Important note from Louise Barber concerning Hotel Rooms on July 10th!

Dear LCRP Fellows, PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!

IMPORTANT/CRUCIAL INFORMATION ON THE CHALLENGE OF
FINDING HOTEL ROOMS FOR ST.LOUIS!

Lots can happen when you leave town – repeatedly! I hope that my absences have not created a problem for many of you in trying to reach me. The only reason I bother to bring this up is that I have only heard (as of tonight, 3/3/04) from 14 of you. This leads us all well past the 2/27 date for announcing your intentions of going to St. Louis and if you are bringing a spouse/guest. We must let the hotel know the pre-final guest list by 3/15 -- their request, not ours. Could you please let us know if you are planning to attend, if you will bring someone, and if you have any problems that we can help sort out? By March 12 (next Friday), if we have not heard, you will simply be assigned a room and it will be a done deal! (Those of you who have contacted us are, of course, exempt from this notification.) Oh, and do you want riverboat tickets?

The prices of flights have begun to come down, so your contacting either Bailey or Jill at Global Travel is now a good idea (baileyn@globaltrav.com or jillh@globaltrav.com; 208-882-7775). Frontier Airlines is to begin a presence in the Northwest by late May, and their prices are particularly competitive.

The most important thing to share with you is the HUGE FLY IN THE OINTMENT. Three weeks after the Millennium Hotel confirmed that we could have the block of rooms from Saturday to Saturday (July 10-17), they informed us that, no, that would not be possible. In order to avoid the mess of certain baseball fans arriving on Saturday, and the less inclined “fans” arriving Sunday, car rental messes, travel agents’ hair pulling, Louise’s paroxysm, etc., we have arranged that everyone will arrive on Saturday and stay in a very accommodating hotel, two blocks from the Millennium, for the night of July 10. Our hosts for that night are the Adam’s Mark St. Louis. More details will follow, but this has solved a nightmare of logistic problems and will not affect our working schedule one iota. We have continued to reserve for anyone, at their own expense, the nights of July 18 and 19 at the Millennium so that you may extend your visit if you wish. The airfare will not be affected by a later leave-taking (after July 17).

A guest list will be provided next week (3/15) to both the Adam’s Mark and Millennium hotels with your name and roommate assignment, if it applies. When the hotels have responded, you will receive your room number for both hotels.

Please note that everyone will have a room at the Adam’s Mark St. Louis on July 10. And everyone will have a room at the Millennium from July 11-July 16, and it is anticipated that most of us will depart Saturday, July 17.

If you are staying in St. Louis the night of July 17 or after, the hotel will be at your own expense, but we do have a small block of rooms held for July 17 and 18; those rooms will be released well before the week in St. Louis unless you call the hotel and make your own reservation by credit card. The Millennium’s phone number is 314-241-9500. No per diem will apply after July 17. The hotel will be contacted within the month before the workshop and all those extra rooms (that have not been individually reserved) will be cancelled so that the grant will not be stuck paying for extra, empty rooms.

We still need to provide links to sites, but in the meantime, if you have additional questions, I am available to help search for answers. Please make sure to read the schedule details on the Rediscovery site under Activities/Summer 2004; I’ll attach the addendum just in case.

I know you are all swamped, so please let me know if there is anything I can do to help out.

Louise