ALSB Members,
 
I would like to intiate some discusison about our annual conference
(and to some degree our regional conferences as well) in the area of
the hotels.  Hotels are getting more and more expensive and I  fear
that many of our members cannot attend both regional and national
conferences due, in part, to this.  I know that for the August time
period, we are looking at hotel rates in the low $100's ($105-125).
 
One of the really big problems is that only larger (and more
expensive) hotels have the breakout room space.  For our size of a
conference (small-to-medium;  around 800 total room nights), we use a
lot of space; hotels are reticent to give us that much space for our
size (though they have done so without cost....so far).
 
What are you thoughts? Is this an issue?
 
Dan