Jim,
There is something one must always remember about supposedly writing off expenses as tax deductions..... One must have a positive enough income to need and benefit from such a deduction. I'll never forget this Young, overly pushy, MidMark Ritter Rep. trying to get us to buy this obnoxously expensive power table for our little solo FP office because he had all this stuff to show how we would be able to write so much of it off, that it would only cost us for about $1500 in the end for this $4-$6K table (I think, it's been a while now). Anyhow, one can only write off so much before they have nothing left to write off or save. Vinny are you listening my fellow struggling friend???
Now, I have an Idea. Set up the conference at a reasonably priced place, but those of us of truly limited means could always stay near by in a cheaper place if need be. But rooming together so we can all have other social bull sessions would be sweet, so let's all keep our options open. It's all about the cost.
Nancy seems to be a little resistant to the idea, but we shall see. This is why I was previously suggesting the regional meet thing. Like Roy and Donna on the West side, may or may not be able to make an East Coast or Midwest type thing. Those who can travel or want to travel more can always attend another region's meet. This is how my old Slant-6 of America Club did things. We never had national meets, but folks who liked to travel or drive a ways were always welcome at any regions meet. We even had an award for "Long Distance" for the Mopar that traveled the furthest to get to a meet. I frequently would travel to NY meets when I lived in New England or to New England ones when I moved back to NY for example. So me and my Dart or Scamp would frequently get the Long Distance one.
Also, I'm not so sure about Jon and the AC guys paying for a gang of his techs and developers to travel too far, so my thoughts were always for something more on the eastern side of the country closer to AC central. Someone on Jon's good side should contact him and AC at some point and see what works for them.
Same idea, I feel that such a get together without "Vinny" our secondary programmer and Board Moderator, or Bert "Mr. Work Around" who is also a bit of a program developer himslef would just not be as good. Now Bert you seem like you are willing to travel at the drop of a hat, so that is in our favor no matter where this ends up. On a selfish matter, this would make it much more doable for us. A half a day's drive would be a whole lot better. Drop the kids off at my Mom where she summers in the Berkshires while on the way to RI, Maine or Saratoga or what have you. but this must work for the majority of folks, not just me and Nancy here in CNY. But I do believe that if we could try and do something around this side of the country we would be much more likely to get Jon, Carlos, other AC team members and developers, Bert, and Vinny all together at the same time and place. I do love Mount Desert Island, Arcadia National Park, lobster traps and all the trimmings.... Hint, Hint.
But do what is best for the whole gang not just Village Medical (Sniff, sniff)
Paul
