This is intended as a model letter to be sent to a hotel
you've talked with about the possibility of hosting the Esperanto
League for North America's national convention. I took
the actual letter I sent to the Ramada Inn Atlanta in late 1999,
fixed some stuff, deleted some too specific things, and added
more based on the experience of other convention organizers since then.
It can probably stand some further improvement. The idea is that
eventually we will have a letter that a future Loka Kongresa Komitato
can simply copy, make a few minor edits, and send. More extensive
edits would be needed to make it suitable to ask a university
for a proposal; I'll probably make a separate letter for
that purpose later on.
[date]
[your name]
[your local Esperanto society's name]
representing
The Esperanto League for North America (ELNA)
http://www.esperanto-usa.org
[your contact information]
Dear [name of events coordinator at hotel],
Following up on our earlier conversation, here is the detailed list I
promised of the hotel needs for the Esperanto League for North America
(ELNA)'s national convention. Please send a proposal with prices
at your earliest convenience.
Possible dates:
[list of weekend date ranges, Friday through Monday unless you've decided
there is a good reason to pick another range]
-
A meeting room with conference seating for 14 people (ELNA's board of
directors) Friday from about 9am to 5pm.
-
Possible lunch catering for the meeting above; please quote prices.
-
A room with round tables seating for 100, for a social gathering Friday
evening about 7pm-10pm.
-
Snack food catering for this meeting.
-
A room with lecture seating for 100, the opening ceremonies Saturday
morning.
-
The same for closing ceremonies Monday from 11am-noon.
-
At least two (perhaps three) rooms for workshops/lectures/discussion
groups, suitable for about 40-60 people, all day Saturday and
Sunday, and Monday until 11am. (This could be the same as large room
above, with dividing walls added/removed as needed.) Some rooms will
need lecture seating, some circular discussion group seating, and some
will probably need tables; we will arange details a few days before
the convention, when we have finalized the program.
-
A room for a banquet, and the banquet catering itself, on Saturday
evening. We will give you a count of vegetarians, vegans and
meat-eaters, and information about convention attendees' food
allergies, at least twenty-four hours before the banquet.
-
The same or a similar room for another social gathering Sunday evening.
-
A room suitable for displaying and selling books and other materials
at various times Saturday-Monday, with at least 4, preferably up to 10
long tables. If possible, we want to have access to it beginning
sometime Thursday, so the director of ELNA's book service can set up
the books before the board meeting begins on Friday. We must be able
to lock this room when it's not staffed; the director needs to have
the keys.
-
A block of bedrooms reserved for the convention attendees. The number
of attendees has varied in recent years from 50-100. Some will be
rooming together, so we will probably fill at least 25 rooms per night
and may need up to 75 rooms per night. The attendees will make their
own reservations; anyone mentioning "Esperanto", ELNA, or [your local
Esperanto society's name] should be able to get the convention price
for the room. In addition to the larger block reserved on Friday
through Sunday nights, we will need 15 rooms reserved on Thursday and
Monday nights for the board members and others who come early and/or
stay late.
-
A table in the lobby for convention registration Friday through
Sunday.
-
A wide stairway reserved for a few minutes at some point for a group
photo.
-
A reservation of the hotel swimming pool for a few hours on Saturday
or Sunday afternoon
-
A hotel suite or smaller meeeting room with comfortable chairs,
sofas, etc., suitable for continuous socializing during and between
the more formal program items.
-
Coffee, tea, and snack food catering for the above
room Saturday through Monday morning, if not too expensive; or waiver
of corkage charge so we can supply more modest snacks.
-
Permission to put up signage (in whatever wall-safe format you
approve of) in halls and outside each meeting room we are using,
and a bulletin board in some suitable central location.
-
Synchronization of all clocks in all meeting rooms to the correct time
shortly before the convention.
-
VHS and DVD player, cassette tape player and recorder with microphone,
television, overhead projector and screen, whiteboard with markers and
eraser, etc., as needed for various program items; we will supply you
with a detailed list and schedule of what we need, in which room,
when, a week or so before the convention, after we hear from all the
presenters.
If the board of directors approves your proposal and we sign
a contract, we will need some additional information from you:
-
A technical support phone number for when we need help with various
equipment, which should reach a real person, not an
answering machine
-
Floor plans of the hotel for showing our meeting areas in the
convention program book.
-
Directions to the hotel by car and public transportation from the
airport and the nearest Amtrak and Greyhound stations.
-
Rules of the hotel including check-out time, to be printed in the
program book.
Please [fax / email / express mail] your proposal and state the dates
available, the cost for board meeting lunch, mixer evening snacks, and
banquet catering, and the minimum bedrooms rented per night required
for free or discounted meeting spaces.
The contract will be between the hotel and ELNA, but the local group
will do preliminary negotiations. Once we have a satisfactory
contract and the board of directors approves it, we will ask you to
send it to the ELNA's central office to be signed by the director
and returned.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
[your name]
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Laste gxisdatigita je junio 2005