=?x-unknown?q?26780=3A__Jhudicourtb_=28reply=29Re=3A_26770=3A=A0?==?x-unknown?q?_kathleen_=28reply=29Re=3A_HSA_=28fwd=29?=

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JHUDICOURTB@aol.com
>
As the chairperson of the 2005 HSA conference, I am pleased to say that the
conference was very rich in participation, presentations, and even some
outstanding entertainment, and we did not have a DEFICIT.   The Haitian
Studies
Association is a very poor ($$$) organization with no salaried employees,
running
on a shoestring budget.The annual conference is constantly plagued by what is
known in Haiti as "dasomann".   Because many Haitians are too nice to tell
people that they can't come in because they have not paid, some of the HSA
conferences brought large deficits in places like Florida and Haiti where
people just
walked in because they felt that they should not have to pay for one reason
or another.  Other times when there are too many price/registration options,
people chose the cheaper one   when registering and then attended as if they
paid full price.   So this year we offered only two options:   student ($50)or
non-student ($90).   Otherwise HSA organizer have to post bold volunteers at
every door to tell people they cannot eat because they did not pay for food.
It
is a very painful thing to have to do, and culturally, Haitian student
volunteers find it impossible to be polite and exclude their elders in one
sentence.
Since those who want to come to HSA conferences find it very valuable to have
a place to meet those folks who work or do research on Haiti and Haitians,
the fees were quite reasonable considering that they included meals.   As a
comparison, the Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad's registration fee
for
their annual conference was more than $400 without food.
Customarily at HSA there are   some participants who are not expected to pay,
such as special guests designated by the board in advance, and staff and
students of the hosting institutions who are only asked to pay for meals (that
is
also difficult to enforce).    Then there are those who think their kind
should not pay, such as local politicians and   local journalists, and who are
usually granted the walk-right-in thing because they hang out only for very
short
time.
If we care to survive as an organization, HSA cannot grant every person's
request for a discount because we do not have the time or competence to make
those decisions on an individual basis.   Otherwise, we will be closed by
creditors since we do have to pay for space, food, and other costs of running
the
conference.  We are happy if we at least break even and if we have enough
volunteers and co-sponsors to do all that   work without pay. Fortunately this
year we
had   many members of the Boston community and Umass/Boston's Haitian
students who gave a lot of their time to help in the success of the
conference.
There were so many good presentations to choose from that some participants
are
asking to extend the conference for more days....
 Not being able to afford something is most often a personal decision that
should not reflect on those who quote a price.
Next year we will be at the University of Virginia.