Originally Posted by acl65pilot

Sure here goes:

I understand the need for a place that has five or six conference rooms available. Watching the meetings first hand I understand the size and scope of what is involved, and it is no small task. The last Regular Meeting had 31 Reps, 4 Officers, 5-7 support staff, 3-4 lawyers, 4, negotiators, the chairman of almost every committee, a few line pilot on lookers, new reps (5) and a countless amount of other people that were giving presentations. You have drafting committees every day, and those are three to four rooms for the three to four breakout groups of Reps, you need an area to provide for lunch, and a main conference room that is wired for audio and visual, as well as lockable for closed session. You need to bring your own wi-fi capability, and wireless printing hardware and software for the admins to print the resolutions up to pass out so everyone has the same data in front of them to vote on, you need power outlets for at least 60 people to power their laptops in for 10 hrs a day, you need a place that the reps can focus on their issues of interest away from the very timed meeting day (hospitality suite) and you need rooms for all of the people that need em; probably close to 60 or so a night if it is not in Atlanta.

If it is a major meeting even the Atlanta personnel will stay a few nights as these things start at 0730 and run to well after six, then close to midnight discussing the way everyone is going to vote.

Point is that this is no junior league organization, and it does take a ton of money to run. I have always argued that we could do a little better in cost, but remember that many of those rates have internet, tax, food etc thrown in since we get comped this and that on some meetings.

Could we do better in the way of cost?, maybe but before we shot em, go ask what deals we got on the W last year. We got a killer rate because we booked a cancellation of a conference. We search for the deals. The food in the suite is average; hot dogs, burgers, etc, nothing fancy. Beer is free and there is a lot of that though.

I was floored at the cost of some of this stuff, but when I had it explained to be by our Tres, saw a bunch of meetings, witnessed our reps trying to save money not take money from the pilots, and overall acting very frugal, I began to understand that it is not an excess of a few, but the shear scope of our union's operation that costs money.

Yes, the hotel near the airport is generally a lot cheaper, but there are reasons to not have it there for a five or six day meeting. These places will also ding you on extra conference rooms etc, and when you tally all of that up, it get more expensive real quick. Also, the meetings at the airport in that report are generally one day special meetings that do not require anything but one room, reps rooms only and no meals and extra space that a long Regular Meeting does.

We can do better, but not to the level you think, they really do a good job at this. Maybe the crew hotels would be a good idea, but they would have to have four small conference rooms, and one large on for five days.