Flying in instructors - vote requested

[Britt Hartenberger <bhartenb bu edu>]

Hi all,

Please read the following and send your vote to me by 5pm Friday, if 
at all possible. Thanks!

Dianne and I have been discussing how to bring ringing instructors to 
Boston this Spring for some intensive practice weekends. We discussed 
this briefly last September at the Advent Guild meeting and Dianne 
asked for comments via email after the meeting, and I think the 
consensus was that it would be a good idea to use some of our funds 
to fly teachers here.

This spring, it works out that Michael Schulte will be able to visit 
and give us a significant amount of time over the weekend of March 
18-19, coincidentally the same weekend Linda Woodford will be 
visiting and ringing (though her time with us is more limited). 
Dianne and I decided that, given the general attitude of the guild's 
members, we should fund Mike's plane ticket and offer to put him up, 
which requires $240 of Advent Guild funds. Our overall available 
funds are about $3000, and we expect more income before the end of 
the fiscal year (counting from 9/05 to 9/06) in the form of wedding 
fees.

Mike has also volunteered to come out for the weekend May 19-21 and 
teach/conduct some more for us. Right now, flights that weekend are 
relatively cheap ($250 Kalamazoo/Boston, which is not bad, speaking 
as one who makes this trip frequently myself). So...

** ITEM FOR VOTE **
Shall we spend another $250 to offer airfare in exchange for a second 
weekend of intensive instruction?

Please write me back saying either "Yes, go ahead" or "No, I don't 
think we should spend the funds." I'm asking for a vote by Friday at 
5pm so that Mike can buy his ticket before prices go up, which may 
happen this weekend.

I suggest that we experiment with up to four flights-of-instructors 
in a year, and see how that goes just to make sure we don't spend too 
much. Since we didn't do this at all in the fall, I don't think two 
flights this spring is excessive. We bought ropes recently and so 
don't have many other major expenses of guild funds.


Thank you!
Britt Hartenberger

(617) 413-4143
bhartenb bu edu