I’m sitting in Starbucks right now.

Normally I’d be surrounded by people wearing thick-rimmed glasses (like myself) who are wearing fancy scarfs even though it is 90 degrees outside (unlike myself).

But it’s empty so nobody is sipping coffee and pondering the meaning of life.

I just finished working for about an hour and a half, working on a presentation to give to the Director of Housing. I need to get her approval to bid for No Frills 2015 before I put my heart and soul into it. I don’t want hours of hard work to go down the drain so it needs to be approved before I start working-working on it.

At this point I’m just working on it. When it gets approved, then I put myself into a different gear, which I like to call “working-working.” See the difference?

The presentation focuses on many different aspects of putting together the bid. I want to make sure I address everything and answer all of her questions before they even come up. When presenting this not only will I have this printed out for her, but also a copy of the bid that won for 2014, which can be seen here.

Here is what I typed up:

No Frills 2015 Bid

What Is No Frills?

“No Frills,” just business. No Frills is a large RHA meeting that only has the Presidents, NCCs, and NRHH Outreach Chairs. These leaders come together to pass legislation for the continuous improvement of the IACURH region. Also, presentations are given and there are elections for next year’s IACURH officers.

Why Should We Host No Frills?

We need to be more active and bring more to the table. We are more than capable of putting on a conference and it would be a great way to show our skills, campus, and state off to the rest of the region.

What Are The Components of Planning and Hosting No Frills?

Making a No Frills bid is basically a big research project on how to sell your University, town, and staff (in a non-human slavery way). We need to prove to IACURH that it would be awesome to have No Frills here.

We do this by researching everything and making sure we have solid numbers when needed. Here are the aspects that need to be researched and/or organized:

• Lodging & Facilities
• Dining
• Transportation
• Registration/Technology & Public Information
• Hospitality & Entertainment
• Philanthropy
• Safety
• Budget/Finance
• Volunteers
• Graphic Design & Information Assembly

That Is A Lot Of Things!

Yes, but it is manageable when different people work on different aspects. A Bid Team is needed to make sure that all conference bases are covered. The members of this team will be experts in their section, making sure that they are getting the best deal and are doing the best for the University and region. The selection of these members is very important due to the fact that every section of the conference has to work in perfect harmony with the rest of the conference. Every part is vital to the success of the conference.

Sub-Committees will be formed for the following aspects:

• Lodging & Facilities
  • Hotels
  • Boardroom
• Dining
  • Work with Sodexo
    • Food for banquet
    • Taos
  • List of other options, such as Frenger, the CCSU Food Court, and local places
• Transportation
  • Directions
  • Maps
  • Shuttles
• Registration/Technology & Public Information
• • Website and Facebook page
  • Create email for inquiries and registration
  • Online, mail registration
  • Respond to emails and phone calls
• Hospitality & Entertainment
• • Activities
  • Check out rooms in Corbett
  • Entertainment for Banquet (Band, DJ, etc.)
• Budget/Finance
  • Assemble numbers for how much things will cost
  • Determine cost per delegate, per adviser
• Volunteer
  • Recruit volunteers to run entertainment, etc.
  • Manage volunteers during conference

Overall this will be run and overseen by the Conference Chair. People can be involved in more than one committee if they would like.

Who Will Be Around in 2015?

2015 is a relatively long time from now and many of the people involved in RHA and Housing in general are going to be out of college by that time. When assembling the Sub-Committees that obviously needs to be kept in mind. We obviously need a leader in all of these Sub-Committees who will be around in 2015.

How Much Does Bidding Cost?

When bidding for a conference you are allowed, and encouraged, to bring more delegates. Normally the National Communications Coordinator (NCC), the RHA President, the NRHH Outreach Chair, and Adviser go to No Frills. The delegation is small because it is just business and there are no Programming Presentation or any “fun” things like that. However, when bidding for a conference you get to take more people (capped at a certain number, and for the 2014 No Frills that number is six) to present the bid. These delegates should be experts in their section of planning so when they are asked questions they are able to answer them very clearly and confidently. We will bring three extra delegates to bid for No Frills 2015, which brings us to the maximum amount of people allowed: six delegates and one adviser.

Show Me The Money Numbers!

	Per Unit	Quantity	Cost
Shuttle from LC to EL P	$250	1	$250.00
Conference Registration – Delegate	$221.53	6	$1,329.18
Conference Registration – Adviser	$276.46	1	$276.46
Flight (Roundtrip, ELP to SLC)	$700	7	$4,900.00
Travel Agent Fee	$35	7	$245.00
Total Cost			$7,000.64