Stephanie and others,

One of the reasons COA looks at larger venues for holding the
convention and bourse is the number of dealers that
participate.  Smaller hotels and towns away from tourist areas and
bigger cities historically have not had hotels and/or conference
centers large enough to accommodate the convention activities.  It
has already been proposed some years back to separate the running of
the bourse from the convention committee and hand it over to the
dealers.  And this was proposed by the dealers and not COA at a time
when the bourse began to have growing pains. The cost vs attendance
aspect has been discussed year after year by the executive
board.  Yes, divesting itself of the bourse would reduce the burden
upon COA, but COA at that time decided to keep the bourse as part of
its purview believing it was an important component to the convention.

There are dozens if not hundreds of details that come into play when
decisions are made as to where to hold a convention.  The first, and
most important of them being who will step up to the plate and host
the convention.  For 2010 it was the Boston club, and only the Boston
club.  Beyond that, there is an executive board that looks at the
feasibility of the proposed convention being offered by the host
club.  Every year they are well aware of the sensitivities of higher
priced venues and how it will affect convention attendance.

Now that hotels are slamming organizations with unreasonable
conference fees, COA needs to look creatively at how to continue to
make conventions accessible to new and long term members, while still
maintaining the original intent of having a convention.  The
registration and hotel costs fluctuate up and down from year to
year.  In the process the expense of traveling to a convention for
some may prohibit their participation when added on top of the local
convention costs.

Yet, schedule a COA convention at a small venue and the bourse
suffers due to space requirements; book a convention in a big city or
high rate tourist area and some cannot afford to attend -- it's a
vicious circle.  COA can try, but truly cannot accommodate everyone's
needs.  What COA seems to do best, based on my past experience, is to
afford those locally near the convention site, and those who are able
to travel, to participate in a well organized and interesting week of
shell collector activities.  And BTW, the Boston Malacological Club
and surrounding States in New England, down through the central
Atlantic States have a fair number of active collectors who I'm sure
are looking forward to attending their first COA convention.  I know
more than a few for whom this will be their first COA convention;
those that have not been able to attend in past years for the same
reasons some may not be able to attend this year; the cost.

And about charging to enter the bourse...the demographic of parents
with tween-age kids of which I am one, the group that COA should be
pursuing, is always looking for free activities to take their kids
to.  I am not saying a small fee could not be charged to
non-registrants, but offer something like, "kids under the age of __
enter the bourse free when accompanied by a parent" and there is a
higher probability that families will drop by to see what the bourse
is all about.  Yes, the COA membership is aging.  Like yourself I am
one of the younger members.  So here's an ideal opportunity to bring
in a group that will have a great potential for promoting to new and
younger prospective members.

Rich

At 07:48 PM 7/27/2010, you wrote:

>Another issue is the general age of attendee's, at 45 for example, I
>am one of the younger members of the Chicago Shell Club and based on
>the Mobile COA most attendees were much older. And unless something
>turns around then there is only one way this is going. So who knows
>what COA will be like when I am 70, but I hope it is still around in
>some form.
>
>My two and bit cents worth.
>
>Stephanie

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