Question #1: I couldn’t make the reunion due to the hurricane. Will I be reimbursed for my reunion registration fees?

Answer: Yes you will receive a full refund. We hope to mail out refund checks mid September.

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Question #2: What about the Thursday Night Thai Dinner? Since we were evacuated and couldn’t have the dinner will we be reimbursed or partially reimbursed?

Answer: As you are aware, the Thursday night Thai Dinner is an optional function and is not part of the reunion registration fees. Dave Elder is reviewing the contract with the restaurant. He paid a non-refundable deposit to the restaurant prior to the function. He was able to hold a dinner at the restaurant on Sunday night for those who were still in St. Pete and were able to go. He is working on reconciling the attendee list of those who prepaid and did attend and those who prepaid and were unable to attend. It’ll be a couple of weeks before we have an answer.

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Question #3: I attended the reunion, but since we didn’t have the Friday night Reception or the Saturday afternoon BBQ will I be reimbursed?

Answer: Yes you will receive refunds for the functions that did not take place. If you opted to stay in Orlando and did not return to St. Pete on Saturday you will receive a full refund. Refunds were processed in October and mailed to alumni. Please contact Todd Lockhart directly.

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Question #4: Is the BOD going to disclose their financial records for the ISB Network?

Answer: Yes. We now have the preliminary financial results posted on the front page of our website.

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Question #5: What are my options with the Rosen Hotel charging me for Saturday when I opted to return to St. Pete that day?

Answer: The Resident Manager of the Rosen Centre Hotel has posted a message on our bulletin board. Here is his message to anyone wishing to receive a refund.

Dear ISB Network Guests,

My name is Jason Parsons, I'm the Resident Manager at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Fl. Unfortunately many of you feel that our organization in some way did not do our very best to handle your groups relocation. I'm writing this brief note to assure you that our intentions were quite the opposite...in fact we were under the impression that your attendees were very pleased with our property at departure. What is becoming very clear to me is that there was a breakdown in communication somewhere along the way and many of you feel as though you are victims of this and for this I truly apologize. Please contact me at either Jparsons@rosencentre.com or (407)996-2328 for immediate resolution.

Thank you, Jason Parsons

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Question #6: Why was I charged to stay at the Orlando hotel on Saturday night when we moved back to the Tradewinds in St. Pete?

Answer: We were forced to evacuate our reunion hotel and David Wilkerson, with the help of the Tradewind’s general manager, was able to get 125 hotel rooms for Thursday and Friday nights for us in Orlando so we could be together.

The hotel could have easily let everyone fend for themselves and we are extremely grateful that they didn’t. Alumni stepped up to the plate and offered rides and to those who were left over, a bus was provided for roughly 15 people who made a very safe trip thanks to David's efforts.

The hurricane may have disrupted our reunion, but it did not keep us from being together as a group. When we were evacuated on Thursday, it was our intent to return to the Tradewinds on Saturday IF it was not damaged AND the roads were open. The third hotel night came into play on Friday morning when the hurricane was still predicted to hit Tampa and it appeared eminent that we would not be able to return to St. Pete on Saturday.

The Rosen Center hotel was completely sold out but agreed to turn away 125 reservations for Saturday so we could stay another night, as they didn’t want to displace us yet again. The room rate was $42.50 per night for Thursday and Friday night. The rate for Saturday night was $99.

We tried our best to pick up where we left off and proceeded to try to hold a reunion in Orlando. While the Rosen Center had sleeping rooms for us, they had several other groups already in the hotel who had taken up ALL of the meeting and function rooms. So unfortunately, if we were to continue on with the reunion we needed to find alternate locations to host our Friday night and Saturday night events.

We found a Thai Restaurant just blocks away from the hotel ready and willing to take us on Friday night. Unfortunately, Hurricane Charley hit Orlando at the moment we were ready to go, so we had to abort those plans.

We also found a location to hold our Saturday night banquet and had made arrangements to bus everyone to the event that night. We even had our band lined up to perform there. Unfortunately, we learned Saturday morning that the property had the roof blow off and could not take us.

We also made contact with the Tradewinds general manager on Saturday morning and he informed us that St. Pete was not damaged and we could return and continue with our functions. Knowing that we didn’t have any place to host our reunion functions in Orlando, the ISB Network Board weighed the pros and cons of remaining in Orlando or returning to St. Pete. The consensus was to move everyone back to the Tradewinds and proceed with the reunion.

Since our departure from Orlando was not forced, the Rosen Center’s position was to charge us for the Saturday night stay since they had turned away others for us to have these rooms. People had the freedom to remain there if they so desired. There would not be a charge at the Tradewinds for those who did not return. A small number of people did choose to stay in Orlando for a variety of reasons (one being that they couldn't change their flights out of Orlando).

In the end, the financial affects were a wash as the Tradewinds did not charge anyone for Thursday and Friday night. The decision that was made to evacuate to the Rosen Center hotel was based on the following evacuee example:

When you arrived at the reunion on Thursday you would have been charged $95/night X 3 nights to attend the reunion = $285. That is what it would have cost you to stay at the Tradewinds all 3 nights.

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Question #7: What if I don’t want any money returned?

Answer: We greatly appreciate your kind offer. We are reviewing the options and will decide over the next few weeks. One option we are considering for those of you planning to attend the 2006 reunion is to carry the refund due to you over as a credit.

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Question #8: Why did we go back to St. Pete on Saturday?

Answer: The ISB Network Board met early Saturday morning to discuss our options. We received a call from the General Manager of the Tradewinds informing us that St. Pete weathered the storm and the hotel was re-opening for business on Saturday. They let it be known that they could accommodate us if we wanted to return.

The BOD weighed all of the pros and cons to leaving or staying. Safety was our number 1 priority. We monitored weather and road conditions. If it wasn’t safe to travel we wouldn’t consider moving the group. Our primary sources were the websites for the Florida Highway Patrol and the Florida Department of Transportation. We found out that some of the back roads suffered damage due to fallen power lines and flooding. We were told that all other major roads were open and only learned that Hwy 60 was closed after we were on the road.

When we learned the roads were open and people were returning, the board members all decided that it was in the best interest for the masses to return to St. Pete. There was never any mention of a Tornado warning when we put our return plans in motion. We only learned of this several hours later when we were traveling in our car.

No one was ever forced to leave the Orlando hotel that didn’t want to go. We knew that several alumni were in fact not going to go to St. Pete because their flights had been diverted to Orlando. Others simply didn’t want to make the trek back.

We again located a bus company to take anyone without transportation back to the hotel in St. Pete. They never would have sent a bus to us to transport people if THEY thought THEY were putting anyone in harm’s way.

We also knew that eventually the majority of the alumni needed to return to Tampa to fly home and many of them had flights as early as Sunday morning. Also many had left their personal belongs in their rooms before we evacuated and were anxious to get back to them if the hotel was re-opening for business.

Because approximately 1.2 million displaced people from Pinnellas County were also going to be traveling the highways, we needed to act quickly if we had any chance to get back to the St. Pete area before evening. No doubt about it, this would be an all day journey.

Many people traveling by car have their own personal stories to share. I was in one of the last cars out which meant that the traffic was probably at its worse! Immediately upon leaving the hotel, it took us nearly 1 1/2 hours to crawl onto I-4 and only make it 8 miles down the road. At which point, we decided to start making phone calls to others traveling in cars that we knew were ahead of us. We also called other alumni that lived in the area and hats off to Randy Perritt for getting us on all of the back roads! They shared with us where they were along the roadways, what roads to avoid, etc. When I received a call from another classmate about a 1/2 hour behind me, I was able to redirect him and we made it back in 4 1/2 hours. We never ran into State Troopers turning us away and we never saw any evidence of a tornado.

I hope you understand that we did not make the decision to return to St. Pete solely to hold a party! But what a party we had! While in our car during that 4 1/2 hour journey, we were able to make contact with the F&B department of the hotel, salvage a banquet turning it from what was to be a sit down dinner to a buffet, bars were staffed, ready and waiting AND yes, we even found an alternate band consisting of some Tampa-based studio musicians to come to the hotel and rock away the night! It was by far the best Saturday night banquet EVER!

The highlight of the night for many was the fact the our dear alum, Gil Hair, battling cancer made his way across the state to be honored and receive this year’s Hall of Fame award! He was a true pioneer! Sadly, Gil passed away just a month later on September 15, 2004.

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