*Objectives * The objectives of these two memos are: 1) to document the estimated cost of holding a board meeting away from Hartford. Hopefully this will be considered when future meeting locations are discussed. 2) to encourage the board to prudently deploy the League's financial assets when considering future board meeting locations. 3) to encourage senior League management to motivate staff to take simple steps to minimize procurement costs. * * 4) to repeat the offer of a vice-director construct a meeting-room audio-system that would pay for itself with a single use, and to encourage such a procurement. *Introduction* I was disappointed at my failure to convince the board to not meet in New Orleans when the topic was discussed at the July 2012 board meeting. I was somewhat taken aback when a normally reliable officer estimated the meeting costs at about the same as would be incurred by meeting in Hartford, when even a superficial analysis would show that to be far from reasonable. I was also disappointed at not hearing anything about the actual meeting cost from management after the fact before I requested meeting cost data. The data provided showed a $43,000 increase in costs over the previous meeting held in Hartford. To put the cost increase in perspective, the League could have held the meeting in Hartford, given $1000 cash to each of the participants, and still been ahead financially. Put another way, an amount of more than the entire dues from over 1000 members was used to cover the cost increase. There will likely be at least a $43,000 increase in the governance expenditure line in the League's Annual Report. It is certainly not clear to me that the membership received value for this action, and I would be hard pressed to defend it. *Responsibility Issues and Questions* I hope board members who favored the New Orleans choice have adequate knowledge of the cost components of a meeting so as not to claim that they were blindly following the "same cost" advice given to them from the previously mentioned League officer. In any event, the choice of the New Orleans area alone appears to be responsible for around $10,000 of the cost, roughly consisting of the $7000 minimum plus $2500 airport transportation. Since over $30,000 of the increase was a result of using the Marriott Renaissance Hotel, at the recent July 2013 meeting, I questioned the hotel choice. The League president reported being constrained by the wording of the board's motion to hold the meeting at a hotel actually in New Orleans, not near New Orleans. It was reported that she checked with the Executive Committee, who confirmed that interpretation of the motion's intent. Someone then made the choice to select a fairly expensive Marriott property. Based on the hotel's prices, I would think a decent idea of the final cost would be known before a contract was signed. Was the EC presented with a $40K-$50K increase estimate before it confirmed the must-be-inside-New-Orleans-proper interpretation? Given that the "same cost" information that might have influenced some director's votes, I would think a $40K-$50K cost increase estimate would be adequate to warrant polling the entire board about whether to proceed, not just the EC. An E-mail could have just as easily have been sent to the entire board. Alternatively, the EC could have quickly asked the board to either approve the $40K-$50K increase choice, or order something else, before a contract was signed. Did the EC deliberate polling the entire board? * * I, for one, would like to hear more about the process by which a hotel is selected and how the terms are negotiated. Is staff instructed to consider only Marriott hotels? Are list prices offered by the hotel simply accepted? *Guest - Spouse Meal Costs* The League spent $375 per person at the hotel for food alone, for essentially two days, lasting from dinner on Thursday through lunch on Saturday. Breakfast was not included. Given that conventions hold banquets at Marriott hotels that cost less than $50 per person, these meal costs seem fairly steep. I am comfortable with the concept of providing meals to a spouse or other guest, particularly if it engenders acceptance of time away from home spent on ARRL matters. I would however, feel skeptical about publicizing the fact that we might spend over $500 on food alone, per spouse, per meeting, in some instances. However, I would also feel uncomfortable publicizing the fact that the we spent more than $375 on food per meeting attendee, for only two days. There are no other days during the year when I spend anywhere close to $187 of my own money for my food, and do not feel particularly comfortable spending that much of member's money. * Sound System Offer* A vice-director has volunteered to put together a sound system with microphones that the ARRL could use for meetings at any hotel, eliminating the need to rent that type equipment at every meeting. The cost to the League would be his cost for the components used to build the system. He has constructed such system*s* for three Los Angeles city government "Neighborhood Councils,"* *and all remain in service nearly ten years later. Cost is estimated to be in the $4000 - $6,000 range for a packaged, high-quality, system - about what we pay for one meeting's rentals. A perfectly usable system could cost half that amount. The system would have to be transported to and from the meeting room and then set up, a task for which we are now paying Marriott thousands of dollars each time we meet. Note that groups organizing Southwestern Division conventions at Marriott hotels have provided their own audio and video systems, and have not encountered difficulty using them. The system would pay its way with a single use. As a bonus, it would be available for Centennial events at at Headquarters, if needed. *Conclusion* In summary, I would not be proud to report that the League spent over $5000 to rent ten microphones for three days when they could have been purchased for $1000. I would hope we could do better. I hope providing the cost comparison information in written form will contribute to extending the time before cost-history amnesia sets in, and I hope that all involved will work to organize and conduct board meetings that deliver decent value to our membership. 73, Dick Norton, N6AA