I used to work for a Fortune 300 company with over 6,500 salespeople...so I'd have to negotiate about 2 hotel contracts a week. I was also a treasurer for the local organizing committee of the 2007 Annual meeting of the American Bar Association (ABA) in San Francisco (we booked 16 hotels for the 7000 delegates). 
If I am elected President, this is what I'd do as one of the organizers of the convention:
1. request UNAA members to amend the constitution to allow flexibility in negotiations (remove references to Labor Day weekend and streamline powers for approving contracts). 
2. find a hotel that has shuttles to the airport or is near easy public transportation
3. try to find out if any other group is planning a large gathering in the area (ask the hotels, the tourism board, google the city and add "festival, annual meeting, etc". Find out the expected size of those festivals or meetings e.g in 2008 Denver had a Democratic Party convention and UNAA to go to an alternative city...if San Diego has stiff competition, we can have the convention on another long weekend or in a different city.
4. contact both mid-range and high end hotels in that area e.g the annual ABA meeting in San Francisco meeting has rooms with varying prices.
5. when I reserve 100 hotel room nights, I'd request the hotel to leave a buffer of 50 in case some delegates cancel (no attrition fees for slippage up to 50%).
6. I'd insist that our group rates are lower than the booking directly with the hotel.
7. I'd request the hotel to give me access to names of folks booking with our code...if rooms run low, I'd try to get more rooms. If the hotel is getting full, then I'd start looking for overflow hotels. 
8. if room pick up is slow, I'd increase efforts to encourage registration...may be offer a discount for those that book rooms using the group discount code. I'd also do other things that can help encourage more delegate spending to meet minimum food and beverage guarantees (e.g hold local organizing committee meetings at the hotel, include more eating/drinking opportunities at the convention...tell the hotel to sell beers and snacks at all forums...UNAA delegates drink a lot of beer. UNAA can offer to pay extra amounts for the hotel to triple the wages earned by employees that would work late. I'd also look into getting a city waiver for serving alcohol beyond the normal hours.
9. I'd insist that the calculation of the minimum expenditure guarantee includes the first UNAA person to arrive at the hotel up to the last person to leave. That way, the guaranteed amount includes all expenses from day the organizers arrive, up to the time the last person leaves.
10. I'd also insist that attrition fees should be calculated based on lost profits, not lost revenue. In addition, I'd make sure that fees do not include taxes since courts rarely allow such charges to include taxes.
11. If we fail to meet the minimum requirements (food and beverages or room bookings), I'd drive a hard bargain and reduce the charges by up to 50-60%. Attrition fees are rarely paid in full because it is very expensive to go to court for such amounts.
12. I'd try several things to limit UNAA's liability in the hosting state (e.g create an entity to handle the convention). I'd also check to see the statute of limitations (time within which a party can sue) in the hosting state and avoid saying, doing or writing anything that would restart the statute. 
 13. if a hotel doesn't have a large banquet hall that can accommodate us, I'd try to see if they can get us a nearby banquet room if we guarantee to take a certain number of hotel rooms...this is what we did when I was part of the organizing committee for the 2007 American Bar Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco. The same thing was done this year because no hotel can provide a room large enough for the main events (7,000 delegates). 
14. I would treat all delegates as my guests, no matter when they book their rooms or register for the convention. It would be my responsibility to help all delegates get rooms, including those that book at the last minute. As long as I am still allowing delegates to pay for the convention, it would be my duty to help them get rooms. A good example is the ABA local organizers...they have early bird discounts but also accept onsite registration...so they do help last minute registrants get rooms too (see link):


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