The board of directors is excited about TOCA’s 20th anniversary in Puerto Rico May 12-14. We are all aware of the uneasiness regarding the economy and other issues. Please remember that Puerto Rico was chosen two years ago for our 20th annual meeting.

The board felt it important to let you know the financial ramifications of the TOCA meeting and understand why the board is moving forward with the meeting. We hope you can find it in your budget to attend this gathering for professional development during these tough economic times.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Den at the office at tocaassociation@aol.com or call him at 952/758-6340. Please read the following information and also the special offers we are offering members who attend the meeting.

• Because we’re less than six months from the meeting, canceling the meeting will cost TOCA $66,000 in attrition costs. Yes, that’s $66,000. As you know, we have $75,000 in savings for a rainy day in our TOCA investments. This would nearly deplete what has been saved in TOCA’s investments the past 20 years.
  
  
• If we hold the meeting at the currently expected levels (only about 40 people), the guarantees we’ve made for total hotel sleeping nights and food and beverage will not be met. We still will likely have attrition costs of $15,000-$20,000. In other words, TOCA will have to make up for the lack of sleeping rooms we guaranteed for Puerto Rico and the meals and beverages we didn’t purchase because we didn’t meet our goals.
  
  
• The board has been hearing a lot about the “perception” of Puerto Rico being an exotic location. Please know that it’s no more expensive to fly to Puerto Rico than many other cities in the continental U.S. And the hotel rate is comparable to previous meetings. And we’ve already cut some significant costs from the Puerto Rico meeting by reducing some of our transportation costs and moving one event to a different location to save on significant rental fees of a building. Perception does not have to be reality. It is hard to fight perception with facts, but we will continue to do so as we move forward.
  
  

And speaking of facts, if you come to Puerto Rico for the 20th annual meeting, we offer the following discounts:

1. If you send two people from your company to the meeting, you’ll get a 10% registration discount. Send three and get a 15% discount. Send four and get a 20% discount.
2. Stay an extra night on the front end or back end (Monday or Friday) and we’ll knock $50 off your registration fee.
3. If you’re attending your first TOCA meeting as a member, we’ll waive your membership dues for next year (2010).
4. If you’re attending your first meeting and you’re just joining TOCA for the first time, we’ll waive your dues for 2009.

Thanks in advance for your consideration. TOCA meetings offer professional development, networking and camaraderie like no other organization. Hope to see you there!

The End