Trade Show Donation

[Mickie Newnam <akelakhan@earthlink.net>]

As several people have said, calling it a donation does not make it any
less of an entry fee.  I can see that it could adversely affect the
vendors.  Columbus OH hosts one of the largest QH shows in the country,
the QH Congress.  A lot of us who don't have Quarter Horses or don't
care a bit about shows still go every year since the trade show is good
and we can usually get good deals.  The trade show is free but a couple
of years ago they changed the parking from $5.00 a carload to $20.00,
supposedly to make it easier for exhibitors' families.  It has hurt the
trade show.  We don't see as many of the smaller vendors as we did
before and this year we'd looked at everything in a few hours and were
ready to leave.  With the old policy there were more vendors, and we'd
go back a couple times within the 2 weeks the trade show was on and
naturally find something else we wanted.  At the higher price we can't
afford to do that.  We talked to one of the biggest vendors and he said
that his sales have been affected, so if he's feeling a difference,
imagine what it's doing to the smaller vendors.
Just food for thought.

Mickie

P.S.  This is not to say that I'm not in favor of the money going to
help trails, but it may not be the most effective way to go about it.



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=