreak without having weaknesses of each bid
and errors of past conventions being publicly discussed. The
convention belongs to all of us and whether or not there is a
snowstorm or a shortage of a certain kind of room or something doesn't
run so smoothly, we need to be constructive and ask what, if anything,
can we do to help.
I write this as a the past chair of the Pittsburgh in 84 bid committee
and a member of the Phoenix convention committee. In 84, it was tough
to see how delegates didn't really seem to take Pittsburgh seriously,
though we felt it had a lot to offer and would have put on a great
convention. However, when we lost, our chapter volunteered to
co-chair the publications convention committee with the team from the
other losing bid, Boston.
If you are truly serious about hosting a convention, I urge each of
the bid teams to send people to volunteer at this convention when the
convention committee asks for volunteers (and they will) and tell them
what you enjoy about the convention even if you notice things aren't
going the way you expect. It's important to be honest about
shortcomings of past conventions, but keep in mind the people who
worked hard to make the Phoenix convention, for example, well remember
the things that didn't go as planned and bringing up those things in
insenstive ways can be hard on those of us who are already hard on
ourselves. I feel that volunteering for the current convention will
give you a small glimpse of what happens behind the scenes to make it
go. I'm very proud that our conventions have more heart and run more
efficiently than many of the professional-run conventions I attend.
So please, try to keep the bid process positive. The convention
belongs to all of us.
Yours in LFS,
Lisa Covi
Kappa '81, Gamma Pi '97
