Another dynamite turnout!

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This posting is from: jamiejansen
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I sure agree on that.. They had Margaritas at the Palace Station for 99
cents. We could have all gone over there. I think the Artisan was a bad
choice.....Aman

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This posting is from: Veronica Lynn Sevier
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That is why I only use credit cards and then I have no need to worry
about change.

Veronica

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This posting is from: Cynthia Phillips
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Hi All,

Firstly, thanks to all of you for attending the Artisan Opener and
making it a splendidly beautiful affair. Thanks to the beautiful Marissa
for being the grand hostess she always is: working the crowd from the
bar to the dining room to the lobby, always on her feet spreading the
wealth and the joy. Thank you Marissa!

Secondly, sorry to hear about those increased bar prices; this is news
to me since I did not drink during the event. I've been "on the wagon"
since the nosedive I took at last year's Diva, which I recall only as a
dim blur. Let me talk to Artisan Event Manager and find out from her
just whose idea these increased drink prices was. She may not know or
have known anything about it, and it may have been a sorry contrivance
of the staff there, and unknown to upper management. Vegas is notorious
for pulling that kind of s#*t. I remember last year's drink prices were
in the six to ten dollar range. I'll get back to you when I've had a
word with her.

I personally had a little trouble with security. I had to change out of
Cynthia and into guy clothes before catching the bus home. I went into a
ladies room stall and changed, and on the way out encountered security
(male) darting in wanting to know if everything was all right. I ignored
him and went on into the men's room to wash the makeup off my face.
We've never had that happen before. In my communique with management
yesterday, she did not mention anything to me about any problems
occurring. Again, she may be completely unaware of them.

As I mentioned in a prior letter, Artisan changes staff and management
faster than a whale going through sardines since they were bought by
Seigel Group. They will have completely changed personnel by next year
and negotiations will have to begin from scratch. I'm sure they would
like to have a reservations contract agreement with us, but I'm equally
sure that they should know by now that we can deliver the numbers we
promise each year. No doubt, Artisan is problematic, and I will be
shopping around for something better for next year.

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[annie]

> The Artisan was abusive in their drink pricing. I experienced
> everything you and Dennis observed

I thought it was amusing watching you (JoAnn) negotiating your drink price with the bartender.

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This posting is from: JoAnn
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Oops!!

That "drink negotiating event" was a throw back to me student days at
the University of Guadalajara, Mexico. There I learned negotiating at
the "grass roots level" while practicing my Spanish after class in the
Mercado Liberate with the stall merchants. An experience that has done
me well in life!

JoAnn

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This posting is from: JoAnn
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Cynthia--

The feedback you hear should not be taken as a reflection of anything
you have done.

Unfortunately, as much as we would like to think we can, we cannot
control many items, although we try hard "to make things right".

Your work for us is just "super". However, it might be just eaiser for
you to work on some new and more accepting venues. I'm sure we will get
to this in January 2014.

At the same time and always, Annie and I are very appreciative, as are
many, many others, about you organizing efffots with Artisan.

Thanks so much. JoAnn

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This posting is from: Vickie Stone
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It becomes necessary for others to help out and find these places and
make arrangements. I am sure the organizers did as good a job as they
could, but perhaps if more of us pitch in, it will be to everyone's
benefit. I meant to stop in the Palace Station, it's also on Sahara, but
didn't get to it. Did you stay there or just visit the Casino. What can
you tell us about it. It looked nice on the outside.

Sincerely

Vickie Stone

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This posting is from: Vickie Stone
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Well the place was beautiful. The deal is do they want a party of over
100 on a weeknight spending money, if so, here are the parameters we
will work under. Either they want our money or they don't and if the
manager isn't aware of some of this stuff, she either isn't a good
manager, or needs to be more hands on going forward.

My wife and I run or are involved in the running of numerous charity
events for not for profits. We used to run a lovely little event of
about 200 people on a MONDAY night at a lovely catering hall on the
North Shore. The general manager was not there the last time we did an
event there, and the staff was just horrendous to us. Because it was a
small not for profit the board members 'do it all" the sound, the
entertainment,etc. Well the A/hole head valet, saw me bringing in sound
equipment and started breaking my chops. Then the maitre D who showed up
late gave us a hard time after we had set up out raffles, and sound
equipment. After this event I told the board, (I am probably their
biggest financial backer) if we ever go back there, I am gone from the
organization. Needless to say the hall lost an $12,000.00 event on the
slowest night of the week. I doubt the general manager ever had a clue.
Obviously, the business went elsewhere, where we are treated nicely.

I have multiple examples of restaurants and catering halls losing
hundreds of thousands of dollars in business because you never know who
you are dealing with, and that "DJ" or "Guitar Slinger" might actually
be the person selecting the catering halls.

One other story before I bore you to tears. I do play music on the side
and was asked to perform at a cocktail party at a catering hall. It
apparently was the policy of this hall to treat musicians like crap. For
example the valet's were not allowed to park our cars. We had to cart
our stuff up stairs, through the kitchen, rather than directly in the
door to the hall, then had to dind parking (in Queens, NY) where there
is little available street parking.

A week later I am at a meeting of another charity, and someone suggested
that place. My feeling was if they treated musicians that shabbily, we
shouldn't go there, and I made damn sure we picked another place for our
gala...a gala where the catering tab was over $60,0000.

If they want our money, they should treat us nicely, as most of the
places did. I am sure not all of the people who dealt with us were T
lovers, but they sure made us feel welcome and valued in most of the
places we went.

We spent a lot of money, there are no shortage of places in Vegas who'd
enjoy an opportunity to extract it from us.

Sincerely

Vickie Stone

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[annie]

> That "drink negotiating event" was a throw back to me
> student days at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico.

Back when I worked for the hospital, we had a residency exchange program with the U of G.

Some people may scoff at the "bad medicine" reputation of some south of the border schools, but the docs from U of G were well-trained and very competent. I know one who remained in the States to practice and coincidentally attended to me when I was unfortunately a patient in a local hospital.

[annie]

> At the same time and always, Annie and I are very appreciative, as
> are many, many others, about you organizing efffots with Artisan.

I would echo the thanks and appreciation for Cynthia's efforts!

For those listening in, Cynthia is one of our volunteers who eagerly does some of the "heavy lifting" which makes our larger gatherings possible. This is something that not many in our community wish to do. It involves, at times, such things as cold-calling potential vendors, on-site visits, explaining the nature of our group to management and staff, and negotiating under some rather unusual constraints due to the nature and organization of our group.

Quite a few of our volunteers are, understandably, a bit shy of things like this, but Cynthia is one who has set the stage for our maximum-attendance opening gatherings in 2011 and 2013.

We owe her a big hand and a round of thanks for this!