The Journey
A newsletter for chapter advisors, chapter officers, and regional officers.

Convention Registration Fee Holds Steady
By Mike Watson, Associate Director and Saralyn Quinn, Senior Director of Operations

For many new Phi Theta Kappa inductees, the International Convention in Nashville will frame their first impressions of the Society and launch their exciting journey of membership opportunities. For other members, the Convention will serve as a capstone experience - a celebration of their academic accomplishments, leadership experiences and friendships with fellow members.

The Society’s International Convention is the largest annual gathering of college students in the nation. Phi Theta Kappans hold high expectations for their Convention, and our Headquarters staff works diligently to ensure the experience is inspirational, educational and fun for all.

Registration Fee Holds Steady - No Increase over 2001!
Occasionally, questions arise concerning why Convention registration fees aren’t lower. This is a fair question and we are pleased to address it. We know chapter members have worked hard to raise the money to attend the Convention, and we want this to be an experience of a lifetime for them. Our ultimate goal: to make the International Convention accessible and affordable without compromising the professional quality of the program.

Based on location, programming and speakers, Phi Theta Kappa’s International Convention is a true educational bargain. No other student association in the U.S. offers its membership a packed agenda of activities, internationally acclaimed speakers, 39 educational forums, exciting student leadership campaigns, hundreds of awards and scholarship presentations, major social events, including an ice cream social and lunch, and a Transfer College Fair full of senior institutions offering scholarships. Yet, Phi Theta Kappa’s International Conventions offer all this for less than $60 a day to persons taking advantage of the early registration rate. In fact, this year’s $175 early registration fee is exactly the same as it was in 2001. No change! We encourage everyone to send their registrations to Headquarters by March 1 to receive the lowest registration rate possible.

Hotel charges for the 2002 event are also very competitive, especially considering the many attractions offered by the Gaylord Opryland Resort - one of the nation’s most unique Convention venues. While our Nashville Convention hotel is far superior to last year’s host hotel in Denver, the room rate in 2002 is just two dollars more than last year’s rate. Even more amazing, this year’s rate is the same as our room rate in Nashville four years ago!

We are also proud that 57 chapter advisors will receive “full-registration” scholarships totaling $20,000, helping them to attend both the Advisors Pre-Conference and the Convention in Nashville. This is one more way we are working hard to expand opportunities for advisors and members to experience Convention first-hand.

Lights, Camera, Action: The Costs
The Convention is built around six plenary sessions that offer an array of programs and activities - the colorful Opening Ceremonies, the debate between Newt Gingrich and James Carville, over 300 Hallmark Awards presentations, International Officer Candidate speeches, Guistwhite Scholar presentations, unveiling the new Honors Study Topic and International Service Program, and much more.

But the first-class general sessions with nationally-recognized speakers, the professional stage set, the audio and acoustics equipment allowing every person to hear, the lighting system brightening the stage so cameras may capture the action, multiple cameras to record all activity on stage and in the audience, fire prevention permits and crew required by law, security officers to ensure everyone’s safety, printed programs for each session, technical crew of 30 union professionals to rig and operate the equipment, intricate graphics and video productions - all these components are integral to the success of the Convention production - but they also factor heavily into the overall Convention expenses.

Change + Progress = Cost
Each year we strive to improve our Convention, based on surveys and suggestions from attendees. For example, for several years attendees expressed concern because they could not hear the names of award recipients because of enthusiastic audience applause. So we invested several thousand dollars to be able to project all winners’ names on giant magnification screens. The audience loved the enhancement and wanted it to continue. But it does increase our production costs significantly.

In order to help Convention attendees view all candidate caucus interviews more efficiently, several attendees suggested that the Candidate Caucus Video be shown on two closed-circuit channels at the hotel, rather than airing the entire three-hour caucus on one channel. We thought that was a terrific idea and attendees appreciated this improvement! Of course, the switch to two channels has doubled the cost to broadcast the caucus.

While the advent of more sophisticated audio-visual equipment for presentations has enhanced the professionalism of our Convention’s Educational Forums and pre-conferences, it has also affected the budget. Ten years ago, workshop presenters asked for flip charts and overhead projectors. Forum presenters in the new millennium are requesting LCD projectors for Power Point presentations ($750 per use) and high-speed data line connections to integrate the Internet into their presentations ($250 per line). Due to popular demand, more Educational Forums will be offered at the 2002 Convention, which means the a/v expense will expand too.

The Convention attendance itself continues to show a steady increase. More chapters attended the 2001 Convention in Denver than any event in the Society’s 83-year history. Our consistent growth requires more meeting space each year and more Convention staff to accommodate the needs of the attendees.

It is remarkable that Phi Theta Kappa’s lowest registration rate has not increased when you consider that every imaginable expense associated with the hospitality and meetings industry has skyrocketed over the last several years - including food and beverage costs, hotel labor, transportation fares, meeting room/sleeping room rates, printing, awards, security, and taxes - yes, lots of taxes.

The registration fee has increased modestly but steadily for the past 15 years - as have the cost of a college education, clothing, housing, fuel, motor vehicles, entertainment and virtually every other aspect of our lives. In planning for future Conventions, the Society’s Board of Directors made the decision in 1997 that the quality of programming at the International Conventions should not be diminished just to keep registration fees static. The fact that the 2002 registration fee has not increased, when compared to the overall economy, is an indication of just how hard the Society is working to keep the Convention affordable. We hope to see you in Nashville!

Copyright 1996-2002 by Phi Theta Kappa, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The name, logo and various titles have been registered with the U.S. Patent Office.

This page last modified -- Friday, 14-Nov-2003 11:00:21 CST (cwe)