HOTEL FELLOWSHIP MEETINGS & FAMILY VIDEO CLUBS!--By Father David DFO1034 23/2/81
--Free Halls for the Price of Your Meals!--Free Videos too!
1. THERE ARE A LOT OF HALLS YOU CAN GET FREE, big halls for meetings in restaurants or hotels & so on if you agree to buy your food there or snacks or meals. They call them banquet halls, & if you have a large enough party you can request such free halls & get your meals there & have the hall for your meeting. Everybody only needs to pay for his own meal. The CBMC, the Full Gospel Businessmen and others, get the use of lovely banquet rooms for their weekly or monthly Fellowship Meetings free of charge this way--Dutch treat!
2. ALL THEY HAVE TO DO IS GO THROUGH THE CAFETERIA LINE & get whatever they want & then go to the hall; just because there's so many of them, they can have their own private meal in a private hall together. They just have to promise that everybody who comes will eat, so then they're willing to give them a special room to meet in.
3. IT'S NOT TOO GREAT AN EXPENSE ON ANYBODY, because most everybody can afford to pay for his own lunch. And our Families with a bunch of kids, of course, they would be lenient of them, I'm sure. The parents would probably have to buy a couple of dinners & maybe order odds & ends for the kids. In fact, in cafeterias you can just order whatever you want.
4. MANY OF THE LARGE RESTAURANTS & CAFETERIAS HAVE THAT SERVICE, & also hotels, usually at lunchtime, have the buffets or cafeteria-style meals that you can get pretty cheaply. We used to do that all the time. You get a free meeting place that way in very nice surroundings. It makes a happy atmosphere, kind of a family meal, & it also takes the load off the cooks, women of the church or anyone having to go to a whole lot of hard work to prepare a big meal for a lot of people, & for a onetime thing like that almost anybody is willing to pay for their own meal.
5. WE USED TO DO THAT IN MIAMI, HUNTINGTON BEACH & A LOT OF DIFFERENT PLACES where you just reserve a room. Usually they have a set minimum number of people that it's got to be, like maybe a dozen or 25 or something like that, & they give you a special place. Even if you only had a dozen people, they'll give you a special table in some corner where you can have a private party, and you don't have to pay any more for it than just the price of your meals.
6. IT'S A GOOD PLACE TO HAVE THAT SORT OF THING BECAUSE THEY'RE FAIRLY EASY TO OBTAIN ON SHORT NOTICE. But you have to ask for them ahead of time for an open date when the room is not in use by somebody else. And of course in popular restaurants sometimes those rooms are pretty busy, & but more for business luncheons & club luncheons than for night dinners. For one reason, the luncheons are usually cheaper & the night dinners are a little more expensive.
7. FRED WAS A GREAT ONE ON BOOKING MEETINGS AT A CERTAIN CHAIN OF CAFETERIAS where his people were even promised a special meal at a special rate. All they had to do was say they were going to this particular meetings or that they belonged to this particular group, & they got a little ticket which showed they could get this set menu that included dessert, drink & everything at a certain price.
8. IT WAS A VERY GOOD DEAL, GOOD BARGAIN, & you were usually able to get those on fairly short notice. Because it helps to have someplace where there's plenty of facilities where they have food to feed everybody.--And in our Family usually they need something to eat. They've got plenty of toilet facilities & usually a nearby lounge available where mothers or pregnant women can sit very comfortably & rest.
9. IT'S EVEN MORE CONVENIENT IF IT'S IN A HOTEL WHERE THE VISITING SPEAKERS STAY. Fellowship Meeting leaders could get a room in some hotel that has a banquet room or a meeting room, as nearly all of them have. Find out in advance if they have such an available room or hall, & make the arrangements ahead of time. Let them know you're also going to room at the hotel & that they'll get business from both ways, rooms & meals.
10. IT'S VERY CONVENIENT TO HAVE IT RIGHT THERE IN YOUR OWN HOTEL where you have your own quarters & you don't have to go far & worry about transportation. You have a place to rest & a place for private conferences of any kind with the top leaders etc., even your own room.
11. IT'S HARD ON SOME LOCAL HOME TO HAVE SUCH A MOB & be responsible for feeding & taking care of them. There aren't too many neighbourhoods that will stand that kind of a mob either, especially if the meeting runs late at night. Of course hotels would have a time limit on it too, & restaurant meetings would have to be fairly early. That's just a suggestion how you can usually get a free hall for a meeting only for the price of your meals.
12. HOTELS ALSO OFTEN HAVE PLAYROOMS or other recreational facilities for your children for supervised play or KP Meetings. These are free to guests & can be a big help to meeting-busy parents, needing only one or two helpers to care for the kids while all the others can concentrate on adult meetings.--Try'm!--You'll like'm! GBY!
13. P. S. HOTELS & RESTAURANTS ARE ALSO USUALLY CENTRALLY LOCATED for good public transportation or have their own parking lots for customers, so they're very convenient places to meet for Homes widely scattered around a city or even out of town.
14. SHOPPING MALL RESTAURANTS ARE GOOD TOO,with lots of parking--& you can even park your campers there overnight!--And there's plenty of space for kids to play or the families to shop while leaders are having Committee Meetings!
15. THE HOME MILK CO. OF MIAMI EVEN GAVE US FREE MILK WITH THE FREE HALL for our refreshments at our Fellowship Meetings! They profited for the good PR & advertising. All you have to do is request the hall in the name of some organisation like "Family Services", or "Childcare Conferences", or "Family Care International", or "International Church of Brotherly Love", or "Soul Clinics Inc." etc. etc.--Ha!
16. YOU NAME IT! THEY'LL ACCEPT IT!--Or "Full-Gospel Families Fellowship" or "Family Video Clubs" or "Christian Business Families Inc." etc. Those are some good names you might use for your local LAFs, DAFs or GAFs too! The System always likes fancy names. Pick some unknown one like those & they'll love you! Ha! Have a good time! GBY! WLY!
17. AND PLEASE REMEMBER TO REPORT YOUR NEW LAFs, DAFs, GAFs & ITS ACTIVITIES ETC. ON YOUR MONTHLY REPORT so we can put all the good news in the Mag. It'll also help organise our new LAV Clubs (your Local Area Video Clubs) for circulating libraries of Family Videos! You gotta be members of a LAF, DAF or GAF to get on the Video Circuits free being mapped now, so hurry! Don't miss yours! Join a LAVC now & we'll be seeing you tomorrow!--And you'll be seeing us too! Hurry!--Send us the names & addresses of your Video Homes & proposed circuit & we'll shoot'm to you! Hallelujah! --OK? (A Map of'm would help!)
18. NASs!--WE NEED VIDEO VOLUNTEERS (VVs)!--To take charge of our CVLs (Circulating Video Libraries) in your area! You must be willing to stock, distribute & supervise the videos as they're being circulated & be sure every Video Home of LAF gets one every week by mail or courier & forwards or returns same! The original copies will be sent your circuit from one of three International Libraries in Europe, the Americas & the Orient postpaid!--All you have to do is keep'm movin'!--And pass'm on! Are you ready? Here's how! (See chart.)
19. P. S. MANY MODERN HOTELS ALSO HAVE VIDEO PLAYERS TO RENT! So even if nobody in your Area has a video machine, you could rent one from either the Hotel where you're having your meeting, or from a local video store. Just be sure it's a PAL! If you can at least get the picture on your TV, there are easy ways to get the sound, like through your own audio tape player! (See Mag 41, LNF 21.)
20. HAVE FUN! HAVE ONE! Any group of you can do it! Don't get left out! Don't sit around & pout! Start yours TODAY! You don't have to pay! Get your free & make WHOOPEEEE! Hallelujah! WLY!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family