Thanks for the kind words, and for the support. I've recieved many similar emails. "I'd love to be there, but with the economy, we just can't afford the trip this year." Believe me guys I understand. I'm working full time myself again.

But for now, I still have an event planned. Yes the formal "classroom setting" of the convention has been postponed, and we are hoping to have a more relaxed weekend.

Currently on the agenda:
Thursday afternoon- Go-karting
Thursday Evening - Bowling (Looking for volunteers to be designated drivers)

Friday - morning/afternoon, TBD, but suggested Anheiser Bush brewery tours as well as going across the street to the Jelly Belly factory. Wine tasting is also within an hour's drive.
Friday Evening. Stockton Thunder (ECHL) game. It's a special weekend, "Thunder goes pink" They die the ice pink, and all proceeds go to breast cancer research.

Saturday- Day - casual discussions in our meeting area, relaxed convention forums.
Saturday night- the scheduled dinner at river city brewery.

If you are still interested in attending the weekend, please contact either myself or Andy Ferguson (TrophyHusband at the top of this thread)

Dayv

www.athomedadconvention.com

Hopefully when GW is shown the door things will turn around and I will be able to attend and maybe Blog it again. It has been weighing heavy on me that I will not be in attendance this year and the thought is bringing me down.
Attendees, tip one or 2 for the rest of us!
Andy, Bryan and Dayv, thanks for all the hard work!
YOU GUYS ROCK!!

-MileHighDad

I'm sorry to see the lower attendance and changed schedule and look forward to a re-newed conference next year in the DC Area (and am willing to help!)...

I think your problems were three-fold:
1 - After 11 years in the mid-west, I would argue that the vast majority of people drove to the conference. Moving it to the west coast meant all of those people now would have to fly. You probably lost a lot of people right there.

2 - Since it was a mostly driving conference, very few people came from the west coast (Dayv, you're the only one I knew from the left coast). Your "home base" support was much smaller than in years past. The Chicago and then Omaha (near KC) groups were huge in both support and numbers at the conferences in the past.

3 - Economy - it did hurt, but for those who were flying, they had to make decisions much earlier, i.e. before the worst of the current economy hit.

I applaud the attempted move to the west coast. Without trying, you will never know. I look forward to it coming back to the East, where I now live. We, as a group, need to find a way to get word out, get media exposure, of this conference - make it tout to be so much bigger than it is now. There are other dads out there who would come if they thought it was "the" mechanism to be a part of the movement of other SAHDs.

I will never forget sitting in the classrooms at Oakton College listening to professionals (Dr. who? Andy?) give me advice on child raising. From eating habits to sleeping habits and all things in between. It would be a shame for this knowledge transfer to cease.

Thanks Dayv for all the work you did for this years conference. When you say "professional" hockey game, you don't mean a Sharks game, you must be traveling to catch a 'real' game, right?

Hang in there all you organizers and let's learn and start planning for next year as soon as the calendar turns to 2010...

Cheers,
PittCaleb

First of all, the economy is the reason I can't make this year's convention, as much as it pains me to say so. My wife is now an independent contractor and only makes money while tied to a contract. The company she has been working for over the past 2 years has had to make drastic cuts due the loss of their stock price and besides letting go all the contractors, 3000 employees are getting laid off. My wife's company feels very confident that they can place her at a new contract, but until that happens, we have to tighten our belts.

Dayv and Andy have busted their butts to make this work, and I know how hard of a decision this was for them to make. It was the best decision and the most prudent thing they could do and I applaud them for their efforts and their fortitude.

Brian wrote:
I don't think it is entirely unreasonable to consider Sacramento for next year's sight in order to give the west coast dads another chance to experience the annual at-home dad's convention.

This is a great point. I have always thought that the west coast would be a fantastic location to hold a convention. There are so many dads on the west coast that don't have a dads group to support them that this would be such an opportunity for them to get some support they need. This is just some really bad timing and something that no one could have possibly predicted. No one who wanted to attend the convention wanted to make the decision not to go, but they had to. I think it would be great to hold the convention in Sacramento again to give these dads another opportunity to make a convention. I also feel that moving the convention every two years makes more sense. It takes a great deal of effort to plan and organize this type of event and it makes more sense to keep it in a location for a couple of years to make things a little easier and to give the next location more time to plan the next one. This is clearly evident with how the planning went for year 2 in KC.

The only problem with keeping it in Sacramento is that both Dayv and Andy can't plan next year's convention. They both have done a great job of taking over the reigns and keeping alive a great resource for stay at home and primary care dads. However, real life has crept into their lives and they must attend to their Real jobs. I'd really like to think that there may be a couple of dads in California that could take over from Dayv's and Andy's excellent notes and host it in Sacramento next year. However, if that can't happen we are going to do our best to try and host the convention here in DC, but there could be a few hitches in this plan. DC is a place that takes a little longer to plan these types of things. This is convention central and many places book out years in advance, and that's not an exaggeration. They just completed a new convention center that is it’s own city now and it was booked for the next 5 years before the construction was even completed.

I'm going to start another thread to run some ideas by everyone about holding a convention in DC, but I'd really like to think we can still get it done in Sacramento next year.

Dayv and Andy, my hats off to you both. As my dad would say, “you both have done a Yeoman’s job”….And that’s high praise from an old sea captain!

Mike Stilwell
Daddyshome, Inc.
DC Metro Dads

If there is enough interest to have it here, I'm confident we could put something together similar to the KC conventions. If all you city folk can put up with the covered wagons, no running water, and livestock running free everywhere, its a possibilty ;-) It would all hinge on our ability to find free meeting space.....that way we could still have it whether we have 20 or 100 people. There are a number of colleges in Omaha that might be interested in hosting us.

Omaha is a decent drive from Chicago/Denver/Minneapolis (all under 8 hours), is a Southwest Airlines city (keeps fares down...I'm flying RT Omaha-Sactown for $205), convenient hotels downtown in the "Old Market" where you can walk to bars/restaurant/entertainment, and a number of guys in the local group who are convention veterans. I'm sure we could get a number of dads from KC to return our favor of supporting their conventions.

If there is ample support, we can try to put together some things and talk about them in Sactown. We are getting together end of the month for a Dads Night Out and can put some ideas together.

Phil
LinOma Dads

Just have Hogan talk. He has been there and done that for along time and could probably teach us young'uns a thing or two.......Sorry Hogan I am not trying to make you look old.

Not only do I look old with my receding hairline and monkey ass… okay almost bald. I feel old. But I’m still a kid at heart.

I can’t believe I’m 53 and how fast the time has gone boy.