Dear Editor:
The Committee on Arrangements of the American Psychoanalytic Association implements policies as determined by the Executive Council and the Executive Committee. Helen Fischer and Ellen Fertig at the Central Office, serve as staff support for the Committee to administer the essential work of planning the Association's semi-annual scientific meetings and to conduct the necessary business arrangements on behalf of the Association. The Committee has been informed that in recent years, there has been a decline in the occupancy by members of the Association of the reserved block of sleeping rooms in the headquarters hotel. This, in turn, threatens the Association and its members with increased costs.
In order to ensure that there are adequate facilities for our meetings at the lowest possible cost, the Association must make the necessary contractual arrangements, both in New York City and elsewhere, at least six years in advance. In its contractual negotiations with hotels, the Association must state an estimate of the number of sleeping rooms members attending the meeting will occupy, and the headquarters hotel then sets aside a block of rooms in reserve for members.
As we look ahead, it is becoming clear that the Association and its members face the prospect of additional costs if the occupancy of rooms by members in the headquarters hotel falls below a specified percentage of the Association's estimate. Until now, the headquarters hotel has provided the Association with meeting space at no cost for all its meetings. This includes scientific groups, working committees and for the membership. But hotels are now looking for new sources of revenue, and, if the occupancy of rooms in the headquarters hotel by the Association's membership falls too low, the hotels will impose new charges on the Association for the use of their public meeting facilities. These charges would, in turn, have to be passed on to the membership, either in the form of higher registration fees or increased dues.
There are a number of reasons for the decline in the occupancy by members of sleeping accommodations in the headquarters hotel. Some members prefer greater intimacy than the headquarters hotel typically offers. Others prefer greater luxury. And still others have economic motives. But whatever the reasons, members should be aware that continued defection from the headquarters hotel will impose new costs for the Association and on its membership. The Committee on Arrangements hopes that for future meetings members will elect to stay at the headquarters hotel.
Muriel Laskin, M.D., Chairman
Committee on Arrangements