Final Report - Annual Meeting Committee
September 24, 2004
Committee Chairperson: Joan Vandergriff

Committee Members: George Altheide, Carrie Batt, Katie Biddle, Terri-Lee Coleman, Karyl Dronen, Kristen Ellis, Kim Emery, Evin Evans, Linda Grilli, Larry Hedrich, Lisa Johnson, Deb Mangelsdorf, Seth Martin, Debbie McCandless, Roxane McCoy, Adam Milliron, John Pfeiler, Joseph Smith, Karen, Smith, Meg DeWitt, Joan Wilcox

1. Statement of Goals:
· Correct and revise Handbook for Hosting an ADGA Convention
· Seek new sponsors for Convention
· Develop personnel requirements for the Convention
· Develop a timeline for planning and implementation of all aspects of Convention
· Bid 2008 and later conventions
· Work on and clarify the relationships between the Annual Meeting Committee and the other ADGA
committees that host events at the Convention

2. Summary of Committee Work and Accomplishments:

· 2003 Convention Wrap-Up: Submitted before January 1, 2004, the accounting for the 2003 Convention. As of 12/31/03, our 2003 Convention account showed $25,008.27. A request was made to pay the VSGBA $12,514.34 as their half of the "profits." The club was paid. Two additional bills were received thereafter, which were paid from the ADGA Convention side, leaving $12,443.93, which is the money left after all expenses have been paid. This reflects ADGA's share of the excess funds for the 2003 Convention after all bills have been paid.

· Solicited changes and additions to the Handbook for Hosting an ADGA Convention. None were received.

· Asked committee members (as I asked Directors at 2003 Board Meeting) to find new sponsors for the 2004 Convention. Linda Grilli has been able to secure sponsorship from local companies, including Bierwirth Animal Health Supply and Western Mercantile, plus we have donated printing and banners. We have sponsorship commitments so far from Purina Mills, Inc., Caprine Estates, Billy Goat Gruff, MVE, Caprine Supply, Hoegger Supply, Khimaira Farm, Sydell, UCN, Wahl Clipper Products, and Bierwirth Animal Health Supply, Bodyshops Dairy Goats, Wood and Stream Creations, and Harshbarger Sharpening. We are continuing to pursue other sponsorships.

· The committee has been sent a preliminary "Committee Tasks List" for their response. It details the tasks that the local group is responsible for in detail for all aspects of the convention. No feedback has been received on this. I will solicit once again committee responses before sending it to the local host chairs for 2005, 2006 and 2007 Conventions.

· We have put into place an Annual Meeting Committee support group (Kim Emery, Kris Ellis, Karen Smith, and Joan Vandergriff) which has been tasked with helping the local host group with various aspects of the Convention. They are working closely with the local group as needed/requested on the Spotlight Sale tent, Products Reception, Flashlight Sale, Programming, Registration, and other aspects of Convention planning that they are familiar with and that the local host group requests support for. The support group assistance has been welcomed by the local host group and is working well as a model for future conventions..

· 2004 Convention: The local group in conjunction with the Annual Meeting support is continuing to work hard on the 2004 convention.

· The committee has passed two proposals to bring to the Board in October. See #5 below

· Implemented the planning and implementation schedule developed in 2003. We were on-time with our publicity for the first and second quarter News and Events submissions. Program and fees were set by July 1 in time for submission to the third quarter News and Events. Online convention and vendor registration were completed by August 10th, but we waited for News and Events to be mailed. By mid-August, we decided not towait for News and Events, and the online Convention registration and various other aspects of online registration went live. We developed a packet to be sent out to all who called or wrote the ADGA office for convention information since News and Events was not out at the planned time

· Our committee work was greatly impacted by the sudden and sad death of Jim Wilson. He was a central team member for us, and it was a shock and loss for us. However, we have been greatly impressed by Andrea Forrest's ability to step in and promptly get our convention website up and running with no problem. Ms. Forrest has met our website revision needs as they came up and we want to thank her for her work.

· I made a site visit in May to the hotel in Albuquerque to verify all of the arrangements made by the local committee plus try to wring out of the management concessions that we feel important to the overall quality of the convention. We did get them to lower the exhibit table cost (as per our contract), but the management has not been as forthcoming nor flexible as we would have liked.

· We have been working with the ADGA Products Committee on the national goat cheese competition to be held at the 2004 Convention. We would like to make this a regular event, perhaps a bi-annual event or based on the interest of area chefs and restaurant owners.

· 2005 Convention: The local host chairs have been corresponding and have been tasked with logo, t-shirt, other publicity, sponsorships, etc. I made a site visit to the KC Airport Hilton with those local chairs. Local host chairs are developing fundraising projects.

· I have been working with CVBs and local hotels from Buffalo and Rochester, NY, Rohnert Park, CA, Spokane, WA, Grand Rapids, MI, and Jackson, MS. We will have at least three and as many as five convention bids for the years 2008 and on.

· I informed President Considine at the 2003 Convention that I will not be available to chair this committee after the 2005 Convention and asked that we look for someone who would be willing to work with me and train to continue the oversight and overall planning that we've developed in the past few years for both this committee and the Conventions in general. By developing the support group, we are training a number of people who might be willing to step into this role. I will continue to work with this group and any others who might be willing to take on this huge and complicated chairmanship.

· We purchased two LCD projectors for use by the Convention. The money for this purchase came from what we are calling the "Accrued Convention Account."

3. Financial Statement: I will be making two site visits beginning October 4 to Rohnert Park, CA, and Spokane, WA, to view sites for future Conventions. A complete accounting of this trip will be sent when the trip is complete. The site visit to Albuquerque in May is an expense of the 2004 Convention. The "Accrued Convention Account" started 2004 with $20,000 (per Phil Cassette and Shirley McKenzie). We then debited the lcd projectors purchase from this account. This leaves a total (as of today) of $_______________.

4. Problems Encountered: News and Events, which for some of our members, is the only source of information about the Convention they receive, was so late that some members did not receive it in time to meet the deadline for the ADGA rate at the hotel. This was a serious problem for our members. Shirley and I had set up deadlines for News and Events early in the spring. Unfortunately, these were not met, and because we had no knowledge just how late this issue would, we were unable to get the Convention information out to those who had no computer access unless it was specifically requested. Obviously, we cannot repeat this next year. Shirley has suggested we put a form in the second quarter News and Events for people to request Convention packets when they become available. I believe we should send a bulk mailing of a convention packet in late July to all. This mailing will be expensive and could impact on the bottom line for our conventions. That is why I am bringing it up here.

5. Decisions Requiring Board Action: We have two proposals for the Board:

Proposal #l: We propose that the duties of the Annual Meeting Committee be split as follows: . The planning, supervision, participation, and financial oversight of the ADGA Annual Convention remain with the Annual Meeting Committee and its Chair.

. The development of proposals, bids, and the negotiations for future conventions (now the work of the Chair of the Annual Meeting Committee) would be handled by a new Committee, the Annual Meeting Long Range Planning Committee. This committee would be responsible for seeking out future potential Convention sites, determining the availability of a local host group, working with potential Convention and Visitors' Bureaus on suitable hosting facilities and host site activities, and negotiating with potential hotels and Convention and Visitors Bureaus. The current $1,000 available for travel, lodging and meals for visiting potential Convention sites would be shifted from the Annual Meeting Committee to the Annual Meeting Long Range Planning Committee. The Chair of this new committee would work with the Chair of the Annual Meeting Committee as needed to clarify, interpret, and negotiate with the successful hosting facilities.

Rationale: Currently, the amount of work that the Chair of the Annual Meeting Committee is too much for any one person. This split would alleviate some of this workload which is especially burdensome during the times when the Annual Meeting Committee is involved with current year Convention planning and activities.

There will be no financial impact on ADGA or the current Annual Meeting Committee from this committee split.

Proposal #2:
The Annual Meeting Committee asks the Board to remove the following from the ADGA Guidebook, under the Annual Meeting Committee Guidelines, p. 14: "No bid will be accepted for a Convention to be held more than five years (60 months) in advance."

Rationale: This change will allow the Board to accept Convention bids more than five years out. We are currently in a competitive bidding time now. Hotels are eager for our business. We have a number of hotels that want to be the host venue for our Convention. We have excellent, GUARANTEED rates, through the year 2010, and to not take advantage of this opportunity to lock in these rates would mean higher costs to our Convention attendees in the future.

I believe the prohibition was included when a club alone was responsible for hosting. I surmise that the Board felt that more than sixty months was too long for a local group alone to hold together and put on a Convention. Given the new structure where ADGA is a full partner with the local group and has full financial responsibility, if, during the years between the acceptance of the bid and the Convention, the local group participation became problematic, ADGA would have the ability to step in and ensure a problem-free Convention. Previously, there was no mechanism for this. It is unlikely that if we put off bidding for 2010 under next year's Convention that such good rates would be available.

Final Action: We will be bringing between three and five bids for hosting an ADGA Convention.

6. Work to be Completed by Next Year's Committee:
As always, we will be revising and correcting the Handbook. We will be looking for ways to improve our organization and staffing for the Convention. I think we have made headway in this area. The working relationship between the local group and our committee has been excellent, and we will work to continue defining each committee's role and the oversight to ensure that what needs to get done gets done. We need to continue to refine the relationship between the Annual Meeting Committee and other ADGA committees with Convention events. We need to continue finding new sponsors for our Convention. If the proposal to split the committee is passed by the Board, we will need to develop a process for the results of the bidding to be integrated smoothly and clearly into the work of the Annual Meeting Committee. We need to develop a package for bidding future conventions so that we get the hotels that meet our requirements at a price we can live with.

7. Long Range Goals:
We need continue the development of an ongoing committee (much like the National Show committee) with members that are willing to work both in planning a Convention and onsite. We need to continue our support group that works with the local host group on all aspects of the Convention. This would include developing future committee chairpersons. We need to develop leaders within our committee who will be willing to take on the chair position in the future.

Signed: Joan Vandergriff