SSA National Convention, every year, every other?

What Tim says is very true, we are in a survival mode
and costs have to be watched.

Since the content of the convention necessarily has
little change year-to-year, annual conventions for
the whole existing membership don't make much sense.
But the whole membership does not attend, because
of the rotation round the country. What we really
have right now is the cost of an annual convention
for the vendors, but the potential attendance of only
one-third of the already small membership each year.

A suggestion: if a few vendors experimented with either
Oshkosh or another major EAA event instead, would the
still-high costs be better repaid by the much larger
audience ? And instead of preaching only to the choir,
there would be the rest of the congregation who might
be encouraged to singalong ?

Ian



At 05:48 06 March 2004, Tim Mara wrote:
IMHO.......
I have made my case to many in the SSA and others...I
hope the powers to be
are listening....
I think the SSA does OK with the conventions....at
least, it's the feather
in their cap to have their name known and seen as the
spotlight feature for
these events.....and the cost to the SSA (and I speak
here as the office
itself, not specifically the organization (us) as a
whole...) are relatively
low.
As a small vendor (we are all small vendors if we are
selling sailplanes and
sailplane related supplies...big fish, very small pond)
the costs to attend
these events are very high....every turn you make in
one of these convention
centers you'll find someone with another charge. Aside
from simple
exhibition space costs itself, if you need a table.it's
$150 +, a chair
$60...electricity on a simple extension cord almost
$100...telephone service
or internet hook-up..forget it, either of these might
cost you $500 for 3
days!..on and on....I shipped boxes of items to display,
the cost to ship
big boxes by UPS or FedEx insured costs lots of $$........then,
on top of
this the convention center charges you $50 +++ just
to receive the
box!...convention centers are expensive, convention
center hotels are
expensive, travel is expensive.....I honestly can't
say being there can or
does ever generate the business necessary to cover
the cost to do
these.....not being there probably also has a negative
effect as it then
looks like you're not really in business if your customers
don't find you
there.....
Personally, I don't really go to the convention with
the intention of
selling products there (it's far easier to do this
and ship from here) but
many non-soaring businesses do, I go there hopefully
just to show what's
available, to let visitors touch and see things close
up and compare for
themselves so there's really no profit for these events
to cover these cost
directly from the convention itself.....and, like most
of us, we miss
customer calls from our places of business when we're
there...It's also not
easy to give good answers to everyone who stops by
and some visitors get put
off by this too...it can't always be helped.
The nuts and bolts of this are that there really isn't
enough new or
exciting stuff to put on display every year to make
these really worthwhile
for the vendors..or, more importantly, for the members
and visitors who
attend these events....
I have suggested we do these every 2 years....every
year is just too much
(IMHO)...nearly all of the exhibitors I spoke with
agree.....the SSA I hope
will listen......We have essentially the same speakers
giving mostly the
same (sales pitch) talks as they did the year before
and the year before
that too.....granted, there are new and fresh speakers,
a few new topics to
ponder and my hat comes off to those you do prepare
and work hard to try to
make their talks interesting and entertaining......many
are there though to
self serve and have their own infomercial under the
guise of some technical
topic....most of us see through this.
I really think a great event for the conventions would
be a used glider
sale.....we could easily have dozens of anxious sellers
with their gliders
on display and hundreds of anxious buyers with a single
shopping center at
their fingertips to compare in a single place....the
SSA could (I think if
they don't have the proper tax status get the NSM,
SRA or SSF who might have
access to this status to run this) even auction off
gliders donated by their
owners as charitable (read: Tax write-off) contributions.....now
that would
get some excitement going!.....and new owners do add
life to the sport!
Moving gliders between owners and want-to-be-owners
also helps the
sport....just my idea...
anyway...I may not be popular with some for these comments...but
it is my
(our) sport and organizations...I think we all need
to make these opinions
known....to our fellow members, and our officers as
well....
sorry to be so lengthy......I could go on.I won't
Respectfully
Tim
Wings & Wheels
www.wingsandwheels.com


'Jim Culp' wrote in message
...

Questions of costs and benefits,
and preferences:

Who benefits from annual SSA national convention?


Do glider and electronics vendors benefit by annual
show, vs the cost to them to go?

Can you, vendor, afford to go annually and is it
cost/benefit
justified?

Can you, SSA member, afford to go annually?

How much debt or cash or debt do you lay out to go
to SSA convention considering registration fees, dinners,
party fees, hotel, transportation, incidentals: As
a vendor? As an SSA member?

Would you be satisfied with an every other year convention,
as a SSA member or as a vendor ?

Who makes out well by annual SSA conventions?

Does SSA make money? If so, how much?

Does host club or committee make money? If so, how
much?

Are annual SSA conventions sufficiently well attended
to justify annual efforts?

How many full registrants were in Atlanta AirExpo2004?

Year before that?

Understand, I love the conventions. Good, yes.

Can I go annually. No way.
Can others?

Would every other year be just as good, and regional
or state soaring efforts could host 1 or 2 day sessions
like the Soaring Symposiums and similar efforts did.


Would anyone, and any vendor suffer if there were
every
other year SSA National Convention? Would SSA suffer?
How?

Your ideas, preferences?

Kindest regards.

Dancing on clouds,
Keep it up!

Jim Culp USA
Asw-20c/Std Libelle
Gatorcity Florida

At 03:06 06 March 2004, Jim Culp wrote:

Questions of costs and benefits,
and preferences:

Who benefits from annual SSA national convention?

The CFI renewal clinic is especially useful. It puts
us together with other instructors to talk about issues,
etc. Granted, we do that only every other year, but
half of those who use it would be on the wrong cycle,
and I'm not sure whether those who put it on would
be willing to have double the registration.

Vendors complain about the cost of SSA Conventions.I can't argue with them but
it is CHEAP when compared to any other conventions.
Oshkosh cost is "off the chart'. It is a major money making event for EAA.
An outside air convention during the flying season would be great. Need good
weather, willing host and no conflict with contests.
GA

An outside air convention during the flying season would be great. Need good
weather, willing host and no conflict with contests.

Summer Soaring Fly-In: Is this something the National Soaring Foundation at
Hobbs was originally created to accomplish? A national soaring site? Hobbs
would be a good venue for a summertime soaring "fly-in".

SSA Member's Work Week: We could all go to our HQ and personally thank the
current hard-working SSA Staff. Let's volunteer to stuff envelopes or repaint
the SSA building. Wouldn't that be something? Imagine dozens of SSA members
converging on Hobbs to do club-type work on our infrastructure. I'm sure SSA
Staff could come up with a list of "honey-do's" that would save our SSA money
and rekindle our "national soaring club" spirit. Been to Hobbs lately?
It's lookin' good with new restaurants, motels, culture. (I bought a ukelele in
the local music store!)

SSA Conventions: We should continue with our annual winter SSA Conventions. I
sure enjoy them, and the cost for my Marfa Soaring booth was reasonable.

Another day! I wish our annual SSA Convention was a day longer - perhaps into
Sunday mid-afternoon. Perhaps more local folks would attend on Sunday. So
many great seminars, vendors, people to meet and talk with - never enough time
for me to see / do it all at the SSA Convention.

So I'll see y'all in Ontario, CA for the 2005 SSA Convention, then Dallas in
2006.

Burt Compton
Marfa Gliders, west Texas

What about changing the schedule to start on Friday instead of Thursday and
run through Sunday instead of Saturday. Turnout on Thursdays is always the
lowest and most people can travel back Sunday evening if they want to stay
through the end. For exhibitors it doesn't matter if you shift one day to
the right (same number of days off), you just take off on a Monday after to
travel home instead of the Tuesday/Wednesday of the week before to get there
to set up beforehand.

HE
ENTEC
"Nolaminar" wrote in message
...
Vendors complain about the cost of SSA Conventions.I can't argue with them
but
it is CHEAP when compared to any other conventions.
Oshkosh cost is "off the chart'. It is a major money making event for
EAA.
An outside air convention during the flying season would be great. Need
good
weather, willing host and no conflict with contests.
GA

How about one year on one coast, one year on the other?
When will it be close to MY house?

I woulda gone, but 2000 miles is a Loooong way...

I think you'll find people vote with their feet...
--

------------+
Mark Boyd
Avenal, California, USA

Mark James Boyd wrote:
How about one year on one coast, one year on the other?
When will it be close to MY house?

Ontario next year.

I woulda gone, but 2000 miles is a Loooong way...

I think you'll find people vote with their feet...

So far, there have been enough votes to make money for the convention,
though some of the exhibitors aren't so lucky. I did see large sales at
the SeeYou booth though. Nothing like announcing a new product at half
price!

--
-----
change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

Exhibitors can write off the cost/expanses for the trip. Not that such a "good
deal" makes it worthwhile. But it is a bit less painful for some that can have
the benefit of write-offs.
GA

I think every other year would be best. I think some people out there may be
under the impression that you can actually make money off soaring speaking
as a vendor look around do you see anybody in the business driving fancy
cars most people just scrape buy. I work 51/2 days a week at a regular job
just so I can pay all the bills. most of the people at the conventions
aren't there to buy anything just see what's new and see old friends in fact
it's mostly the same people year after year. I am already on the at least
every other year program the problem is that I may have missed some
potential customers in the years I did not attend . I think you also need to
look at the design cycle of the new products I think if you went to two or
three year cycles you would see more new products at each show and vendors
would actually try to have new products ready for the show this would make
it a much more exciting convention.

Pete
Sage Variometers

and......held every 2 years rather than every year the vendors who do attend
would be more willing to put their best foot forward and make it a better
event.......vendors would be more likely then to see the need....
and......quite frankly, without the vendors there in attendance there would
be no convention.....or nothing for the visitors to see....under the current
yearly program you WILL see fewer vendors.....I know at least one
less.......
tim
"Pete Russell" wrote in message
...
I think every other year would be best. I think some people out there may
be
under the impression that you can actually make money off soaring speaking
as a vendor look around do you see anybody in the business driving fancy
cars most people just scrape buy. I work 51/2 days a week at a regular job
just so I can pay all the bills. most of the people at the conventions
aren't there to buy anything just see what's new and see old friends in
fact
it's mostly the same people year after year. I am already on the at least
every other year program the problem is that I may have missed some
potential customers in the years I did not attend . I think you also need
to
look at the design cycle of the new products I think if you went to two or
three year cycles you would see more new products at each show and vendors
would actually try to have new products ready for the show this would make
it a much more exciting convention.

Pete
Sage Variometers