NPL Convention 2000 -- San Francisco, CA

by Trazom

The National Puzzlers' League's 161st annual convention will be held from Thursday, July 13 to Sunday, July 16, 2000, at the Canterbury Hotel. As in previous years, we're hoping and expecting that a number of people will be arriving earlier, and possibly even staying later. The hotel is at 750 Sutter Street, between Jones and Taylor in the heart of downtown San Francisco (zip code 94109). Phone (415) 474-6464 or (800-227-4788), fax (415) 474-0831, website www.Canterbury-Hotel.com (note the hyphen). Please note, you should not book your room through the hotel (see below).

Room rates for the convention (as well as before and after) are $135.66 per night for single or double rooms, $152.76 for a triple, and $169.86 for a quad. Those rates include San Francisco's famed Hotel Occupancy Tax, which goes to fund the arts in the city. I urge everyone to get some of that value back by enjoying San Francisco's various cultural offerings (the hotel is just four blocks from the center of the theater district); more information on performances, exhibits, etc., will be in your registration packet.

The terms “triple” and “quad” refer to the number of people inhabiting a room, rather than to any inherent physical properties of the room itself. There are in fact no rooms in the hotel with more than two beds. Thus the canonical triple or quad (from the hotel's point of view) involves two or four people, respectively, sharing beds. I'm sorry if this comes as a disappointment. However: There *are* a few rooms that have two beds and enough space to bring in a rollaway ($15/night extra). There is also an extremely small number of rooms with 2 beds, room for a rollaway plus a foldout sofa, yielding a makeshift quad.

The convention fee is $215 per person. That covers five meals (Friday dinner, 3 squares on Saturday, Sunday brunch) plus convention photo and miscellaneous expenses.

Please do not try to book your room through the hotel. All room bookings should come through me. Calculate your total rooming cost, add on $215 per person for the flat convention fee, and send one check in US funds for the total amount, made out to the National Puzzlers' League, etc. etc.

Send your registration check in US funds, made out to the National Puzzlers' League, to me: Trazom. Feel free to send queries or requests to me by e-mail. Please indicate your rooming needs (arrival and departure dates, single/double etc., smoking or non-, identity of roommates, and so on). Let me know if you'd like me to try to find a roommate for you.

In order to guarantee you a room at all, let alone one at the convention rate, I need to receive your check by June 1, 2000. After that, you gotta ask yourself: “Do I feel lucky?” I would only add (as a longtime con-goer who has never yet made the June 1 deadline) that the Canterbury is not the largest hotel we've ever met in, and that this might not be the year to play chicken on this score.

United Airlines is proud to be the official air carrier for the 2000 convention. Call 1-800-521-4041 to book your flight and use our meeting ID code. This will get you 5% off a discount fare or 10% off a full fare, plus an additional 5% off if you order 60 days in advance (i.e., more or less now). These savings are good for travel between July 9 and 19.

Your first choice of airport is likely to be San Francisco (United's home turf), but Oakland is also a possibility if that fits your schedule better. Oakland Airport, unlike San Francisco, is accessible by mass transit, although it's a minor shlep across the bay. San Jose Airport is about an hour's drive to the south; use it only if you're planning to visit your dot-com millionaire friends before or after the con. If you send me your travel itinerary (well, actually just your airline and the date and time of your arrival) I can match up contiguous arrivals for cab-sharing.

Within weeks of receiving your reservation, I'll send you a confirmation packet with more details on how to get around the city, what to do while you're here, how to solve phonigmatic rebi and more. If you're reachable by e-mail, I'll also let you know as soon I've got your reservation. This might be a good time to mention that I define “reachable by e-mail” as “having a working puzzlers.org alias.”

I can't wait to see you all here in Baghdad-by-the-Bay!