$300,000 is a lot of money for your typical organisation. Even if the Folk Alliance was collecting millions a year, it's still a lot of money, and non-profit-making organisations generally work with pretty tight budgets to ensure that the money they collect goes to benefit their cause - in fact, being an officer of the organisation and hoarding money instead of using it for the stated purpose of the organisation is a good recipe for having legal action taken against you! They doubtless will have a cash buffer, but $300k is a big hit. I couldn't find details of the NAFA budgets on the web, so I couldn't say exactly what proportion it would be.

Incidentally Guest, why do you say that NAFA are lying when they say that they can't move the booking for the reasons they gave? What evidence do _you_ have against them? Remember that hundreds of ppl have paid for this already.

An acceptable move for NAFA would be to poll its members to see what they reckon, with three options: (a) stay there, (b) cancel this year, or (c) move somewhere else, and every member pays an extra $350 (or more, since late-booking will be more expensive). (c) won't fly; $350 is a big hit anyway, and $700 for a conference just wouldn't be an option for most folkies. (b) is the highly-principled option, but if I'd paid $350 then I'd be pissed off if I didn't get something for it - the words "class action" spring to mind. And (a) is what they've opted for - it's financially safe, but gets brickbats from the more militant members.

I agree Guest, it does look strange that they've got the press release out on Monday when the news only came out on Saturday. It depends though; it may be that the NAFA management have been running themselves ragged all weekend trying to find an alternative, and second-guessing them like that is just kicking them in the teeth for their efforts. Just a thought.

As far as the AM issue goes, I quote:-

In 1999, the NAACP, the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, and three private law firms filed a lawsuit on behalf of several guests at the Daytona Beach property. The plaintiffs allege they were forced to prepay for rooms and amenities; wear non-detachable, neon-orange identification wristbands; and enter the hotel through barricades staffed by a heavy police presence. The plaintiffs also allege that the hotel refused to allow its African American guests to unload their luggage in its covered entryway and refused to rent to them anything but the most basic rooms, reserving its better rooms for employees and police officers staying at the hotel.

Re the coloured patches, at most well-organised conferences/gatherings I've been to the organisers give out coloured wrist-bands or badges to identify who's legitimately there, which makes it easier for letting ppl in and out of the facility without making it a mecca for gatecrashers. These are usually simple paper bands with a self-adhesive tag, so that once they're on, you can only get them off by breaking the band.

It also seems that the police had rented a portion of the hotel for their own use. Maybe the police had arranged with the hotel that these better rooms would be kept vacant for other policemen arriving later - this is not an unusual state of affairs. And is anyone surprised that there was a police presence when 100,000 ppl are gathered in one place? Hell, it would be incompetent not to have a police presence!

I will agree that forcing ppl to prepay and refusing to allow unloading outside the hotel is unpleasant, petty behaviour, and the management responsible for those decisions should have been reprimanded. Barricades - hmm, not good, but was this AM's decision or the police? Which continues to AM's defence of its staff when they should really have been dealing with the problem. Does anyone have access to the AM version of events, for comparison? Note that I'm not saying there wasn't discrimination against these ppl, merely that it'd be good to hear what both sides are saying about the situation.

For the benefit of at least one Guest, information comes from all sides. If you agree with it or if you don't, you can talk about it, but don't insult the ppl who are providing it. DebC got shot down for posting NAFA's press release, which was downright unpleasant. And if you've got more info, post it!

Graham.