UKHA 2003 Update

["Graham Howe" <graham@xxxxxxx>]

Well we are only 1 month away so I thought it would be good to have a
littl=
e update about progress towards the UKHA 2003 meeting.

We now have 54 people paid for the Saturday and 50 for the Sunday with a
co=
uple more confirmed but not yet paid, so this will certainly be the
biggest=
event we've had so far.

Financially it's looking pretty good with =A31600 received and =A31250 to
p=
ay for the rooms. There have been a few suggestions made about what to do
w=
ith the surplus:

1) Put it behind the bar for food and drink on the Saturday night
2) Keep it in an account until next year's event
3) Pay for insurance of equipment being brought for the demos
4) Return it attendees
5) Buy some sort of prizes for raffle or other competition

We still have time to decide on this of course and if anyone has
additional=
suggestions then please respond here.

For what it's worth, here are my personal views on these options:
1) This is a little unfair on those who are only attending for a single
day=
, but we could possibly look into providing tea/coffee/snacks during the
da=
ys too. However, everyone who has booked should be expecting to pay for
the=
ir own refreshments and I don't think this is a terribly exciting option.
2) This is the obvious fall back option and we did bring =A350 forward
from=
last years event to this one. In the absence of any strong preference for =
another option, we will take this one.
3) This is likely to be rather complex with numerous pieces of equipment
be=
ing brought by several different people. I have no idea where we would get
=
insurance, or how much it would cost, or how long it would take to set it
u=
p. I certainly don't have the time to look into this, but if someone could
=
find a way for us to get some sort of generic cover that would cover high
v=
alue items owned by different people in a hotel overnight, then I am
willin=
g to consider it. In the absence of this, all those bringing equipment do
s=
o at their own risk!
4) This option could be quite complex with people paying varying amounts
ac=
cording to when they booked and how many days they are attending. I guess
w=
e could hand back say =A32.50 on the door to each attendee, but for
simplic=
ity I would rather that we stuck with the agreed prices.
5) This could well be an interesting option, perhaps the prize could be
vou=
chers at our favourite suppliers of toys, or possibly something like a
Pron=
to that almost any one of us could make use of. This would certainly bring
=
some additional excitement and I personally would prefer to have a shot at
=
a free piece of kit rather than get the price of a pint back.

As always, please do let us know what you think on any of these points and
=
I look forward to seeing you all next month.

Graham Howe
UKHA 2003 Organiser