BQPA/PIONEERS

                  

       Barbershop Quartet Preservation Association

   West Festival ‘To Do’ List

Reserve hotel dates as soon as this year’s event concludes, pending a completed contract.   Spring in Tempe is a busy time and hotels fill up fast.
Meet with the hotel staff and negotiate the details and terms of a contract.   Be wary of the placement of an attrition clause that provides penalties for failing to meet the room booking numbers.  Contract will specify which common rooms are contracted for, and provide for our registration table. 

Provide a seating set-up plan for Friday night, Saturday morning General Meeting and the Saturday Night Parade of Quartets.  Be sure and reserve a Board Meeting room for Thursday afternoon. 

Discuss beer prices and how to pay for it.  Confirm that the same amenities are still available: free airport shuttle, Manager’s Reception and Hot Breakfast.    

Post an announcement of next years details on the BQPA website as soon as a contract is in hand.   A message on the BQPA Google List is not a bad idea.  This list includes many, maybe even a majority, of the membership.  But the bigger question is: how many actually read it.

Confirm with Festival Team members that they will serve again.  Do this well in advance of event so that there is time to find replacements.

Golf.  Announce (repeatedly) the need to know – as early as possible – who will be playing on what days.  Whomever is handling the golf outings needs to make arrangements with the course(s) for reserving an appropriate number of tee-times.  Pull together fee information for playing, carts, club rental, etc.  Consider organizing transportation to & from the course(s).   Set the muster times and places, and announce them (email, BQPA mail group, etc.)   

Sound system.   Need someone(s) to pickup the system and deliver it to hotel and then be responsible for helping dismantle and get back to storage.  (This is a BIG job and two persons / truck would be preferable.)  Arrange for someone to assemble the system and run it.  Remind the crew to safeguard the microphones, especially.  
 

Saturday Show Chairman.  Has had sole responsibility for this show, securing the quartets and the MC.  (Provide Talent Chair’s Job Description & Quartet Invitation Template…)  

 Festival Chairman secures the MC for the Friday night ‘contest’.   Tom Neal has been the traditional MC  

 Registration Team.   The co-chairs handle the securing of volunteers and assigning times.   But the Chairman can help with this by sending out a message of ‘encouragement’ to the members.   Coordinate with the co-chairs on needed supplies.  

 Chairman of Judges. This person has had sole responsibility to secure the ‘judges’.   Provide Chairman with Job Description and Judging Documents.

Be sure, well in advance, that you have four Gold Medals engraved and ready to give out on Friday night.   

No later than Dec. 1, assign someone to send an event announcement to all District Bulletin Editors and to the Harmonizer.   Bulletin Editors have deadlines well in advance of publication dates.  

By February 1st, using either the FWD or the BHS websites, compile all the names and email addresses of the Presidents of surrounding chapters to Tempe.  (“All AZ chapters” has been my criteria.)   Send an email to each asking that they announce our event.  Do the same for Harmony, Inc. and Sweet Adelines International chapters.  

In mid-February, send a general notice to the BQPA members via the Google List – a reminder of dates and that the hotel has a cutoff date to guarantee the convention rate.    This has been a problem in the past with last minute attempts to register at the
hotel.  And…. it’s important that members call the hotel directly rather than use the hotel central registration center.

A month, or more, out from the event, monitor the hotel’s registration numbers and ensure that there are sufficient rooms still available.   This has been a problem in the past as they don’t always monitor this, and there have been instances where a member was sent to another hotel because our room block was full.    Also…. the Embassy Suites has a limited number of rooms with two beds.  For those that have two beds as a priority, this is important.  Also worth noting is that we have had more and more folks coming in on Wednesday.    

During the event weekend there is very little for the Chairman to do except stay out of the way of the excellent Event Staff that you have in place.   

The hotel will require a credit card to have on file for the Master Account    Make it very clear to the hotel staff that only the President and the Festival Chairman are authorized to make any charges to the Master Account.  

Now that the hotel is under a single ownership, they have control of the bar and restaurant.  Another possible strategy to reduce costs, even get a lower room rate, is to incorporate some food service into the weekend.   Food has a good profit margin for the hotel and is an inducement to give concessions elsewhere.   But the downside for the Chairman is finding someone to take this on, organize it and, the biggest difficulty, getting commitments from the members in advance.  

The hotel needs confirmed numbers probably 10 days ahead.    I’ve thought of it each year and have just never taken it on.   If the Board Meeting were earlier in the day, I would have done something for the Board and some other guests.   But…golf is not over until at least 3:00 pm.  I thought this was attractive because it would give time for socialization and provide an alternative to the hotel restaurant for at least one night.   
(Notes provided by Rex Touslee in June of 2012, with minimal additions by Tom Noble, March, 2013)  
Please be sure to refer to the Festival Schedule Template, to ensure all requirements are allowed for…  

Contract considerations:  Consider including beverage arrangements in contract details 

Make sure gathering room is available beginning no later than 10:00 am on Thursday and through early morning Sunday 

Make sure that a room is arranged for BOD meeting 3:30 pm Thursday  Ensure that the registration table is set up in or near gathering room no later than 6:00 pm Thursday 

Be sure that the gathering room is arranged with stage, audio equipment table and judging tables for Friday contest
 

Be sure that the gathering room is arranged with tables facing attendees for Saturday morning Membership meeting

Send draft contract to President & Vice President for review and consultation 

Send final contract to President and Vice President

Review and publish tentative festival schedule – website and BQPA@googlegroups.com  

Collaborate with Contest and Judging Chair to arrange for an MC for the Contest