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A Plea from the SPSP Convention Committee |
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| Posted by: | Toni Schmader |
| Title/Position: | Associate Professor |
| School/Organization: | University of British Columbia |
| Sent to listserv of: | SPSP |
| Date posted: | December 23rd, 2010 |
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Hello Everyone,
For those of you attending the SPSP 2011 convention in sunny San Antonio (it's going to be a truly fabulous conference, thanks to the tireless work of program chairs Wendy Berry Mendes and Andrew Elliot), please, please, please consider registering one of the conference hotels.
"But with the wonders of the Internet and the help of William Shatner, I might be able to find hotel rooms for less!"
Yup, we know, and for those of you who are facing financial hardship (due to being on furlough, or really for any other reason), you can totally stop reading now. Also, if you are a grad student, stop reading now -- your life, by anyone's definition, involves financial hardship (which is, by the way, why we tried to negotiate a good deal for you at the grad student hotels -- including free wifi!).
To everyone else -- here's the thing, SPSP needs to fill its block of rooms. It is required by the hotel in order to host the convention. We've come up short this year.
Reliably filling our room block allows us to approach more appealing convention venues, hotels, cities, etc. We've been able to negotiate at some pretty fabulous upcoming cities (San Diego, New Orleans) because we've been filling our room registrations. If we don't fill the rooms, we could be back in Memphis or Albuquerque in the future (no disrespect to those of you who loved those cities, but many members really didn't).
Additionally, the Society has to cover some pretty exorbitant hotel fees if our room block isn't filled -- which could, in turn, raise future registration rates. And in case you were wondering, nope, the Society does *not* profit from the convention; indeed, it is usually run as a loss (which is fine, the convention is, in many folks' opinions, one of the best things SPSP does for its membership, and thus worth running it at a loss). But the Society can't take too huge a loss without consequences. And again, filled room blocks mean better convention cities in the future.
Soooo. . . this is a public goods dilemma. Each of us might be able to individually get a room that's $15-20 per night cheaper, but if we all do it, it has negative long term consequences for the group. Thus, if you can afford to stay at one of the conference hotels (the Grand Hyatt or Hyatt Regency), please, please consider doing so.
Thanks for reading, sorry if this seems like nagging, and best wishes for a happy holiday season!
Sincerely,
The Convention Committee
(Wendi Gardner, Toni Schmader, Cynthia Pickett)
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