Dewayne Holmes Sr. Celebrates 35 years of Music Ministry

Congratulations go out to my father Dewayne Holmes Sr. After 30+ years of being Minister of Music at St. Mark Baptist Church in Omaha, NE he's retiring from the responsibilties and taking this time to slow down a bit. The gospel community in Omaha is honoring him for his years of service on Saturday Novemember 3 at Morning Star Baptist Church. The night promises to be one full of great ministry through music. Kudos as well to him for being honored by the Omaha Chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop of America last Saturday, October 27, 2007.

Pastor Sharon Dean Brings Back Intimate Encounters

Pastor Sharon Dean is set to hold her 2nd annual Intimate Encounters 2007, Thanksgiving worship concert on November 23 at Christian Pentecostal Church in Irvington, NJ. Proceeds will benefit Joi's angels.

Last month I introduced my colleague in ministry and business, Teshania Blackwell as a part of our team of experts ready to assist your ministry. I hope you found her advice on conference planning helpful and enlightening. Today we're continuing our conversation by concentrating on the term ATTRITION.

For those of you who didn't catch last month's tips or introduction, here's a quick recap from Teshania who bring's a wealth of conference negotiation and planning experience to the table, from her extended time working for Juanita Bynum Ministries until late 2005.

During her time working for JB Ministries she was instrumental in planning and negotiating most of the conferences and special events.

Here's our recent Q&A correspondence:
DO: Let's talk about ATTRITION. What are attrition costs?
T.B: Attrition costs are the room costs the hotel holds you responsible for should the rooms that you blocked are not filled. For example, if I block off 100 rooms for the conference attendees and only 50 get filled, the hotel will hold your organization responsible for the payment of the other 50 rooms for the amount of nights that the room was blocked. If I blocked the room for 3 nights, they will hold me responsible for payment of the three nights for each room. If I have those 50 rooms left, blocked off for 3 nights, that can run into quite a bit of money.

DO: Tell me about your first RUDE awakening concerning attrition costs.

T.B. My first rude awakening with attrition costs was when we had to cancel a particular conference. Because the cancellation was not within the time stipulated in the contract, we were being held accountable for the rooms that were blocked for that particular time. We should have stipulated in the contract that the attendees would be responsible for their own rooms, but we just blocked the rooms and did not stipulate this, therefore we became responsible. The hotel claimed they did not have ample time to make use of the rooms that were blocked. We were also going to be held responsible for payment of the rooms that we blocked off for our own staff use. What saved us was the fact that there was a hurricane around that time in the city and people had to be evacuated coupled with the conference host getting ill and able to have the doctor verify and document the illness. That was really a close call. We would have been looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs.

D.O. : What do conference planners need to keep in mind regarding attrition costs?
T.B.: Conference planners need to keep in mind deadlines that the hotel gives in relation to room responsibility. If the hotel says, 20 days out from the conference you will have to revisit whether you still need those 50 rooms, then you need to do so. You may then drop it down to 30 so you will not be responsible for the other 20. You must give the hotel an opportunity to make use of those rooms. Whatever number you drop it down to, is the number you will be responsible for. It is very important that you keep up with the number of room blocks that are filled on a constant basis. When you are not sure, it is safer to be under than over. In freeing the rooms you are not sure of, you can also stipulate in your contract that if the rooms are available and more are needed, these attendees will still get the conference rate and you can negotiate whether you will get the credit for the room being filled. They also need to keep in mind wording their contract in relation to attrition and room responsibility and place that solely on the conference attendee. For example, In the contract it needs to be stipulated that the room responsibility is that of the attendee. If for every 20 rooms I get a comp room, and lets say that the 20 rooms are reserved, but then 10 of the room reservers don't show up. At that point, it is between the person who reserved the room and the hotel. If they have not canceled the room in enough time, I still am owed my comp room.

D.O. Is there any way around incurring attrition costs?

T. B. Yes, there is a way around it. That way is to simply keep track of your room blocks, stay within the deadlines of the hotel to give them ample time to make use of the rooms, Make sure you stipulate in your contract that you are not responsible for the attendees rooms once they reserve a room, Natural disasters, and near death illness.

If you have a question regarding conference planning, feel free to email TeshaniaB@DandCMultimedia.com and she will be sure to answer question. Plus she may even share it next time.