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Dallas Branch Meetings Moved to Second Monday of the Month – The surveys we have conducted indicate overwhelming support to move the Branch Meetings to the 2^nd Monday of the month.  This change will help eliminate conflicts with holidays that we have had in the past with the first Monday of the month.  This will start with the January 10, 2011 meeting.

 

Dallas Branch Meeting Location Moving in January 2011 - The Hotel & Catering Agreement the Branch with the Crowne Plaza Hotel runs out at the end of December  2010.  The first offer the Branch received to negotiate a new contract included a 7% price increase for 2010 and the same for 2011.  In an effort to avoid a rate increase and determine what other options were available, the Board considered proposals from competing hotels and catering venues.  After consideration of several proposals, the Board determined that the Dallas/Addison Marriott Quorum Hotel located along the Dallas North Tollway, just north of IH 635 provided the best value to the Branch.  With this selection, the price for meeting attendance can remain intact, yet offer additional amenities such as free covered parking.

Late fees raised to $10 - In order to negotiate the best hotel meeting room and meal rate with the Marriott, the hotel requires a firm headcount for the meeting 72 hours in advance.  This means the cut off for registering online for our meetings will now be at 3pm on the Thursday before our meeting.  In order to encourage our members to meet this deadline, the board has decided to raise the late fees to $10 for those who register after this time.  This increase in the late fee was overwhelmingly supported by our previous member survey.  Online registration will still be available until Friday night at 11:45pm as it has in the past, only with a $10 late fee now.  We will not have as much flexibility in adding additional tables and chairs at our meetings, so we highly encourage our members to register online for the meeting before this cutoff, otherwise you cannot be guaranteed a seat and a meal at our meetings.  On the bright side, we are now offering a $5 discount to not only our government employees, but also to our retirees.  We also continue to offer half price registration to our student members.

 

We hope you look forward to these changes with as much enthusiasm and excitement as we have for the upcoming year.  We also hope to see you at many of our upcoming branch meetings.