[JONAT] Time to go -

[Mark Stephenson]

I recall an e-mail from long ago asking that we contact her about
arrangements. My ASC knows everyone of note on the eastern half of the
Arizona Sector and he made arrangements for reduced rates there. I drove
the west half and spotted a quaint, unaffiliated Mom and Pop motel (the
one with the cabooses) for my first stop, the town of the second stop
was going to be overrun with Fun Runners so there was no chance of
special rates there, and at the hand-off, it didn't appear that we were
going to have 10 people, which I've been told by a friend in the travel
business is the minimum, booked 30-days in advance, to get group rates.
Despite not having the minimum all but one night, because we "knew"
people, we had special rates 4 nights out of 6.

Bottom line: I never asked her for any help, at least not once I had my
overnight stops set up.

There are a number of ways we can screw up as coordinators, be it
sector, lodging, or overall. We can underplan -- leave things too
flexible and have the tour go off schedule. We started late one morning
and didn't get to spend as much time as we would have liked at the Grand
Canyon. We can misplan. Incorrect directions would be an obvious
example. I misplanned because my mapping software failed to take into
account a lower speed limit on the Park Service road into the Grand
Canyon N.P., which also shortened our stay. But, by far the most
frustrating and expensive problem we created for ourselves on the
Arizona Sector arose from overplanning. We had a great plan to park a
mile or so away from the Grand Canyon and take a bus to the rim. It
required people coming in from three directions to be at the same place
at the same time. Because of the first two problems and some
miscommunication, we were late and the other people went straight to the
rim and parked there. We spent a lot of money for a bus that had 10
passengers. 

The greater the number of people involved, the more planning that is
required, but if you err slightly on the side of underplanning, you can
wing it and adjust. Err on the side of overplanning and you have no room
for error. 

I feel bad for Kim, but it sounds like she went off and did a bunch of
work before it was requested or needed. I have no arguments with the
pursuit of profit -- it's the engine of capitalism -- but it requires
risk taking, and she took a risk. There are good commissions to be made
from group bookings. It sounds like she may have promised her former
employer business based on our hopeful estimates at the beginning of our
planning. I think this comes under the heading of counting your chickens
before they are hatched.

Mark - AZ

-----Original Message-----
From: jonat-admin@autox.team.net [mailto:jonat-admin@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of Bob
Sent: Saturday, July 10, 2004 10:30 AM
To: jonat@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: [JONAT] Time to go -

I have removed Brad from the list as he had requested.

Just to follow up, I know in the local sector here, hotel arrangements
had been made prior to Kim getting on board, and unfortunately she had
made contact with contact with several hotels before contacting the
local SC.  I also am aware that at times e-mails took a long time to be
responded to.

I would like to respond to Brad and Kim, but I would like to put
together a thoughtful and positive response.  I would like to get others
comments on Kim's help before doing so.  It sounds like she had gone to
a tremendous amount of effort, and does indeed AT LEAST need to be sent
an appreciation for this effort.

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: jonat-admin@autox.team.net [mailto:jonat-admin@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of Brad Preiss
Sent: July 9, 2004 10:23 PM
To: engl@accesscomm.ca
Cc: jonat@autox.team.net; jonat-chat-admin@autox.team.net;
jonat-chat-request@autox.team.net
Subject: [JONAT] Time to go -

Team -

While my level of effort may not have been up to par during many months
leading up to the tour - I was able to isolate, plan AND RECRUIT from
the local Jaguar clubs - no one showed ( one team wanted to come but
bailed out due to no one coming through from the North ) Frustrating at
best....

However - my many many hundreds of e-mails I have reviewed as well as my
frustration in my sector PAIL in comparison to the idiocy that has
transpired by this team when it comes to my wife's efforts regarding
hotels.

A Spreadsheet was built AND COMMUNICATED after THREE ( friggin!! )
THOUSAND hotels were contacted by her ( on her own time and in no
relation to her former company, DGO ) She received responses from
approximately 1,500 hotels requesting information about our tour - she
in turn had to send out 1,500 faxes back to them - FIFTEEN HUNDRED long
distance calls.

Kim then went to EACH SC - via e-mail and asked EACH of you to select
some hotels... which about 1/3 of you did.

So Kim blocked rooms - and put her reputation on the line ( seeing as
normally you can only block rooms with a detailed signed contract)

months later ......

Not ONE DAMN room was booked under Jonat out of One THOUSAND hotels in
the US and Canada given as options - her job was never to actually BOOK
the rooms all you had to do was say JONAT when you checked in.

Kim has since had to RESIGN in total shame from her company due to the
unbelievable embarrassment caused her in this company which could effect
her career in total as she has to deal with hotels EVERY day.

I hope you all had fun...... she didn't - I could go on but I've lost
interest.

Please remove me from this list - NOW

Bradley S. Preiss
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