[6659] in APO-L
HELLO/1996 Nationals Time and Place
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Richard Edward Vehlow)
Thu Sep 9 22:27:23 1993
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1993 22:25:58 -0400
Reply-To: Richard Edward Vehlow <vehlor@rpi.edu>
From: Richard Edward Vehlow <vehlor@rpi.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L%PURCCVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
Hi. This is REV from EZ. I am not subscribed to APO-L or APOSOC-L, so for the
last 4 months, I have no idea what has been going on there. I am visiting my
campus presently, and have found my old account to be still in order and
operational, surprisingly. I am expecting this account to die and two new ones
to be born soon, so a response here may not be read. Of course, any response
snail mailed to my home address will be read. It is:
67-48 Springfield Blvd. Bayside, NY 11364
Currently, I have been unemployed since graduation and have been looking for
a mechanical engineering position. Help!!!
Anyway, on to my other topics- Nationals 1996 Time/Place Proposals.
Though i do not have the ability to create an actual bid for the convention,
I would like to strongly suggest that Las Vegas, Nevada be the site of the
1996 national Convention. Here are my reasons:
1. Weather. Hot and Dry in Summer, Mild and Dry in Winter. The last two
conventions have been plagued by ruinous rainy or snowy weather. Nevada is the
driest state in the Union. I think there's 4" of rain year round. I was in LV
in July and for one week, I saw ONE small cloud.
2. Hotel Space. It is advertised that 12 of the world's largest hotels are in
Las Vegas. The current largest, the Excalibur, has 4032 rooms, and the soon-
to-open MGM Grand will have over FIVE THOUSAND. Figuring that the average room
holds 2 or 4 persons, a hotel with over 10,000 person capacity is probably
large enough to have a 2000 person convention! Most Strip hotels have 1000+
rooms.
3. Hotel prices: Unsure of convention rates, but I do know that the Excalibur
regular room rates are only $45-$60 or something like that.
4. Meal prices: The best. You can get buffet prices of $3-$7 for breakfast,
lunch or dinner at many hotels. These buffets usually have incredible variety
of virtually any food you can think of.
5. Facilities. Most hotels have the facilities to do ANYTHING.
6. Activities. Let me put it this way. There are dozens of hundred+ magazines
at any time which just list shows, attractions and deals in the city. In one
week I saw 4 shows, Hoover Dam, Death Valley, Valley of Fire, played in a
blackjack tournament and relaxed poolside. The 21+ crowd can enjoy the casinos
and other legal adult attractions, whereas the under 21 crowd will definitely
be overwhelmed with shows, amusements, and sights, to name but a few topics.
Las Vegas is also safe and open 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The action in
the casino of the hotel I stayed at (The Mirage) was as busy at 2am as it was
at 2pm!
Each hotel has it's own set of attractions. For example: The Mirage has a
volcano in the front that erupts flaming oil every 15 minutes, a dolphin tank,
a shark tank behind the registration desk, waterfalls galore, an extremely
large pool, 3000 rooms, and the look of a Walt Disney World for the wealthy in
general. The Excalibur is in the shape of a tremendous castle and has King
Arthur's Court and a Midieval Carnival. Two new indoor theme parks will be
opening up in the next year at Circus Circus and MGM Grand. Treasure Island,
due to open in November will have a live Pirate Battle complete with drowning
sailors and sinking ships every hour. And I can keep going...........
So that's my pitch for the site. As for the time:
I propose that National Conventions be held in the summer rather than crammed
in the Christmas week. My reasons:
1. Weather.
2. Generally, people would want to be with their families during that week.
I've gotten feedback on this from other brothers who have this problem, as
well as me. Having to break from the family to do this every other year,
(with the odd numbered years for our Regionals!) creates some friction.
3. The date can be flexible, and therefore more hotels would be possible.
(Eliminating the situation where another convention on the particular
weekend would eliminate that hotel from any consideration at all)
4. I suggest overlapping an entire weekend. That way, those who work during
the summer need only take off 2-3 days.
5. Airline fare wars. It happened this past summer for one, and the most
sizable chunk of a brother's National's budget can be reduced this way.
6. People are in a more travel state of mind in the summer and would be more
likely to travel to the conference.
In short, I think more brothers would find the summer more convenient over
Christmas break to hold Nationals (and any other convention, for that matter)
than vice versa.
Since I do not subscribe to APO-L, would someone be so kind as to compile the
net discussion of this over the next week or two and mail me a hard copy to
the address above? The next time I access APO-L, I'll provide my response to
the discussion. I expect that will be in mid- October.
In LFS,
Richard E Vehlow
REV
EZ
RPI '91 '93
.
