I am around, and I am sorry for thus far not addressing the issue personally. BigJim made the announcement on my behalf, as a friendly gesture, given he had first hand intimate knowledge of what was going on in my life (and still currently is).
There were two deciding factors in my decision to temporarily cancel the GLAT gathering. The first being a barrage of personal conflicts and real life dilemmas. Those I will not go into here. The second reason being lack of interest and confirmations.
I made a preliminary announcement months ago about the possibility of a gathering in Wisconsin Dells. The reason I did so was to see how high the interest would be for such an event, and I could make my hosting decision from there. If hardly anyone was interested, I would not do it at all. If more then a handful were interested, I would consider hosting a low scale gathering. However, in my case, within the first 2 weeks of the preliminary announcement, I had 45 emails from folks telling me they would love to attend such an event, and that I could count them in if I decided to go forward with it.
Based on the overwhelming amount of enthusiasm and interest displayed, I decided to go ahead and host on a larger scale. I choose a location that would offer us seclusion and privacy, yet total comfort and plenty of space. It was a very pricey route to go, But I figured if even half the folks who had originally displayed interest in the gathering, actually attended, then at least half my expenses would be covered, and I could deal with that.
What happened instead was nearly every single one of those 45 people who had originally expressed interest, up and vanished, never to be heard from again. I had a few who at least emailed me to tell me things had not worked out on their end, and they would have to pass, but I never heard from the majority of them again.
With 2 weeks left to the confirmation deadline, I had 5 people confirm, 2 of which who backed out. That left me with $300 already invested, another $500 YET to be invested, and 3 people who I could count on attending. The only logical solution for me was to cancel the gathering at this time, and plan to reschedule it a little later down the road, with the hopes of getting more folks involved this time around before setting the plans in stone.
I am sorry to those 3 folks who DID come through for me (you know who you are, and HeBeGeeBee, you are one of them). I feel awful about having to back out on the ones who remained interested in the gathering. I was just simply left with no other option.
Please forgive me for not stepping onto the pedestal and formally announcing this sooner myself. I needed to take a little time for myself, and deal with my own disappointment, before I could move on to pass it on to others. I am terribly sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. If I had any other option, this gathering would still be happening.
You are not out of your reservation fee. Those few of you who did send your fees can email me at
[email protected] with your mailing address, and I will refund your payment to you.
Again, I am sorry.
Mimi
Before you do that Steve, how much will it set you back to P&P it?
