Renee Zettle-Sterling President

As you know, we have been investigating ways to streamline SNAG's programming and make changes that will bring better benefits for you as well as financial stability for the organization. After a thorough cost-benefit analysis, the Board of Directors has decided to go to a bi-annual conference structure starting right after the Boston conference in 2015.

In addition, we will begin hosting conferences solely in first-tier cities. Our data has shown that these cities reliably attract a considerably higher number of attendees. Many of our members only attend conferences every other year as it is and we are hoping that we will see a marked increase in conference attendance with the new format as well as more excitement and anticipation around our conferences.

SNAG is a large organization and our conferences regularly draw a minimum of 700 attendees (and many more when we gather in first-tier cities.) The cost of hosting events at our scale has increased considerably over the years due to rising hotel costs associated with accommodating a group of our size and the many spaces we require for our programming. In addition, our small staff and many volunteers dedicate innumerable hours toward conference planning and this has become unsustainable. The new bi-annual structure will allow SNAG staff and volunteers to spend more time to work on each conference, its programing and logistics, which will create better experiences for you.

We have also heard your concerns about the cost of attending SNAG conferences in general. While the cost of hotels that can accommodate us are the same regardless of location, it is more affordable and convenient to fly into first-tier cities. Also, the bi-annual structure gives you twice as much time to plan ahead for the cost of attending. We value what you've been telling us and are committed to providing you with the best possible conference experience while keeping costs as low as possible.

As you may know, we also organize an annual symposium. These are smaller-scale, business oriented events offering practical information for the small-business owner. We invite you to consider attending the symposiums, especially on off-conference years. They are more intimate events with great opportunities to meet people and have your questions about business answered directly.

In our continual quest for financially stability, we have been looking at every expense and have a great success story to share: The production of Metalsmith has always come at a significant cost. After researching different companies and their options, we have settled on a combination of changes in the production, printing and mailing of Metalsmith magazine that will save SNAG $20,000 a year!  There will be no discernible changes to the magazine itself, it will just be produced at a much lower rate, alleviating a significant amount of overhead for SNAG and making more of your membership dollars go towards the programming you value.

We hope you will be as excited as we are about the concentrating of our efforts into a more sustainable structure. We are looking forward to a new era that serves you and our organization better!

With best regards,

Renee Zettle-Sterling

President

Register now through EventBrite  

Registration closes September 27, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. PST.

Symposium Coordinators: Christine Dhein, Kelly Nedderman, and Emiko Oye.

Deadline: September 27