At the 2022 ABA meeting in Orlando, the Committee on Future Meeting Places submitted 3 venues for vote of the messengers for the 2025 ABA meeting.  They were Jacksonville, Florida; Springfield, Missouri; and Orlando, Florida.  The messengers selected Springfield and Orlando as the top 2 and the final vote was 176 for Orlando and 132 for Springfield.  We informed the DoubleTree of the messengers decision and they were very happy.  They said they enjoyed having our group there very much.  After I returned home, I started trying to secure a contract.  This went on for several months, without success.  They finally told me that they had listed our dates incorrectly in their system and had booked another group for the dates we need.  On December 13, 2022, I received the following email from the Senior Sales Manager at the DoubleTree:
 

Hello Neal,

I’m very sorry for the delay in responding as I have been trying to work through this with the other group that is contracted over your preferred dates for 2025.  I just received confirmation that they are unable to move to a week earlier or later due to conflicts with competing organizations.  Unfortunately the two programs will not work together due to the overlap in meeting space requirements.

Neal, I made a huge error when I duplicated the booking for the wrong set of dates. (I did not take the pre arrival rooms into account when I duplicated the booking, the function space was held for the wrong week)

Therefore we were not showing any internal conflict with the other group that moved to contract.  We can offer the same proposal for June 21-26, 2025.  I understand these are not your preferred dates.  We understand if you need to move forward and explore other alternatives.  I deeply apologize for the error and the inconvenience.
 

I contacted Springfield, Missouri to see if they would still honor the proposal they submitted.  They agreed to, but only if we sign the agreements now.  They wouldn't hold the space until our meeting in June due to other opportunities they anticipate for our week.  The Committee on Future Meeting Places met Friday, January 6, 2023 by Zoom and unanimously agreed it would be wise to accept the proposal Springfield, Missouri presented, especially since the vote was close between the two cities.  

The 2025 ABA meeting will be held in Springfield, Missouri.  The headquarter hotel will be the University Plaza Hotel and the overflow hotel will be the Oasis Hotel and Convention Center.  Meetings will be held in the Springfield Expo Center and University Plaza Hotel.  With the increased costs throughout the meeting industry, we are thankful to have such a great place for our meeting.  The hotel rate at both properties will be $119 Single/Quad, which is $20 lower than the DoubleTree proposal.  They are also offering us free parking in Springfield instead of $10 per day in Orlando.  We also have a very affordable food & beverage guarantee we must meet and the Springfield CVB has worked diligently to insure the cost of the meeting space will be covered by filling our room block.

Thank you for your prayers as we continue to navigate these issues so we can continue to enjoy wonderful meetings together.

Neal Sutton - Director of Meeting Arrangements