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Originally Posted by aloft  Sure I would, because I would know that:
A) someone who doesn't come doesn't cost me any money, and |
absolutely untrue...Vegas has a set budget for either meeting space $$ OR food/beverage $$. Even if this was a house party, if someone didn't show up, then it'd still cost us money for having add'l food/drink...Last year, the hospitality suite alone cost us approx $1500 and that wasn't including food/beverage. Last year, we grew out of the hospitality suite, so this year, we have to try somewhere new and larger which unfortunately is going to cost us more denero.
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Originally Posted by aloft B) $30 might seem trivial to me in my engineering job that I drive my BMW to, but it might represent several days' worth of groceries for the student pilots, CFIs, freight dogs and guys on 1st-year regional pay who are the core constituency of this li'l website thingy (not to mention the whole reason for the NJC shindig), and |
what does my engineering job have to do with the website at all?
do you think i've forgotten what it's like to "be there" at the bottom? how hard it was to make ends meet? yea..uh huh...right......now that i'm in a more economically comfortable place in my life (worked 10 hard yrs to here), i don't think about the little people at all
...you obviously do not understand the message or mission statement of JC. i work my butt off to obtain low cost group room rates for WHAT reason?????? ah, i guess you forgot about that deal too, didn't you. of course, the group rates are not for myself mind you because after all, like you said, i make good money and drive a bimmer around.
The only way we can even afford to talk "open bar" is because we MUST spend the equivalent of $6K in 2 days...it's certainly not because we have money trees in our backyard. it was the cheapest place i could find that had really GREAT group room rates and meeting room space for the cost. Think about it... .$40 per person (standard rate for this year) until september, even gave an early bird $30 special deal for those that need to save $$ or knew they were going to be there...we hopefully will at least have another 80-90 folks in attendance, i'm hoping more...with that, there's no way we're gonna clear the cost but again, i couldn't find anything cheaper with decent under $100 group room rate deals...and we're the bad guys for not being able to offer a refund. yea..um...ok. whatever you want to think. have at it.
The only reason i'm going up to $45 the month before the event is because it is really difficult to make changes so close to the event and it creates a lot more work for me the closer it gets. so the incentive is to get registration and payment in prior to september. plus again, we need to try to reduce our out of pocket cost because this is going to cost us out of pocket (unlike what you're thinking).
you haven't been to an NJC or else you'd see how much work is involved. We have volunteers for a reason, we can't afford to pay them and it seems like they're ok with that. we won't get paid back the full amount for renting the rooms & for catering, that, we already know. we haven't been able to break even on any one year yet especially since we only started charging for food/beverage last year. if we offered refunds, we'd probably only get enough to pay half the amount and that's not really fair to us now is it? or do you honestly think we should be using our non-JC work paychecks to pay for you to come out, network and get jobs for FREE? i mean, would YOU do that? i kinda doubt it.
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Originally Posted by aloft C) since my hubby is an airline pilot, I know that it's essentially impossible for other airline pilots to plan more than a month ahead, even if they're doing so in order to avoid getting hit with a 50% increase in the registration fee. |
it's really not that impossible to plan...heck, i planned my wedding around doug's crappy schedule at the time and we
made it work...it's all about making it work. If you really want to be there, you can make it happen. I have no problems working with people if they really need the help but i also need to know that i can at least try to pay off this function using JC money and not my or doug's personal pockets. For the most part, i don't have time to delve into giving refunds nor do i have the resources to do so. I need all the cash i can get just to make this function work. Ads pay for the maintenance and operation of the site, registration fees pay for NJC alone.
you do not *have* to attend NJC...but i know there are a lot of JC members out there that appreciate the effort & opportunity to network. I don't do this for my health, i'm not even *in* this field...but i know they appreciate Doug trying to bring companies into the function for on the spot interviews, appreciate Mike's hard work on getting tours set up, Others like Bumblebee and Flychicaga, who work their butts off on roundtable duties and at the networking function, There's a hella lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that you know nothing about. Hopefully this is opening your eyes a bit further so you don't continue to think as you do in how we're stealing your money away by not being able to refund.
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Originally Posted by aloft And you wonder why I've never gone to NJC... |
For 3 + years, it was a free deal...why didn't you go then? it certainly wasn't because it was "free". Obviously, you don't know what you're talking about. so, you might want to stick to what you know and leave it at that before you burn some bridges.
We do a lot of JC things on our own time and our own money, it's doug's hobby and i'm happy to help him...NJC used to be one of those events we could afford to pay for on our own but now, it's grown a lot and we've gotten to the point of not being able to afford to have a $2,000+ party just for S&Gs, before we'd just considered that cost a loss until more than a few JC members told us that we shouldn't be doing that, that it wasn't fair to us. we try to at least make ends meet, but it doesn't typically work (yet) simply because we try to keep costs low for the attendees. If you ask me, $40 is a STEAL of a deal for 2-4 days chock full of things to do, people to meet, fun to be had.
We don't charge nearly as high as Kit Darby does for his shindigs and THAT should say something. if you ask me, I think that in and of itself says A LOT.....but anyways, i don't need to go further...i've think i've said more than enough...besides, i've got to get back to my *cushy* engineering job, I have to pay for that bimmer somehow.
Just to give you an idea of just how inexpensive the registration fees for NJC are... I have an APA conference coming up in Vegas at the end of april and for 2 days worth of workshops, sessions etc, it's going to cost me $295 for registration alone...$189 for 3 nights of hotel and added food/beverage. if i wanted to stay the entire week, i'd have to pay $795 registration fee. and I don't nearly get paid 6 figures for my day job....as pilots, you exponentially earn more the longer you're in the profession...so does that mean we should be charging more? maybe...but we don't.
This website is about educating the uneducated. I hope this thread helped open your eyes and maybe you can pay it forward to someone else in the future.
Just a heads up...Early Bird Registration ending soon 
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