Rich,
I was not in attendance at this year's convention nor was I privy to the setup on Wednesday night. But I can assure you that in any Las Vegas hotel (or other convention hotel)you can't spend $700.00 on catering for 300-500 people. The game is not played that way. Experience on being convention chairman for 4 years tells me that $7000.00 would be a fairly average figure JUST for Wed night and don't be shocked if the final tally is higher than that. As Wayne explained, a sizeable amount of this bill is tax and gratuity. This is standard practice with any F & B dept at any hotel, but even more so in Vegas. Wayne, if it makes you feel any better, in 4 years, I ate just once!!!

I have never understood the complaints from members about running out of "free" food and drinks. It's not like you paid for something and didn't get it. I don't remember the Club Charter stating that for your $20 you get the quarterly magazine, admission to the convention AND all the food you can consume on Wed nite! I agree with Wayne and Archie that the Club should make the "dining" portion of Wed evening a paid event. And by paid, I mean each person pays the full cost of his or her plate, tax and gratuity charged by the hotel. Bet you don' have 500 folks show up then! I am glad to see some things don't change.

One last point to the next Board. If Wayne Thompson agrees to stay on as Convention Chairman, listen to what the man tells you and support his ideas on running the thing. He's a good man, knows what he's doing and always has the best interest of the Club in mind!