Kathleen Courtney

[address removed]

voice:  [masked] 

Dear Fellow Members:

Several of us think that the current meeting location at the Mechanics' Library, while having many desirable qualities, really doesn't work for the ERT. I've mentioned this at the last few openings of meetings.

This is because audio/visual equipment is really only available in the larger room, and the smaller conference room only can accommodate 15-20 people, so we're likely to have most of our meetings in the schoolroom style meeting room. Its hard wood chairs and theater-style layout doesn't lend itself to 'round table discussion'.

I put out the call for some alternatives and had excellent referrals from members Sid Tuchman, Michael Thaler, Nat Schmeltzer, Maury Edelstein and Martin Singer. But, of all the locations, both Lester O'Shea and John "Wex" Wekselblatt have found ideal and cost effective locations .

Wex has arranged for us to use the conference room(s) at the law firm of Coblentz, Patch, Duffy and Bass at the Ferry Building. The office is architecturally stunning, the rooms are  fairly well equipped and there would be no charge. They would likely have some problems receiving us much before 8am and they would give us as little as a day's notice that we needed to find a new location for our next meeting. This makes organizing meetings considerably more complicated. But, it is a terrific spot.

So, I'm recommending to the membership that we move our regular meetings to the location Lester secured at the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) at 1 Embarcadero Center. The location is not as visually appealing (it's still very comfortable), but it can receive us starting at 7:30am and I think there's less chance of being "bumped" at the last minute. The charge is $50/week, but the room has somewhat better audio/visual than Coblentz and this means that we won't have to pay an additional fee for this equipment. PRI also has the advantage of having a large pool of potential speakers right there.

I still think it makes sense for us to try and use the room at Coblentz sometime soon and associate ourselves with the firm as an avaulable location - they have the ability to receive much larger groups than the PRI and the office would make a terrific location for large meetings with very high profile speakers.

Unless anyone has any objections, I think it makes sense to relocate to the PRI on April 28th.

I'd also like to observe that thanks to two members' efforts - we've managed to bring our current costs within our budget and secured two excellent meeting locations. We're in your debt Lester and Wex!

Best, Mike Bradley
SF ERT President