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The 19th Annual Conference in Denver had 568 paid registrants. This is down somewhat from previous years. Although preregistration
for the conference was on target, on site registration was significantly less than in previous years. Nevertheless, the conference
income covered conference expenses, and the income from Ads and Exhibits netted an all time high profit. Thursday and Friday
were our high attendance days. Our hotel room bookings were only 75.6% of our guaranteed block. This could have been disastrous
for the organization in normal times since the hotel could have charged us a significant amount for not meeting our contract.
With the events of 9/11 and the high alert status issued on the day before the conference was to begin, we did experience
more than the normal number of last minute cancellations and no shows. Ralph Holcomb and his daily Update were invaluable
for getting changes and cancellation information to the attendees. Despite this, the number of Exhibiters was higher than
ever, and the contributions to and the participation in the Silent Auction were better than the previous few years. The BPD
spirit made the conference a success.
Our Shameless Blues Band was better than ever. Spencer Zeiger and the Jacksonville State University and Montevallo State
University faculty were great auctioneers at the Friday night live auction. Eleanor Downey's We did it in thin air tee shirts
and the Henley,s for the Shameless Blues Band Front Ridge Tour were big successes. We had a record number of walkers/runners
participate in the Wahlberg memorial run, despite the cold snap and the thin air!
The conference evaluations yielded the following ratings on a 10-point scale with 1 low and 10 high scores:
Off site registration through KRA = 8.9
Off site membership process = 8.7
On-line conference registration process = 7.9
On-site conference registration process = 8.9
Overall applicability of session to BSW education = 8.8
Exhibits = 7.7
Abstract review process = 8.3
Hotel facilities = 8.9
Hotel staff = 9.3
Food events = 8.8
Length of conference = 6.4 (with 10 being too long)
Length of sessions = 5.5
Overall conference rating = 8.7
On the question of where members would like to have future conferences, the highest ranked locations in descending order
are:
New Orleans and San Destin (tied)
Seattle
San Francisco
Chicago
On the question of containing conference costs:
33% voted to pay high registration fees and keep all food events
57% voted to keep registration fees the same and cut one or more food events
3% offered alternatives
Many thanks for a successful conference to the Local Planning Committee members: Victor Baez, Maria Elena Puig, and Eleanor
Downey from Colorado State University, William Boline from Governors State University, Kathryn Amundson from University of
Southern Colorado, Chet Dilday from Chadron State College, and Bill Clouser of Lewis-Clark State University.
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