Call for Host - 2018 AMCA Annual Meeting

AMCA headquarters and the Board of Directors are soliciting notice of interest in hosting the 2018 AMCA Annual Meeting. This meeting will be held in the Central Time zone. Any state association, regional association or other group in this region may submit a letter of interest.

BEFORE RESPONDING, PLEASE READ ALL SECTIONS BELOW.

Host responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Onsite volunteer coordination including audiovisual and registration assistance
  • Education Day coordination and Field Day coordination assistance (if applicable)
  • Participation in a face-to-face planning meeting and periodic conference calls

Minimum requirements for host city:

  • Hotel or convention center with a minimum 30,000 sq ft space for exhibits, 10-15,000 sq ft ballroom for plenary session, and 3-4 additional rooms at least 3,000 sq ft each
  • Reasonably accessible by air
  • Able to house all AMCA attendees in 3 hotels or less (approx. 600 rooms total on any given night)

What to include in your letter:

Please tell us why you would like to host and from where you will recruit volunteers (e.g. your district, local university). You can identify a particular city or hotel property for the meeting, but you are not required to. For example, you can simply say "my state/association would like to host".

Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVBs):

You should only respond to this request if you are willing and able to perform host duties, and you should only suggest a city that your association fully backs as a potential meeting location. Do not feel obligated to respond to this call for hosts if you are contacted by a CVB. CVBs have sales representatives whose job is to book business for their city, so they are likely to contact you and inquire about the AMCA Annual Meeting. If you are not interested in the location or if the location is not a good fit for our meeting, it is OK for you to politely tell them that all arrangements are made through the Headquarters office, and direct them to the AMCA staff at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . AMCA does recognize the value of CVBs and we do work closely with them after the initial list of potential meeting locations is chosen.

How the meeting location will be chosen:

AMCA Headquarters will evaluate responses to this host request and may also investigate other suitable locations in the Central Time zone, even if there was no specific host request from those locations. Depending on a variety of factors (outlined below), an official request for proposal (RFP) will be sent by Headquarters to a select few locations. AMCA headquarters will collect the responses and evaluate the proposals. If there are more than three satisfactory proposals, a preliminary vote is carried out by the Board of Directors prior to their Fall Board Meeting. The final three proposals are discussed at the Fall Board Meeting, with the final selection being made at that meeting.

Deciding factors:

A location must meet the minimum requirements above to even be considered. In addition, there are other factors that may affect our ability to seek a full proposal from a given location including: host association interest, whether there is one hotel or a reasonable combination of hotels that can fit all of our sleeping rooms, hotel rate, the weather around the time of year our meeting will take place (especially if it poses a flight delay/cancellation threat), distance and transportation costs from the airport to the meeting location, proximity of exhibit area to meeting rooms, and hotel/convention center availability on our preferred dates.

Additional information:

Host associations receive $10,000 at the conclusion of the conference. AMCA maintains all financial and contractual responsibility for the meeting. AMCA will be responsible for site selection but host association input will be considered and valued. All ideas provided by the local association are greatly appreciated.

 

Please send your letter of interest by May 31 to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . You will receive updates throughout the process.