Retreat" at the Mohegan Sun a fiasco?

Hey Professor,
I have just recieved a e-mail of a post made by Cindy at the GPWA.

First, before I tell you all this, I’m not pointing fingers at anyone.

I’m pretty disappointed with the low turnout we had, considering it was

free to our members. And I was disappointed that of the 20 that I made

reservations for (with spouses/SO’s), only 15 showed up; but I realize

shit happens, and a couple of confirmed members were prevented from

coming by circumstances beyond their control.

I didn’t want to tell anyone (except the TL’s) about this before the

Retreat started because I didn’t want any attendees worrying while they

were there, but had already planned on telling everyone when I got

back. Unfortunately, Dom got a “bit” of the info – most likely from an

Aff Mgr – and twisted it to make us look bad. Big surprise, huh??

I’ve never done anything like this before so I made some mistakes, and

unfortunately had a sales rep at the hotel who was incompetent and

didn’t bother explaining MANY things to me, even tho I told them all up

front I’d never done this before.

In the end we had 7 sponsors, 6 of whom attended. Justine from Sky

Affiliates sponsored, but couldn’t come, so please go out of your way

to be nice to her. I lost a couple of other late ones that were

interested – Vegas Partners & Tradal – because we lost so many

attendees.

1. I planned all this, and signed a contract, based on the headcounts I

got in June and July, which were 25 definites and 20+ “likelys”, plus

making room for the Aff Mgrs, and anyone else we picked up. Clearly, I

overestimated. But in August, I signed a modification dropping my

guarantee to just 60 rooms, which I was led to believe would drop my

performance penalty – not so.

2. Room costs were $252 per night, and food costs per person were about

$140. Hey, at this point you guys should all know I don’t do anything

“half-assed”. Below are pics of *just* our dessert tables at the final

dinner buffet, which featured salmon, prime rib, and stuffed chicken

breasts.

3. I didn’t get food menus and costs until mid-September, and *never*

got an itemized cost estimate. The Sunday night a week before the

Retreat, I got a group “resume” where they wanted a deposit of $49,000.

When I had a heart attack, they told me they were charging me a

“performance penalty” of $44,200. They wanted to me to sign this

thing, but I refused until I talked to my sales rep about the

performance penalty, which was based on the original contract. My sales

rep, Steve, either didn’t call or didn’t have the info he needed all

week, until Thursday night. I told him I’d cancel it, no prob (but I

couldn’t really do that), and he told me he’d call me back on Friday

morning which he did – around noon.

4. Noon on Friday, I told him we’d go ahead and do it, but then he sent

me a letter about 2 hours later telling me the total costs were around

$17-19,000. Up until that point, I thought I’d had it all covered – I’d

made a HUGE error in the rooms cost, and no one had caught it until

then. At that point, I had only collected $12K from our sponsors – 1

had wire transferred late and their money wasn’t in yet. I also had to

send him a deposit that day, for Saturday delivery. (when I asked the

fucker earlier in the week if I could wire transfer, he told me no;

then on Friday, told me he’d never asked accounting about that – did I

want to him to do it now? Cost for Saturday delivery – $40)

5. At 4:30 on Friday afternoon, after letting him know I’d sent the

deposit, he wrote back telling me they expected the actual costs of the

event to paid in full by Monday at noon, or they’d cancel it – and they

were fulling planning on charging me the performance penalty

afterwards. I went into a total panic; I make good money, but I’m not a

saver, so I didn’t have the extra cash we needed.

6. CPA worked with me nearly all night, helping me try to figure this

out and came up with a couple of good ideas. I called the Sales

Director on Saturday morning, who called me back and told me they had

already decided to *forgive* the performance penalty, and hadn’t Steve

told me that? No, he hadn’t. But he also agreed to drop the Monday

noon deadline, and let me settle at the end of it, which is what Steve

had always told me I would do.

7. I worked all weekend trying to find the extra cash, and Sunday

morning before I left, sent out $8400 in advance and sponsor requests.

Eddy from RTG kicked in $800 for BetMax for a breakfast brunch, and

Trish from CPS immediately advanced me the $1300 they owed me at that

point for my commission for October, but no one else came thru. I

believe it was one of these that told Dom we were short money. I left

here giving my Mom instructions for transferring money to my NETeller

debit card, so I could pull it out up there.

8. Total costs came to $17,110 – I actually lucked out a little with

the final no-shows, even tho I still got charged their food fees per

person, and room fees for the first night (except for Magic79, who

called me Monday afternoon to let me know he couldn’t get out of Calif.

because of the fires – thank you! – they dropped your fees entirely.)

I collected a total of $14,800 in sponsor money, and yes, I spent some

money while I was there. I borrowed about $500 from some members and

Jeff/WagerProfits at the last minute, and I still owe Mohegan $1500,

which I’ll pay in the next week or so.

I am NOT asking anyone for any money – these were my mistakes, and I

intend to be responsible for them; I always am. Last week and over the

weekend, I was so sick from stress over this that I literally was

physically sick and couldn’t even eat, and kept saying I would never do

it again.

BUT……. It turned out so great – much better than I expected – that

I’d it again in a heartbeat, just make some changes. I think all our

members *and* the sponsors really enjoyed themselves, and I *know*

Money Mechanic was extremely happy with it. Serah told me at dinner on

Thursday night that “all the GPWA members are sooooo nice!”. Knowing

all that, made all my problems worthwhile.

Next year, tho, if we keep it as a free event for the GPWA members,

people who say they’re coming will be charged any permanent costs up

front as a deposit – if they show up, they get their money back; if

they don’t, they lose it.

I had a GREAT time!! Thank you, all of you who came!!! And special

thanks to Bill, who handled a lot of things for me while we were

there!!
_________________
Liaison for SciFi, Palace of Chance, Portofino/Hampton, Alkemize
http://www.VideoPokerJunkie.com
http://www.GamblingGirl.com
http://www.VideoPoker4.us

You have to stand for something – or you’ll fall for anything.

Done!

Hey Dean,
You have hit the nail on the head on this one. Where is the money? I agree with Dean that it has been blown by Cindy playing video poker at many online casinos. Cindy has failed the GPWA members misserbly and it is a sad day to say the least. I should have left the GPWA along time ago. At least I am gone now.