To all SC2 Attendees:

Two or three months after the first Slayage Conference (in Nashville, 2004), President Larry Weill invited us to have the next Slayage Conference at Gordon College. We had been planning to have the conference in Nashville again, so we expressed our appreciation but declined. Last June, however, David Lavery found that we were not going to be able to do SC2 in Nashville. So I asked Dr. Weill if the invitation was still open, and he very graciously agreed. His original thought had been that conferees would stay in the new apartment-style dormitories that were then being built at Gordon. But after the conference announcement went out and plans were begun, we learned that many of the dorm students had signed twelve-month leases. We tried to figure a way around this (at one point I offered, in writing, to personally sublet apartments), but finally decided that we must use hotels instead, starting with a hotel that has a longtime arrangement with the college, the Hampton Inn in Griffin. At this point, Vice President of Business Affairs Jerry Turner offered to have the Business Office cover the cost of shuttle transportation for conferees, with the idea that we would use college vans and buses. We then announced on the Slayage website that we would provide a daily shuttle from the airport for the conference.

This spring, Jerry Turner discovered that the airport would not allow the college to provide a shuttle service with our own vehicles; we would have, instead, to pay for shuttle service using one of the companies that has a standing arrangement with the airport. As it happens, only one shuttle company travels from the airport to Griffin, and no shuttle company travels to Barnesville. The good thing about the shuttle service is that it accommodates its times to arrival of the individual conferee. The bad thing is that it costs $86 per person for a round trip (and it only does round trip reservations) and that it only goes so far as Griffin. (Those who registered late and will be staying in the Country Hearth Inn in Barnesville can first take the airport shuttle to one of the Griffin hotels—the Hampton Inn, the Iris Inn, or the Holiday Inn Express—and have a “layover” there till one of the Gordon shuttles can pick them up and take them to the Country Hearth.) And many more people are coming by plane than we expected (about two-thirds of the conferees), which is wonderful—but will be expensive.

Why explain all this? Well, as my mother always says, “I’d rather know.” (Tell that to Buffy.) Things are going to be a bit complicated in the transportation department, and I wanted everyone to understand why. Even more importantly, I wanted everyone to know that the Gordon College administration has agreed to accept the financial burden if the conference does not break even financially—and right now it does not seem that we will (unless we sell an awful lot of t-shirts). I hope you all share my appreciation for the support we are being given.

So; to business: If you have been having a hard time making up your mind about whether or not to rent a car from the airport, I hope you will rent a car rather than take the shuttle. If you have made a reservation with the shuttle and then decide to rent a car, please remember to cancel your reservation with the VIP folks so we won’t have to pay needlessly. If you have the opportunity to share travel arrangements with someone, please do. And if you do need to take the shuttle, remember that the deadline for reservations is May 10!

P.S. T-shirt checks should be made out to Gordon College, not Patti Lowery, please. Thanks!

Rhonda Wilcox