Due to all the talk about events and meeting places I decided to make a few phone calls today.  I haven't called public schools yet.  If you have any other ideas, let me know and I will be happy to call them.

 

The are geared more towards public presentation.  Your event has to be approved.  They cannot accomodate a group of 80+ people until after library hours.  The cost for that is $1,100 and you have to use one of their caterers.  You have to pay to park.

 

1. Priority is given to County library meetings and activities, library co-sponsored activities, Salt Lake County activities and other nonprofit organizations.
2. Nonprofit organizations may reserve rooms up to 60 days in advance of an activity. Inquiries regarding extended reservations may be made through Customer Services (943-4636).
3. Rooms are available from 10:15 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday or 10:15 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
4. All meetings must be open to the public unless closed by a public body in accordance with the Utah Open and Public Meetings Act.
5. The person reserving the room must agree to the terms and conditions of the use of the room. Online applications are considered a valid signature.
6. The individual reserving the room must have a valid library card in good standing and be at least 18 years old. This person will be designated as the responsible party and is legally responsible for any damages or breach of agreement.
7. The library reserves the right to change or alter previously scheduled reservations at its discretion with prior notice to the responsible party to accommodate a group with a higher priority.
8. Meetings held for commercial purposes are prohibited, including organizations whose primary purpose is to sell or solicit names for future sales or business referrals.
9. No admission fees may be solicited or collected at the library. Sale of products or services is not permitted on library property.

Charges

3. Damage to Library premises or equipment as a result of large meeting room use will be charged to the individual who reserved the room.

User Responsibilities

1. Group activities and room use cannot interfere with library business. This includes the impact an event will have on availability of parking for regular library business.

2. No food or drink will be allowed in the rooms without library staff permission, with the exception of water in screw-top plastic containers.

3. The library reserves the right to enforce the fire codes, noise limitations or any other rule approved by the Library Board.

4. Setup and cleanup of all tables and chairs, including returning furniture to original locations is the responsibility of the reserving party.

5. All rooms must be vacated 15 minutes before library closing. Any group or individual who does not vacate in a timely fashion will forfeit their deposit.

6. Salt Lake County Library Services is not responsible for any group’s equipment, materials or personal belongings damaged or stolen.

7. Groups are responsible for complying with the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) and for providing requested accommodations for meetings or programs. A statement regarding the availability of accommodations must be included in all publicity or notices.

 

Can only accomodate 50 people

 

Four hours or less is $200.  Use their caterers

 

Cannot accomodate a group of 80+ until after hours.  $1,400.  The plus is you get to rent the whole museum

 

$200 plus $50 deposit. Can't accomodate a group that big for dinner.  Have to book a year in advance.

 

Minimum of 70 people.  First 2 hours are free then $100 an hour after that.  Must have them cater.  $14-$30 per person plus 18% gratuity.  (not too bad IMO)

 

Several options. 

1.  $125 room for 8 hours

2. $250 room fo 8 hours

3. $1,500 for 8 hours

 

Karen Gail Miller Conference

72 people--$190

152 people- $350

 

Miller Free enterprise Center

96 people $160

 

Deb

 

 

 

Remind me again in April why we were all so concerned! I predict April attendance = < 80, May attendance < 75, June attendance < 70, July attendance < 65 and so on through Sept / Oct .

 

I really hope I'm wrong, but historically attendance peaks in Jan/Feb and declines until the leaves are raked and the boats are put away.

 

I dont get it.....It shows just how good a deal we get at the Rose Garden.

Minimum of 70 people.  First 2 hours are free then $100 an hour after that.  Must have them cater.  $14-$30 per person plus 18% gratuity.  (not too bad IMO)

 

BARF!  We had our company Christmas dinner there.  I had to leave early - it was horrible food!  The most overdune and dry prime rib I've ever had.

 

My BAD!!!! I fully agree!!!!!

 

Adam

What was the Jan 15, 2008 and Jan 15, 2007 membership numbers. The reason is, your predictions on drop off will certainly happen, but it will be based on percentages and should be adjusted to this years beginning numbers.  And, do we keep attendance counts for the meetings, because we have to account for guests too.

I am glad it has been brought up, and seeing that it is being looked at. That is what the Presidency is for. So if any thing else the people that are complaning should be THANKFULL that the club is at least looking into it. I am sorry that not all got tickets. if they feel that bad I will sell mine to them and they can take our food choices. Pm ME and I will sell them to you!            40$ for the pair.

 

I do see both sides of this argument. so I am not taking sides just saying it as I see it.

 

Will actually told us the same thing at dinner after the meeting this month.  We were talking about horrible food and he brought up the dry prime rib there.

 

Deb

 

I agree.  I was actually given the numbers of a few by the lady at the Salt Lake City library but I personally don't want to open up a religious can of worms.

 

Deb

 

Were you at the Sheriff's Posse dinner there.  I didn't know you were in that club too.

 

Your post is almost word for word what I was going to say.  Did you get a choice of drink or just red punch for everyone...even diabetics.

 

We only have about 16 members in the Sheriff's Posse and I felt so bad for the girl, the VP by the way, that booked that place.  We loved her presentation, but every comment on the food was bad.  No wonder the Sheriff sent his 2nd in his place.

 

We had a banquet room and not the actual Gather Place.  I was so looking forward to a great piece of Prime Rib, my favorite food ever, and it was just like you experienced it.  Very dry, WAAAAAYYYYY overcooked and cold to boot.  We only got horse radish and beef broth after half the room complained about the meat.

 

Sad Really, I've always heard good things about the restaurant there.  Next time I want Prime Rib it's off to Texas Roadhouse. 

 

 

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....... Roadhouse......Auugggghhhhh!!!!

 

I second that. If we are under contract we stay there. if we continue to grow we need to really look into other places. I wasnt meaning like change the meeting location this month. I mean for the future events.

 

I do appreciate everyone calling around for info though.

 

Do you guys have town halls out here? we always rented the town hall for parties back home. i remember it being pretty cheap.

 

I disagree. The time is not wasted on this discussion. I have not discussed this or heard the issues involved until now.  I am learning from it. I believe that those people interested should be encouraged to voice their opinions and ideas.

This is the most discussion we've had on moving in years.  Maybe through all this we'll find a better place.  I hope people keep calling around for us.

 

Also, I hope people keep giving us suggestions and recommendations... as long as it  doesn't turn into people just giving us complaints.

 

Adam

 

Put the entire banquet thing aside and are some points, and some questions:

 

1.  I have been to two meetings, and it was uncomfortable both times

2. November, December and January are probably the biggest membership months

3. New member's first impressions (at least this year) ar most likely that the club is way too big for the space inside and parking is too much of a hassle

4. This most likely effects their desire to continue to come to meetings

5. Attendance drops off beginning in April

 

Questions:

1. Was the meeting space as overcrowded last year for these months?

2. Do we care if the meeting space is overcrowded (for any month(s))

3. What does the membership population curve look like over the last year and a half? What were the membership numbers for these months in particular, how does it compare to last year? (I have asked this question in a number of posts. If someone wants to give me the membership records <no names, just date joined records> I can do some analysis on it in excel)

 

I am giving out these comments not to somehow criticize the current or past leadership, but rather to get it out there while there is time to do something about it before next year.

 

Jan 08  > 100

Feb 08  = 80

Mar 08 = 50

Apr 08 = 66

May 08 = ?

Jun 08 = ?

Jul 08 = 37

Aug 08 = 55

Sept 08 = ?

Oct 08 = 65

Nov 08 = ?

Dec 08  >100

Jan 09 > 80

Feb 09 = 80 (tickets sold)

 

Not sure if this will give you enough to work with.  These are meeting attendance and not memberhship numbers.  I think these figures are more relevant to choosing a venue. We tend to have a spike in membership in Dec and Jan (by design) as people renew and buy memberships for the discounts / benefits at those two meetings. Unfortuanately, even if we have 175 members in July, we only get a small % of those out to that meeting. 

 

Terence your right. I'm generalizing my answerers based on Discussion on this topic over the last few years, The arguments of the last few months demanding change on everything from venue to toilet paper. And my own stresses of yesterday. I was extremely annoyed yesterday and showed it in my postings.

 

I agree that IF a suitable venue can be found that it needs to be explored by all means. I'm hopeful that we will continue to grow and as that happens there will be growing pains. We must accept that challenge and move forward. What I took from yesterday "right or wrong"  Is the idea that changes needed to be made right now. (wanting things changed so more people can attend the banquet or see the speaker.) As you all know it takes time to make changes. especially if it impacts funds, attendance and participation. I'm amazed and thrilled by all of the volunteers that have stepped forward this year and offered their services. It is an exciting time to be involved with.

 

As more exploration into different venues are done. We will have a lot of options available. With that knowledge we can have a great discussion on the next step.

Jul 08 = 37

 

is it possible this meeting was so low because of july fourth and the meeting held on the week of a holiday? i know we are booked in advance for certain days and this cant be changed but i kind of expect that low of attendance because of the fourth

 

I think the membership numbers and how they compare to historical will be the best method to determine the future. Sure it spikes at the end of the year and during the frag-fest, but how much spike was 12/2007 and 1/2008 over 12/2006 and 1/2007 and then over 12/2008 and 1/2009 (assuming the events and/or meeting content were similar).  Although only a small fraction of the membership shows up, month to month that percentage is probably fairly well correlated to the overall membership.

 

Again, looking forward and not trying to say anything about the past, if we want to be on top of the need, we should simply have things in place to guage and anticipate the need.

 

1. Have a small raffle of 3 door prizes at each meeting. This would be interesting and if there is only one ticket per person, it is a great way to get actual attendance numbers.

2. Correlate the ongoing membership number to the attendance

3. Plan accordingly.

 

It is entirely possible that a change in leadership and ideas for meeting format, activities, etc. will change the attendance and keeping track of that will also help us have real numbers to go by when/if we need to make a decision to change venues.

 

We clearly have a ceiling somewhere on the number of people our current venue will allow.  If we are unwilling to move as we approach that number, the other option is to do what a past club I was in did...they simply capped membership and created a waiting list.

Summer attendance is always lower. I'm sure the holiday had much to do with it. I believe the garden seats 150. With the exception of the end of year/beginning of year meetings we are far below that number. (thanks for posting Shane)

 

Interesting fact. The slowest months for the LFS's are the summer months. People gravitate outside to enjoy the weather. The stores I work with all are thrilled when the weather turns bad so people will pay more attention to their tanks and come see them

  Special meetings need special places.

The Rose Garden Is a great place for" MOST." Until attendance exceeds 60-70. One or two meetings at another facility would suffice.   I.M.O.   This will positively bring confusion to future meetings, as far as Where? What time? How do I get there? Why cant they just leave well enough alone?

     Who knows Maybe someone else has a great spot we can all sit and geek....

My house can fit about 12 (comfortably with seats!) if anyone wants to say hi!

I think it must be more like a rough estimate given the rounded figures above. Who is the "historian" anyway? Should we come up with a more accurate method for counting by using one of the methods above I suggested?

 

Dion Richins wrote: I believe the garden seats 150

That is both rooms, right? So that must mean that the side we use seats about half that? Just curious, how many seats did we have out the last couple of meetings?

 

BTW, I am still curious to see the membership roll over time with unique IDs instead of names, dates of membership, renewal, city, etc. I am willing to analyze this data and give you guys any insight I can squeeze out on club growth, attrition rates, geographical info, etc. using pivot tables or whatever it takes. This could help with future planning.

 

I was the historian last year.  But I can't speak for before 2008 on that as it wasn't my job.

 

I would wait until the presentation started, and then count all the adults.  I'd count something like 72 adults, and then see whe'd have a few kids there as well.  So I'd just count that as 75.  Plenty accurate if ask me.  Who cares what the exact numbers are?  You're welcome to sit at the door with a clicker, but honestly even as pres I just need an idea of how many to plan for so exact numbers are more work than necessary. 

 

This all seems to be a lot of talk for nothing.  We've had more people at the Rose garden before without issues.  If we find a better place, great, we'll move. 

But if we don't, great, we'll stay.  As has been mentioned many times it serves our club well and it doesn't appear like we need to move anytime soon.

 

It really isn't that big of a deal people.  I'm glad to see everyone cares so much about the club, but don't stress over it.

 

Adam

 

I think this spring we'll have around 80 at our meetings.  Summertime I'm guessing 50 people.  Next fall that will shoot up to 80 real quick, and 150 at the conference. 

Next December will be huge.  Over 100 again, and next January's Frag Fest will top 130. 

 

In general we sell 200 memberships in a year.  About half are new people and half are returning.  Our club slowly grows in memberships, and in attendance.

 

However, we did routinely get over 100 people for a while back in 2003 or so.  I was president at the time and it really looked like we were going to outgrow the Rose Garden.  It was discussed on having two meetings at the same time.  A beginner meeting in one room and an advanced meeting in the other room.  We may hit that point again this coming fall.

 

But honestly, I don't forsee us outgrowing the Rose Garden anytime soon.

 

Adam

 

Mike

 

Adam