Needs

This section comprises factors without which the “village” cannot survive. While many of us would like the self-sufficiency of providing these entirely from within our communities, that is not always possible. Sourcing these needs from municipal governments or unaffiliated businesses is a valid solution. Needs are considered “checked off” (satisfied) if they are reliably accessed by all of the village’s residents. Bullet points in bold are critical, make-or-break needs. Those in normal text are important sub-needs. Entries in italics are notes for discussion rather than needs in and of themselves.

• Shelter
  • Land sufficient for the housing
  • Appropriate permits, etc.
  • Skill – Free carpentry / joinery
  • Skill – Free masonry
  • Tools
  • Equipment
  • Materials and supplies
  • Roof to keep off precipitation and sun
    • Skill – Roofing
    • Equipment – Tools, ladders, etc.
    • Roofing materials and supplies
  • Warmth in winter
    • Skill – HVAC
    • Skill – Fireplace / chimney masonry
      • Skill – Fireplace / woodstove operation
    • Equipment – Heater, woodstove, etc.
    • Tools
    • Heating materials and supplies
    • Energy source
      • How do members of your community power their heating?
        • Biomass – Wood, etc.
        • Fossil fuels – Gas, oil, coal, etc.
        • Alternative energy
  • Cooling in summer
    • Skill – HVAC
    • Skill – Electrician
    • Equipment – Fans, air conditioners, etc.
    • Tools
    • Heating materials and supplies
    • Energy source
      • How do members of your community power their cooling?
        • Biomass – Wood, etc.
        • Fossil fuels – Gas, oil, coal, etc.
        • Alternative energy
  • Security from violence, predators, pests, and theft
  • Sleeping facilities
• Water
  • Potable, clean drinking water
  • Irrigation water for crops, etc.
  • Skill – Plumbing
  • Equipment – Tools, pumps, filters, etc.
  • Pipes and fittings
  • Appropriate storage facilities
• Sanitation
  • Toilet facilities
  • Grooming facilities
  • Bathing facilities
  • Wastewater treatment
    • Sewage quarantining and processing
      • What is your solution?
        • Central sewage processing
          • Skill – Responsible toilet use
        • Septic systems (on-site)
          • Skill – Responsible septic system use
        • Alternative toilets (on-site)
          • Skill – Proper use
    • Greywater processing
      • Are you using greywater for irrigation? If so, how are you educating people about their responsibilities to this system?
  • Pest control
  • Waste disposal
    • Organic waste quarantining and processing
      • Are you composting organic waste? If so, how are you educating people about their responsibilities to this system?
    • Recyclables separation and processing
      • Are you recycling? If so, how are you educating people about their responsibilities to this system?
    • Other waste separation and landfilling
      • Are you doing anything to minimize landfilling? If so, how are you educating people about their responsibilities to this system?
• Food
  • Cooking facilities
    • Equipment
    • Skill – Cooking / Baking
    • Skill – Food safety
  • Food storage facilities
    • See below for variants
    • Skill – Food storage (See below for variants)
    • Skill – Food safety
  • Proteins
    • How do members of your community access complete proteins?
      • Animal meat
        • How are you sourcing it? 
          • Agriculture
            • Skill – Animal husbandry
            • Ranchland sufficient for sustainably grazing herds
            • Equipment
            • Disease control
            • Pest control
            • Winter fodder for herds
            • Water for herds
          • Hunting
            • Skill – Hunting / Trapping
            • Equipment
            • Rangeland sufficient for sustainably supporting wildlife
        • Slaughtering
          • Appropriate facility
          • Equipment
          • Skill – Carcass dressing
        • Butchering
          • Sanitary facility
          • Equipment
          • Skill – Butchering
          • Storage
            • Cold storage
            • Drying/salting/smoking and dry storage
              • Skill – Meat curing / charcuterie
            • Canning and dry storage
              • Skill – Canning
      • Plant sources
        • Farmland sufficient to sustainably grow appropriate crops
        • Seed supplier
        • Skill – Farming / Gardening
        • Irrigation water
        • Planting equipment
        • Weed control
        • Pest control
        • Harvesting equipment
        • Processing equipment
        • Processing facilities
        • Appropriate storage
        • Skill – Plant protein processing
  • Fats
    • How do members of your community access needed fatty acids?
      • Animal meat
        • How are you sourcing it? 
          • Agriculture
            • Skill – Animal husbandry
            • Ranchland sufficient for sustainably grazing herds
            • Equipment
            • Disease control
            • Pest control
            • Winter fodder for herds
            • Water for herds
          • Hunting (Many wild animals are not good sources of fat.)
            • Skill – Hunting / Trapping
            • Equipment
            • Rangeland sufficient for sustainably supporting wildlife
        • Slaughtering
          • Appropriate facility
          • Equipment
          • Skill – Carcass dressing
        • Butchering
          • Sanitary facility
          • Equipment
          • Skill – Fat rendering
          • Cold storage or canning and dry storage
      • Animal dairy
        • Skill – Animal husbandry
        • Ranchland sufficient for sustainably grazing herds
        • Equipment
        • Disease control
        • Pest control
        • Winter fodder for herds
        • Water for herds
        • Sanitary dairy facility
        • Equipment
        • Skill – Milking
        • Skill – Butter making
        • Skill – Cheesemaking
        • Cold storage or canning and dry storage
      • Plant sources
        • Farmland sufficient to sustainably grow appropriate crops
        • Seed supplier
        • Skill – Farming / Gardening
        • Irrigation water
        • Planting equipment
        • Weed control
        • Pest control
        • Harvesting equipment
        • Processing equipment
        • Processing facilities
        • Appropriate oil storage
        • Skill – Oil extraction
  • Carbohydrates
    • How do members of your community access the majority of their caloric needs?
      • Gathering
        • Skill – Foraging
          • Rangeland sufficient for sustainably supporting plant diversity
        • Equipment
      • Agriculture
        • Farmland sufficient to sustainably grow appropriate crops
        • Seed supplier
        • Skill – Farming / Gardening
        • Irrigation water
        • Planting equipment
        • Weed control
        • Pest control
        • Harvesting equipment
    • Processing equipment
    • Processing facilities
    • Appropriate storage
      • Skill – Staple food storage
  • Micronutrients
    • How do members of your community access needed micronutrients, such as from fruits and vegetables?
      • Gathering
        • Skill – Foraging
          • Rangeland sufficient for sustainably supporting plant diversity
      • Agriculture
        • Farmland sufficient to sustainably grow appropriate crops
        • Seed supplier
        • Skill – Farming / Gardening
        • Irrigation water
        • Planting equipment
        • Weed control
        • Pest control
        • Harvesting equipment
    • Processing equipment
    • Processing facilities
    • Appropriate storage
      • Skill – Plant drying
      • Skill – Canning
• Clothing
  • How do your residents clothe themselves?
  • Appropriate equipment
  • Appropriate sourcing
  • Skill – Plant fiber processing
  • Skill – Wool carding and spinning
  • Skill – Weaving
  • Skill – Knitting / crochet
  • Skill – Women’s clothing construction
  • Skill – Men’s clothing construction
  • Skill – Straw plaiting
  • Skill – Feltmaking
  • Skill – Hattery
  • Skill – Leather tanning
  • Skill – Leatherworking
  • Skill – Shoemaking
• Medicine
  • How do your residents access healing?
  • Skill – Allopathic (modern Western) medicine
  • Skill – Traditional Chinese medicine
  • Skill – Ayurvedic medicine
  • Skill – Herbal medicine, Western
• Transportation
  • Transport infrastructure
  • Transport methods
  • Is your village walkable? How can you improve/protect that?
• Power
  • How do residents access the energy needed to do their work, run their housing, etc.?
  • How do they see at night or in the absence of natural light?
• Communications
  • How do residents communicate with each other?
  • How do residents communicate with people outside the village?
  • Is telecommuting important to the jobs of your residents?
  • How vital is Internet access and at what speeds?
• New Members
  • How does your community replace residents who leave, die, etc?
    • Recruitment
    • Children
• Finance
  • What role does money play in your village’s internal economy?
  • How does your village raise enough money to pay for things that it cannot provide for within the village?
  • How does your village pay for taxes on community assets?
  • How do your residents raise enough money to buy things they cannot provide for themselves or barter for within the village?
  • How do your residents pay their taxes?
  • Skill – Accounting
• Security
  • How will your village protect itself from criminals, etc.?

Wants

This section comprises factors that improve the quality of life in the village. While many of us would like the self-sufficiency of providing these entirely from within our communities, that is not always possible. Sourcing these needs from unaffiliated groups is a valid solution. Wants are considered “checked off” (satisfied) if they can be reasonably accessed by the village’s residents. “Reasonable” access will of course vary based on the specifics. Bullet points in bold are categories. Those in normal text are sub-wants. Entries in italics are notes for discussion rather than wants in and of themselves.

• Home furnishings
  • Furniture
    • Skill – Finish carpentry / cabinetmaking
    • Skill – Upholstery
  • Pottery
    • Skill – Pottery
  • Cutlery
    • Skill – Knifemaking
    • Skill – Finesmithing
  • Glassware
    • Skill – Glassmaking
    • Skill – Glassblowing
• Health and beauty aids
  • Soaps / cleaning supplies
    • Skill – Soapmaking
    • Skill – Broom making
    • Skill – Brush making
  • Beauty supplies
    • Skill – Cosmetics making
    • Skill – Perfumery
• Paper goods
  • Skill – Papermaking
• Books
  • Skill – Librarian
  • Skill – Bookbinding
• Metal goods
  • Skill – Smelting / metal recycling
  • Skill – Blacksmithing
  • Skill – Redsmithing
  • Skill – Tinsmithing
  • Skill – Metal fabrication (modern Western)

The post AVOCADO Village Checklist appeared first on Hearthingstone.

Since then, that job (and my finances) imploded. I have since regained some employment stability, but the fiscal damage is far from healed. I’m working a second part-time job and keeping my eyes peeled for a better one in order to pay down debts from the layoff.

First, the bad news:

Barring a substantial monetary windfall, I can’t afford even the bare minimum deposits and operating expenses for a tiny, hotel-based conference.

Running a really kickass (but tiny) conference, with a sponsored keynote speaker (airfare, hotel, & meals), a hospitality suite, advertising, and so on could easily have run $5,000 or more. Even without those, the room costs and taxes would’ve been about $1,500 (for up to 75 people), plus another $500 or so for things like programs, badges, and other unexpected incidentals. That’s around $2,000, mostly upfront- even if admission fees could cover it on the backend.

Second, some good news:

If I dump the entire idea of attracting people from around the country/world and move to a small venue that isn’t a hotel, I can probably reduce the upfront costs significantly.

Third, some ambivalent news:

Cutting back to a purely local conference also means a reduction in content and chances to meet new and interesting people from far away. This decreases the perceived value of the conference, which means that any admission fee would have to be much smaller. That would limit the ability to carry funds forward to the next year.

That said, I am still investigating this possibility in the hopes of doing something in early 2020 with the goal of building on that towards a proper conference the following year.

Fourth, for something completely different:

Hearthingstone was first and foremost about creating professional development opportunities for polytheist leaders to help them improve their skills for serving The Gods, their communities, and their traditions.

Increasingly over the last year, the fractious and scattered state of our polytheistic communities has been a topic of discussion amongst said leaders. There is a swelling impulse to draw the faithful closer together. As I wrote last fall:

From a practical standpoint… it’s much easier to start a successful business, become a “mover-and-shaker”, find a date, or even just a decent job if the people around you know you and have common cause with you. It’s also easier to build a temple.

To that end, I am adding a “Polytheist Villages Network” page to this site and also a discussion group on Facebook. I’m not entirely sure what this will evolve to be, but my goal is to help foster intentional communities for polytheists in the form of neighborhoods or similar forms of geographic proximity and common cause.

As there are any number of important considerations regarding where people live and why, I think this will be an interesting topic for some polytheist leaders, especially those directly involved in serving groups of the faithful. That said, I think it could be a potentially valuable resource for monastics and mystics as well, who (like many of us) often struggle to find needed support services.

I hope you will join us in this endeavor, and at whatever sort of conference I can pull together.

-In Deos Confidimus

The post A Year & Then Some appeared first on Hearthingstone.

The results were confusing and troubling. In essence, I was told that the dates and location were satisfactory, but that something was giving offense to the gods interested in the conference. I put off booking the hotel and tried to understand.

It took calling in some “big guns” (experienced diviners with much better signal clarity) to seek more complete answers and help me interpret the message.

The problem wasn’t the date or the hotel, it was me. In particular, my state of mind at the time was incompatible with the reality of the situation. Because of other stressors in my life, I held unreasonable expectations of what might be possible for a first-year convention. While I certainly have the knowledge, I don’t have the resources or clout to achieve the standard of “success” I was setting for myself.

It was a standard that was about convincing myself of my competence. It was not a standard established by the gods. It was a standard others I respect had warned me to be wary of.

Yet, we live in a society where your career is your worth- not just financially, but ethically or morally. We are surrounded by a culture that happily throws away the lives of the poor based on notions of human worth derived almost entirely from career success and wealth. Even when we actively reject that meme complex, it pervades our world and others try to force it upon us.

This is one of my core struggles. All my life, I’ve been told that I’m extremely intelligent, but culturally, my lack of career and material success says otherwise. Our overculture’s poisonous assertion that failure is deservedly earned through moral weakness and incompetence infects my thinking and eats away at my self-worth and resolve. Even knowing this and intentionally rejecting this disease, it feeds on my id and sickens my ego- driving my superego to demand more and more counterevidence.

Knowing that my life was headed for additional disruptions (a job layoff, at the very least), I now believe that They wisely directed me to take a hiatus from planning and to focus on my own inner health.

Friday morning, I received what I interpret as confirmation of that. Immediately before waking fully and clearly, I dreamt of a chaotic start to a polytheist leadership conference with less than half the people I was expecting. I dreamt of random attendees stepping up and filling voids, like creating a sign-in sheet or finding chairs for others.

Most importantly, it was not a nightmare or an embarrassment dream. It simply felt appropriate… right somehow. The message was clear- “This is enough. It can be more later, but for now, this is enough.”

I’m still struggling through finding a new job and getting finances back on track. However, I am hopeful that this message indicates a turning point and that soon I will be fit to resume planning.

-In Deos Confidimus

The post Blowing on embers appeared first on Hearthingstone.

After touching base with the hotels in the expanded search area, I believe that one of them stood out as clearly the best candidate. It won’t allow for much expansion in-place (if any), but it’s a lovely all-suites hotel that is convenient to plenty of restaurants and other amenities. The meeting room rate is very reasonable (for Austin) and decreases by as much as half if we can book enough room nights.

It even has fire!

I don’t yet have a formal rate quote for a sleeping room block. However, their published rates for the equivalent weekend in 2019 were under $100- extremely low for a newly-built suite hotel in Austin. This same hotel charges over $200 a night during busier times of year!

All the rooms have a kitchenette.

As far as the date, I was weighing a lot of different factors, both religious and practical. This weekend kept “pinging”, despite its proximity to New Year’s Day- or perhaps because of it.

As much as possible, I wanted to avoid conflicts with holy days, though that’s nigh-impossible to do perfectly. This weekend does fall right around the end of Yule in some traditions. It is also roughly around the time that the Romans sometimes celebrated Compitalia- the festival of crossroads Powers. I haven’t found others, though I could certainly be mistaken.

This weekend is close enough to the general “Holiday Season” that many of our academics will not yet have returned to the classroom. Some of us might even be lucky enough to work at places that are closed through the following Monday.

Furthermore, January in Austin is a time of year when visitors from other parts of the country aren’t likely to burst into flames when walking outside. While the locals might wear parkas, our colleagues from more northern climes might consider it lovely spring or fall weather.

In addition, my comparison of airfares showed an average of $173 in round-trip savings compared with busy weekends like those during SXSW. There is also a large park-and-ride bus terminal less than two miles away and four different bus lines pass near to the hotel.

Finally, there is the esoteric gravitas of conducting an event like this on the first weekend after the dawn of a new year. While our various faiths and traditions may use different calendars, we all live in a society the runs on the Gregorian one. Rather than just making forgettable personal resolutions, perhaps we can put the power of this liminal time to a more holy use.

To that end, I have tentatively confirmed a keynote speaker- a published author who has a long history of service to the Gods.

-In Deos Confidimus

The post A Stake In The Ground appeared first on Hearthingstone.

Their rate was just shy of $120 per night for Nov. 8-10, 2019- so about $20 more than #1, which also quoted that date. They are, however, the only one that explicitly included a hot breakfast buffet for up to four people per room.

This hotel is located next to candidate #3 and across the highway from #1.

Unlike #2 & 3, they have free parking (like #1) and they also have no airport shuttle.

Their meeting room cost for the weekend is half that of #2 and about 50% more than #3. If we decide to pin down for a different weekend, I can probably get a new quote, but I expect it will be similar.

Thoughts?

-In Deos Confidimus

The post Hotel Rates and Dates from Venue Candidate #4 appeared first on Hearthingstone.

Sadly, this hotel has fewer dates available (or quoted fewer). I haven’t spoken with the rep there- they called, but didn’t leave a message.

$100-110 for Single/Double

• August 23-25
• December 20-22 (Also quoted by #2)
• December 27-29 (Also quoted by #2)
• January 3-5, 2020 (Also quoted by #1 & #2)

It turns out this hotel does not have an airport shuttle as we thought; however, they do have a local shuttle that goes out 2 miles.

As far as meeting room costs, this hotel’s total price is equal to the daily price for VC #2. On the other hand, this hotel charges for parking- in this case $15+ per day. VC #1 does not, but #2 does.

I feel like I need to get a couple of other quotes from smaller hotels and then decide on a date and venue. But, smaller hotels wouldn’t have a lot of room to grow and we’d definitely have to cap registrations.

Thoughts?

-In Deos Confidimus

The post Hotel Rates and Dates from Venue Candidate #3 appeared first on Hearthingstone.

Under $100 (Barely)

• April 19 – 21 (Also being considered by someone else- Easter)
• June 14 – 16
• July 12 – 14
• November 8 – 10 (Veterans’ Day weekend)
• January 3 – 5, 2020

$100-120

• April 5 – 7 (Would have to start late on Friday)
• April 26 – 28 (Would be using less than my preferred rooms)
• May 30 – June 2
• July 26 – 28
• November 1 – 3
• January 10 – 12, 2020

Over $120

• January 17 – 19, 2020 (MLK Day weekend)
• January 24 – 26, 2020

So far, the staff contact has been wonderful and I like the space. However, it turns out that they don’t have a free airport shuttle. With perhaps 80% of our attendees coming from out of the area, we’d need to think about options.

It’s been a really busy week at day job, but I need to reach out to at least a couple of other hotels. I found one right at the airport, but would that be too noisy?

Thoughts on the dates above? I’d like to aim at the cheaper end if possible, but so far no dates are jumping out at me as ideal.

-In Deos Confidimus

The post Hotel Room Estimates From Venue Candidate #1 appeared first on Hearthingstone.

For a conference, especially one that aims to run year after year, it’s vital to actually collect and manage a certain amount of data. Each attendee’s badge pick-up information at the very least- their name if nothing else. Ideally, email addresses and/or mailing addresses would accompany that so that we can notify them of changes and reach out when the following year’s registration is available.

Between the personal data and the payment processing, there are security concerns that naturally arise. An annual conference probably shouldn’t try to get into merchant services accounts and card processing and all that. Well, maybe 10,000-person conferences should, but not a small one like us. That means finding a registration service provider- someone like Eventbrite.

Similarly, there are good reasons to use an email communications provider like Mailchimp– to minimize your risk of getting thrown in the spam bucket if nothing else!

All of these services cost money, of course.

Eventbrite charges a fee for each ticket sold. We’d have the option of wrapping the fee into the cost or passing it to the attendee on top of the registration cost. For example, if the registration costs $50, the processing fee might be $5. This would make the actual cost to the attendee $55 if passed on, or make the actual income from the registration $45. Either way, it’s a balancing act. From what I’ve seen, the other providers are pretty similar.

It’s worth saying that WordPress plugins can do some of the same things, but that means dedicating a lot more time to site administration.

On the other hand, Eventbrite’s default is to hold payouts until after the event, which will simply not work in this case. They have a system for rolling payouts ahead of the event, but you have to apply for that- so it’s not a sure thing.

I also considered crowdfunding services like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. Sadly, they don’t have any sort of CRM systems from what I’ve seen. Also, their track record for funding conferences is abysmal.

In an ideal world, we’d also be able to register attendees for individual events- for instance Session A or B at 3pm. Obviously, this requires having the schedule nailed down, but it makes it easier to plan which sessions need the bigger rooms! Eventbrite doesn’t appear to have such a system, nor did the other services I saw. So whatever solution we go with might still require a bunch of manual data entry.

Do you know of a better (and cheap) solution or service provider?

-In Deos Confidimus

The post Registration Systems appeared first on Hearthingstone.

It is located within walking distance (1/2 mile or less) of a number of restaurants, two movie theatres (including an artsy one), and is directly next to an old shopping mall that is being redeveloped into a mixed-use center including a community college, apartments, shops, and the like. It is one of four hotels in the vicinity that I’ve been interested in, and is the most walkable of the four.

That said, this part of town is fairly far from the airport and I don’t think this hotel offers a free airport shuttle. I need to remember to ask next time we talk. At least one hotel nearby does. The route from the airport isn’t complicated, but for those who don’t or don’t want to drive it could be an issue.

On the other hand, it’s the closest hotel to the Greyhound bus terminal, being a little more than a block away. As far as mass transit, there is a red line train (to downtown) stop about a 7/10 mile walk away. The route 350 bus stops a bit closer, but it’s still a hike. Given Austin (and Texas) mass transit in general, this isn’t bad, but it’s probably further than folks used to good transit systems expect to carry bags- especially if it’s a warmer time of year!

Speaking of times of year, I got a list of possible dates for this hotel. We cut off March of 2019 and earlier to leave enough time for planning and getting enough attendees. March and October are also the two craziest months for hotel space in Austin, apparently.

Here are the dates that the hotel is costing out for us:

• April 5 – 7 (Would have to start late on Friday)
• April 19 – 21 (Also being considered by someone else- Easter)
• April 26 – 28 (Would be using less than my preferred rooms)
• May 30 – June 2
• June 14 – 16
• July 12 – 14
• July 26 – 28
• November 1 – 3
• November 8 – 10 (Veterans’ Day weekend)

August, interestingly, was booked solid. According to the hotel, it’s usually dead, but in 2019 it’s filled up. That might be for the best, given our summertime temperatures.

As far as other events, it looks like there are three possible conflicts amongst the events I’ve found. Spring Mysteries runs April 18-21. Mystic South is in-between the two July dates. Spiritfire hasn’t released their 2019 dates, but it’s usually in mid-July as well.

Of course, for those engaged in Celtic reconstructionism, the first weekend in November might easily create a scheduling conflict. So too for those practicing Mexican traditions. While Austin does have a large Dia de los Muertos celebration, attending it isn’t the reason for the conference.

The following weekend could be tight for folks whose work includes services timed around Veterans’ Day.

That’s my report for today.

-In Deos Confidimus

The post Venue Candidate #1 appeared first on Hearthingstone.

First of all, after some careful review, the downtown hotels are just too damned expensive. For every hotel that I’ve considered, I tried to price a room with a king bed for the last weekend in October 2018 (just a consistent date several months away, not a date I’m considering). The cheapest hotels I could find downtown with adequate space were nearly $300 a night! Some were as high as $600- NO FRICKIN’ WAY!

My best results were in the north-central parts of Austin. These areas have been experiencing a lot of rebuilding, both from gentrification (bad) and renewal of old industrial/commercial areas into more modern uses (good). There are also some traditional conference hotels in this area with fairly reasonable pricing, though I worry about going to someplace that’s too big right out of the gate. For example, one place that runs about $155 a night (most places are usually cheaper if booked for a conference) has around 24,000 square feet of meeting space!

That’s too big. The first Hearthingstone would be a drop in the bucket for them, so we’d have a hard time negotiating.

On the other hand, I’ve identified a couple of promising venues, though each presents their own challenges.

One has just under 2,000 sqft of indoor meeting spaces (and a 1,500 sqft pavillion) available, plus outdoor fire pits and a fairly reasonable pet policy. It’s also about a mile from a large Whole Foods. It’s located in a reclaimed industrial area that’s been converted into a mixed-use development. But it’s also the more expensive of the two, starting at $179 (they advertise $149 for groups of 10+), which is pretty cheap for the rather upscale development it’s in.

The other is a suites-only hotel (many with kitchens!) with a decidedly “green” bent, fireplaces in many of the rooms, and a distinctly cheaper price tag- $119 a night! That’s before any consideration of group discounts. They’re big on hypoallergenic cleaning, organic food, solar panels, and they even have an electric car charging station (there’s a Tesla charging station going in around the corner, too.).

The downside? They don’t really do meetings.

Their only meeting room seats about 35 people, max. They have a dining room, and a nice fireplace in their lobby- but those aren’t reservable as private space. Going here would mean booking extra rooms just as meeting spaces, and I’m not sure how well that would work.

That said, their suites would make travel a LOT cheaper for people because of the kitchens- plus some of their suites sleep up to 5. That’s $159 (+tax) split up into about $32 a night per person, which makes attendance more affordable for many folks. I haven’t yet heard about their pet policy, though.

I’ve reached out to both venues, though I’m strongly considering the latter if I can figure out a way to accommodate the meeting space needs. Also, Google Maps shows a “church” at the same address, so I’ll need to assess these folks’ openness to a polytheist leadership conference. It could just be an old listing. Both are within half a mile of bus stops requiring only one transfer from the airport bus, so that’s a plus!

On the downside for smoking attendees, just about everywhere in Austin seems to be non-smoking. On the upside for non-smoking attendees… just about everywhere in Austin seems to be non-smoking.

Whew- lots and lots of hotels looked at!

Now to see if I can work something out with any of them…

Thoughts?

-In Deos Confidimus

The post Hotels – Refining the List appeared first on Hearthingstone.