Texas Christmas Lights

Thanks to everyone for a great event, you all made it a memorable (yet tiring) weekend! The official head count appears to be 61 attendees and from what people told me they had a blast. A lot of the things we set in motion or created for this work shop will be modified for future events like the Dallas Work Shop in late March! Here are a few things that I can think of off the top of my head:

1. Save your badge please. These aren’t expensive but they are much better than a sticker on your shirt. Recycle and reuse!
   
2. The booklet appears to have been a hit but we have some work to do on it. I learned a lot about what to do and what not to do for future events concerning the book.
   
3. The DVD. The DVD is a work in progress and YOU can help improve it! If you have things to submit, please email them to me on this account and I will add them for future Work Shops. Right now the DVD is only a little over half full so we will be adding the Christmas 2006 videos before the Spring Work Shop. Ken Good has offered to build a better mouse trap, well at least a better menu system for future events. Brian Bayliss also said he would be able to provide a Chauvet catalog in PDF format for the DVD also. If you happen to run across a site with a downloadable catalog, please send me a link and the catalog will be added also!
   
4. Cost. The fee structure we set up in April at the Spring Mini is not enough for an event of this scale. With the large attendance and the required space for those attendees, we will definitely have to charge more in the future. I am thinking probably $30 per day or $50 for the weekend per person. Hopefully if you attended this weekend you think that is a fair price to pay. Please let me know what you think to this email, I will scrub names and put together comments forwarded.
5. Room / class arrangements. The single room was ok but not the best arrangement. We are hoping to be able to find a bigger room that hopefully will have partitions that we can divide the room into two or three smaller rooms so that we could have groups teaching different classes at the same time.
6. Enablers meeting. A couple of the ladies mentioned that several of them have a shared interest in scrapbooking so there may be a scrapbooking mini meeting at the Spring Work Shop.
   
7. Payments. Paying ahead of time with a cutoff date for registration at least one week prior to the event is a must. Karen and Rachel Herron stepped up and took charge of the check in table but we wasted too much time and man-(girl)-power taking money and ensuring everyone got what they needed. We need to have a better idea of attendees ahead of time or at least their money if someone doesn’t show up.
8. Friday night events. A two and a half day event? Well there were impromptu meetings and gatherings Friday night so we should take advantage of that time together and setup maybe a dinner on Friday night for early arrivals.
   
9. Saturday Night Dinner. I had a blast and because of this dinner the Saturday events basically last sixteen and a half hours! Many of us were at the meeting room at 8 am and several didn’t leave until 12:30 am Sunday morning!
10. . Goodie Swap! This was great and thanks to many of you I gained several pounds this weekend and I will be blaming Ethan for his butter Almond Cookies, Nel for her candied pecans, and of course Jennifer for the best cake around! I weigh in at Weight Watchers on Thursday night so I guess I better start fasting to break even for the week! Wait, I think I still have one last piece of Jennifer s cake that needs to be taken care of! It would be criminal NOT to eat it!
11. . Bryce and Don have a concept of how we should do the bi-annual events and we will probably hear more about that soon. The fall events are not good for vendor or anyone who has a holiday related business if they have to travel. Dennis and Mary Duke who made the great t-shirts couldn t come because they do a lot of screenprinting work for schools in the fall. Lori and Gene Gowen of Lori’s Lighted D Lites want to attend and maybe we can get them to a Spring event next year. The same goes for Tim Rosario of BuyInflatables. Anyway we will try to do some brainstorming between a few of us and present the idea in a week or two to the group for you to bash! <wink>

If you have suggestions and I know we can still improve, please send your suggestions to me! Ok, I have avoided unloading the truck long enough so I should get to that now. Before I leave you I will tell you Chuck responded to a PM that I sent him and one of our detractors from PC early this morning and Chuck stated in no uncertain terms to both me and the detractor that he (Chuck) has no problems with what we are doing in Texas as we are trying to bring people together! So stand up right now in front of your monitor or laptop and take a bow, you have been instrumental in creating the most dynamic, action packed Christmas Light organization in the world! Next event&..at least 75 attendees! Dallas people start looking for a space and start recruiting people form surrounding states! Yes we like to share with foreigners !