[mellie]

I really felt it was necessary to give a big thank you to several people. Of course we all thank the generous sponsors of the meeting and everyone else who donated to the legal fund. The meeting was a success and the legal fees are being put to excellent use. Also thank you to everyone who helped with their questions and insights.

The other major thank you has to go to those who attended. It was a major sacrifice in time and money for everyone who was there. Whether you drove or flew the meeting was a success because of your presence. The communication of thoughts, ideas and questions resulted in us finding the solution. The OPM's and AM there showed us great support and a willingness to work together to find solution.

To the affiliates there, it was an amazing show of how important it is to have an affiliate voice. That affiliate voice is vital to your business. Ask questions, speak your mind. Whether in business for 6 months or 10 years your voice counts.

[Rexanne]

Originally Posted by mellie

The communication of thoughts, ideas and questions resulted in us finding the solution. The OPM's and AM there showed us great support and a willingness to work together to find solution.

To the affiliates there, it was an amazing show of how important it is to have an affiliate voice. That affiliate voice is vital to your business. Ask questions, speak your mind. Whether in business for 6 months or 10 years your voice counts.

[Kim Salvino - buy.at]

Thank you, Mellie, Kevin and Rhea, for putting this together.

Thank you to everyone that attended.

This is our industry and we have to fight for it. Everyone's income is at stake here if this allowed to run rampant.

I'm off to comprise my plan, eagerly anticipating the next NY update.

[Rhea]

Hey, THANK YOU Kim for attending and contributing to the discussion. It was great having an AM attend. Also THANK YOU to Andy Rodriguez, Liz Gazer and Loxly for attending, too. Your being there was so important to us affiliates as we need to know that AMs and OPMs understand they have a vested interest in finding solutions to not only the NY sales tax problem but also the outfall from this legislation as online retail sales tax issues develop with other states.

R U NEXT?

[mellie]

And again Kim, your participation was greatly appreciated and your actions, as well as the OPM's present (Andy, Liz & Loxly), go a long way to help the industry recover.

BTW, I think you should change your siggy to read "affiliate manager with stones"

[Kim Salvino - buy.at]

Originally Posted by mellie

BTW, I think you should change your siggy to read "affiliate manager with stones"

I do believe it may be due for an update.

[superCool]

Good luck NY!!

glad the meeting was a success. great work!

[Haiko de Poel, Jr.]

Thank you Mellie and Kevin for putting it all together your doing a great job, while everyone is talking about doing XY or Z because of the NY issue, your actually doing something.

Thank you to all the attendees and of course all the people who've donated.

[Packy]

What a GREAT job indeed that Kevin and Mellie did putting the Albany meeting together to make it successful.

To say how impressed I was with the knowledge that Kevin had on this law and others would be an understatement. To watch him and the lawyer talk about different cases from past rulings was almost jaw dropping.

Mellie did a great job getting the personal side of it through IMO along with other things. Never mind that she tried to blew off my phone call and never mind her statement when she first met me that was something like "Oh, I thought you were younger but your really as old as dirt (or was it older than dirt)" I'll still give her Kudos, at least she got my dry sense of hunor She did a great job along with Kevin.

No doubt in my mind that Kevin and Mellie are the 2 people to lead this charge. As for the lawyer IMO a better one probably wouldn't have been able to be found anywhere in the NY area. The man knew his stuff and presented the facts with style and humor. Not that I have been around a lot of lawyers but the applause he got at the end pretty much sums up what a great job he did in explaining everything.

On the personal side it was fantastic to finally meet the people I have talked to here at ABW face to face including a couple of their husbands and wives. Some long time acquaintances and some new. Everyone of them are good people as I'm sure all of you who have met them before already know. Herb might be in trouble though because his wife mentioned that she is starting to understand all of this so he might end up with some competition at home. It was fun meeting everyone.

It was such a good experience that now I am trying to figure out a way to financially attend the Boston summit and meet a lot more of you. I better get building some pages!

Great Job everyone and a Big thanks to the donors, AM's, Fellow Affiliates and OPM's (which I finally found out what that stands for)

Now I'm off to try and find a good picture of Dirt to use as my avatar

[Herb Ô¿Ô¬]

Yes, the meeting was great both educationally and socially. and now everyone knows my avatar looks just like me . . .

[Rhea]

I think Herb and his sweetie should be nominated "cutest couple" of ABW. They're both dolls!

[loxly]

herb, lol, you CHANGED your avatar!!!

Meeting several new people that I still hadn't met, but lived not far from for many years was a pleasure. The lawyer was a few minutes late and had Kevin a bit nervous, but he gave great information with backup of cases that could be used to help repeal the tax, but also was very clear on the time it would take before legal actions would be able to be accomplished, so we focused on a "stopgap" plan that would enable merchants to continue to work with NY Affiliates while the legalities are all sorted out.

It was a very educational, constructive meeting that involved no shouting or finger pointing even though there were 2 merchants in the room that were expecting tomatoes being thrown at them. Instead it was an atmosphere of "how can we make this work legally and get the word out to merchants" and "how can we get the legislators to support the bill going to the assembly and then get it signed by the governor".

Mellie will have a full wrap up in a few days after she recouperates and in the meantime we all have a newfound respect for the people that were in the room and the people that sponsored and contributed to the meeting fund and legal fund.

Many in the room were disappointed by the lack of support by people that didn't bother to attend (not meaning those that supported in other ways, but those that didn't bother to even try), but from small focused groups can come large sweeping reforms, the group was small but mighty with the support of several others that were unable to attend but that gave input and support from afar.

The Affiliate Voice is strong.

[Packy]

Originally Posted by Rhea

I think Herb and his sweetie should be nominated "cutest couple" of ABW. They're both dolls!

They are absolutely a cute couple. I saw 3 cute couples in Albany

Lol Herb! Nothing like the Avatar. Did you get stuck in traffic for over an hour like I did because of the truck fire. A 2 hour ride home turned into close to a 3 1/2 hour ride

[Boom or Bust]

Originally Posted by loxly

Many in the room we disappointed by the lack of support by people that didn't bother to attend (not meaning those that supported in other ways, but those that didn't bother to even try), but from small focused groups can come large sweeping reforms, the group was small but mighty with the support of several others that were unable to attend but that gave input and support from afar.

The Affiliate Voice is strong.

Can you post a count of the number in attendance?

[Herb Ô¿Ô¬]

Originally Posted by Packy

Did you get stuck in traffic for over an hour like I did because of the truck fire. A 2 hour ride home turned into close to a 3 1/2 hour ride

saw the traffic accumulating near the exit before the incident. left the thruway there and caught Rt 5 West. Went through city of Amsterdam and back on the thruway at the next entrance. probably lost 1/2 hour.

[Packy]

Originally Posted by Herb Ô¿Ô¬

saw the traffic accumulating near the exit before the incident. left the thruway there and caught Rt 5 West. Went through city of Amsterdam and back on the thruway at the next entrance. probably lost 1/2 hour.

I knew I should of stuck with plan A and followed you Herb

[loxly]

Count em up

[loxly]

btw, I will let people ID themselves.... I'm at the bottom in the middle...

edited to add: The photo was taken by a gentleman that was a guest at the hotel that just happened to be walking by. He was awesome

[Boom or Bust]

Ahhh... Way better than a number!

[Rhea]

I'm on the far right, third row from the bottom -- with my eyes closed -- again!

[Packy]

I'm the tallest one there on the lef, oh wait that's Andy. Im the short guy on the top right

[Herb Ô¿Ô¬]

I'm the ol' phart in the middle, one down from the top row and Gail is the one in the white shoes.

[Herb Ô¿Ô¬]

Gail says she got a lot out of the meeting and was happy to meet you all. Nice to put faces with the names.

Nice also that the meeting was held in a historical city, which brings to mind past problems with taxes and government: just wondering, do we have enough tea to dump in the Hudson River to show our feelings on this tax?

LOL

[Kevin]

I'm the one lifting Rodriguez's wallet, just to his right......

[Boom or Bust]

Originally Posted by Herb Ô¿Ô¬

I'm the ol' phart in the middle, one down from the top row and Gail is the one in the white shoes.

Herb, you ARE cute!