Thank You, Universe, May I Have Another?
Jan. 25th, 2008 01:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjarvisThis is a square dance fly-in operations posting. If you're not interested in that kind of thing, you might as well skip this one.
DC Lambda Squares hosts a fly-in every November, 13 consecutive years at Hilltop House in Harper's Ferry, WV.
This past November, there was some question whether the recent sale of the hotel and corresponding renovation plans would mess with our contract to host our fly-in there in 2008. At the last minute, the hotel management declared there would be no problem at all and I had to frantically pump out updated registration forms for the 2008 event so we could take dancer pre-registrations before they left the premises.
This week, Hilltop House announced that they would NOT be open for November, 2008. In fact, they would likely be closed for massive renovations for 2-3 years.
WTF?! OK, they're overdue for renovations & upgrades. Many have been needed since, oh, 1840 or so. Maybe when it's all done, all the rooms will have heat. And hot water. Still, we had a contract until 2011, dammit!
Last night, the HFH committee and the DCLS board had an emergency joint meeting. The overwhelming consensus is to immediately locate an alternate location for 2008. Once we have that sorted out, we can worry about 2009 and possibly 2010.
A bunch of us are now on the search committee and have distributed the geographical area to the members.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kent4str and I are going to be scrounging north-west Maryland and south Pennsylvania for a venue. Others are taking eastern Maryland, northern Virginia and West Virginia.
We're searching for a place which with 90-100 rooms, three large dance halls, close proximity to restaurants & diners, within 100 miles of Washington DC and available November 7-9, 2008. Pointers are welcome. I'll be contacting local dance callers for ideas & recommendations for a replacement venue.
This morning, I sent e-mail to the staff callers --hi, all!-- and will keep them abreast of developments.
Of course, any pre-registered dancer who can't make it to our new venue or wishes to cancel prior to the event will be given a refund.
At least we found out in January rather than in, say, October.
zzbear has taken a well-deserved and long overdue retirement as HFH chair --he's been nudging for DCLS to replace him since at least 2006-- so we also need a new event chair.
I wanted to post about this hotel issue earlier in the week, just to let off a little steam, but I'm sure you'll all understand that we needed to keep this contained until (a) the club had an official position & plan of action, (b) the staff callers were notified, and (c) a public statement was prepared and posted on our web site.
DC Lambda Squares hosts a fly-in every November, 13 consecutive years at Hilltop House in Harper's Ferry, WV.
This past November, there was some question whether the recent sale of the hotel and corresponding renovation plans would mess with our contract to host our fly-in there in 2008. At the last minute, the hotel management declared there would be no problem at all and I had to frantically pump out updated registration forms for the 2008 event so we could take dancer pre-registrations before they left the premises.
This week, Hilltop House announced that they would NOT be open for November, 2008. In fact, they would likely be closed for massive renovations for 2-3 years.
WTF?! OK, they're overdue for renovations & upgrades. Many have been needed since, oh, 1840 or so. Maybe when it's all done, all the rooms will have heat. And hot water. Still, we had a contract until 2011, dammit!
Last night, the HFH committee and the DCLS board had an emergency joint meeting. The overwhelming consensus is to immediately locate an alternate location for 2008. Once we have that sorted out, we can worry about 2009 and possibly 2010.
A bunch of us are now on the search committee and have distributed the geographical area to the members.
kent4str and I are going to be scrounging north-west Maryland and south Pennsylvania for a venue. Others are taking eastern Maryland, northern Virginia and West Virginia.We're searching for a place which with 90-100 rooms, three large dance halls, close proximity to restaurants & diners, within 100 miles of Washington DC and available November 7-9, 2008. Pointers are welcome. I'll be contacting local dance callers for ideas & recommendations for a replacement venue.
This morning, I sent e-mail to the staff callers --hi, all!-- and will keep them abreast of developments.
Of course, any pre-registered dancer who can't make it to our new venue or wishes to cancel prior to the event will be given a refund.
At least we found out in January rather than in, say, October.
zzbear has taken a well-deserved and long overdue retirement as HFH chair --he's been nudging for DCLS to replace him since at least 2006-- so we also need a new event chair.I wanted to post about this hotel issue earlier in the week, just to let off a little steam, but I'm sure you'll all understand that we needed to keep this contained until (a) the club had an official position & plan of action, (b) the staff callers were notified, and (c) a public statement was prepared and posted on our web site.
