在任何给定的时间,AFS正在五,有时6、年会。举个例子,在2015年底之前,当我在写这个消息时,我们正要结帐在波特兰会议,深入堪萨斯城的规划会议。一个或多个网站去坦帕(2017)和大西洋城(2018)已经由AFS人员和军官将总统的会议。网站访问总是包括检查的各种会议设施与几人从主机AFS委员会会议中心和酒店代表,以及旅游的可能位置至关重要的晚间活动。这些访问的一个关键组成部分是与可能的机构的赞助商和合作伙伴,包括州和联邦机构、大学组织,啤酒厂(艰苦的工作),水族馆,和可能的领域国家河口研究储备等旅游网站或一个国家野生动物保护区独特的水产资源。合同最主要的事件已经签署这两个会议地点。为我们的野生动物学会联合会议(TWS)在2019年里,我们已经有合同的酒店和会议中心,和AFS TWS定期会议有些构造联合会议的管理结构。最后,肖恩·约翰斯顿是领先的位置搜索2020年会议将是我们社会的150周年。这个具有挑战性的努力包括国家搜索,慢慢减少那些我们能负担得起,可用于会议时间表。会议现场的本质是,许多地方已经提前预定了五年,和我们对承包一个好的网站的机会之窗正在迅速关闭。 Before this column is printed, we will have sent out a team of staff to do onsite evaluations of 4-6 locations for the 2020 meeting.

为什么堪萨斯城,坦帕,大西洋城,雷诺,或无论我们结束吗?为什么不芝加哥、纽约、波士顿、还是洛杉矶?我们还没去过芝加哥,我的家乡,自1893年以来,但它是一个伟大的城市会议。我们举行了伊利诺斯州章会议和中西部地区鱼类和野生动物在芝加哥会议。或者缅因州波特兰,或其他一些诱人的小城市,你在度假,或者你去过另一个会议,发现它是一个很好的地方。找到正确的解决方案是不简单。AFS会议类型的足迹,需要很适合会议设施和城市。例如,我们的会议有相当多的并发会话来适应我们的座谈会,车间,造成纸会议,以及各种节和委员会会议。在波特兰,我们有30多个并发会话;通常情况下,我们需要20 - 25会议室可用在任何给定的时间,从那些座位200 - 300不等的大型会议,20 - 30节会议。 Most small convention facilities (Portland, Maine, or Lake Placid, New York) don’t have enough space. We’ve outgrown some of our previous locations (e.g., Sun Valley, Idaho, or Lake Placid, New York), and many medium-sized city convention centers, unless they’ve built a new or upgraded their existing convention centers, simply don’t have enough breakout rooms. In some cases, the location seems attractive, but our meeting would be strung among several hotels or we’d have to deal with meetings scattered between a hotel or two and a smaller, inadequate convention center. We also need about 800 hotel rooms on peak nights, and we’d like them connected, adjacent, or in close proximity to the convention center. Again, another filter that knocks out some towns. After touring enough facilities and attending AFS meetings for the past nearly 30 years, one develops quite a sense very quickly for what works and what doesn’t for a meeting location.

我们也有几个预算限制,选择。一个是我们的注册费。很明显的你,我们选择职业不是一个变得富有。因此,我们倾向于保持我们的注册费400美元或略高于这一水平。出于比较目的,我协会签出,我父亲是一位电子工程师协会(IEEE)在旧金山的一个事件。他们的成员现场注册率是860美元。AFS现场在波特兰是560美元(他们的非会员现场是1230美元;AFS是830美元)。快速搜索一些医学会议发现美国手手术925美元成员(人在1000美元的范围内)。然而,我们也有大的美国地球物理联盟(AGU的; 24,000 attendees) that meets the week before Christmas in San Francisco and offers an onsite meeting registration rate of $560. Buying at that scale certainly offers some advantages but also shows the value of working the calendar. Possibly a savvy buying and scheduling decision on the part of AGU but not one that AFS is considering. When looking at our counterparts at TWS, Ecological Society of America (ESA), Society for Conservation Biology, and others, we tend to be comparable, and we generally tend to be looking at similar markets. TWS was recently in Winnepeg, Canada (probably too small for AFS), and their next meeting is in Raleigh, North Carolina. ESA was most recently in Baltimore and next year is in Fort Lauderdale. Other recent locations include Sacramento, Minneapolis, Portland, Austin, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee. Sounds familiar, but no Boston, New York, or Chicago. We’re all dealing with similar markets and constraints. If there is a city that you’d like us to explore, please let me know and we’ll take a look, but now you know a little about what works and what doesn’t. Next month, I will answer the vexing question of why a gallon of coffee costs $80-$120 at a convention center, but you can buy the same amount of much better coffee at your local coffee shop for about $25.

2016年3月会员点击下面BOB国际体育杂志的完整问题。非成员国,加入这里。