AFF Gathering #14 in CBR on 4 - 6 December 2020

Added to Calendar: 04-12-20, 05-12-20, 06-12-20

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**This event is now fully booked! For those who've already registered, this thread contains important information & updates about the weekend. We look forward to seeing you soon.**

Canberra has been chosen as the AFF Annual Gathering destination for 2020, occurring over the weekend of the 4th to 6th December; this will be the second time the event has been held in the final month of the year. The average temperature range for December is 11.9ºC to 26.3ºC. The average rainfall is 53.2mm with 7 rainy days. It is Australia's eighth most populous city (as of June 2018) representing 1.83% of Australia.

Canberra has previously played host to an Annual Gathering, as the fifth city chosen in the fourth year (2011). On that occasion, 13 attendees made the journey. Canberra is not the first city to play host twice, with Melbourne previously taking that honour as the first (2008) and eighth (2014); Adelaide as the second (2008) and twelfth (2018); and more recently Sydney as the third (2009) and thirteenth (2019).

Helping to organise this year will be @support & @Mattg.

If you're attending, we recommend downloading the Check in CBR App. Due to COVID-19, please be mindful to practice good hygiene and social distancing where possible. If you are unwell, please do not attend.




Schedule

Here is the itinerary for the weekend:

Friday 4th December
To start the weekend, we'll be holding a dinner at Southern Cross Yacht Club, Yarralumla. You are welcome to arrive between 6.30pm-7.30pm for drinks at the bar, and dinner will be served from 7.30pm-9.30pm. There will be a fixed 3-course menu (we can account for dietary requirements), and the cost is $59 per person. Drinks will be available for purchase from the bar on the night.

Saturday 5th December - morning activities

Saturday Activity Option 1 - Parliament House tour

We'll meet at Parliament House and join a 30-minute public tour of the building. There is no cost for this activity - you'll just need to make your own transport arrangements to/from Parliament House. You must be at Parliament House by 10.15am, in preparation for the tour which will take place from 10.30-11am. We'll meet outside the main entrance, before the security checkpoint.

Saturday Activity Option 2 - visit to Australian War Memorial
Join other AFF members for a visit to Australian War Memorial. Please note that tours are not currently available, so you'll be visiting as a guest. There is no cost for this activity - you'll just need to make your own transport arrangements to/from Australian War Memorial. Meet outside the main entrance at 11.30am.

Saturday Activity Option 3 - Full-day winery tour
This will be a full-day winery tour with a maximum of 10 people, running from around 9.30am until approximately 3.30pm. You'll be picked up from Pepper's Gallery Hotel in Civic in a comfortable air-conditioned vehicle and visit 3 wineries in the Canberra region. The cost is $190/person and includes lunch at Olleyville as well as a professional guide for the day. Note: This tour includes visits to wineries in NSW and it is recommended that you eat breakfast before joining the tour.

Saturday 5th December - evening
On Saturday evening, we'll be holding a dinner at Kingston Hotel. Before the dinner, there will be an optional one-hour Frequent Flyer Points Masterclass + Q&A session hosted by AFF editor Matt Graham from 6-7pm. This event is sponsored by Frequent Flyer Solutions and attendance is free, but you'll need to register.

After this, the main dinner will commence at 7.15pm. There will be a guest speaker at this dinner. Members will be able to order and pay for food & drinks on the night - no pre-payment is required.

Sunday 6th December
On Sunday we're offering a sightseeing tour to some of Canberra's best outdoor spots.

Sunday Tour - Mt Ainslie, Lanyon Homestead & Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve
Departing from Pepper's Hotel at 9.45am on Sunday morning, we'll visit Mt Ainslie for panoramic views over Canberra before heading to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve in the south of Canberra, where you'll see some of the local wildlife including koalas and we'll stop for a short walk. Along the way, we'll visit Lanyon Homestead for a homestead heritage tour and lunch at the Barracks Café. We'll return to the airport by 4.45pm & the city at around 5pm. The cost is $80/person excluding lunch. This tour will remain entirely within the ACT and we recommend bringing a bottle of water with you.
 
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As the dinner is booked out there is not much point in attending. My Rydges room will probably be vacant

I'm sorry you feel that way. Unfortunately the capacity limitations are not something I have any control over.

However, I have now reserved another table in the next room of the Kingston Hotel for the Saturday night dinner. This increases the capacity for dinner to 45 people, so most (and hopefully all) of those on the waitlist will now be able to come. Those seated in the next room may unfortunately miss out on the guest speaker's talk, but I plan to record this for you.

There are still a few spaces available for Friday's dinner and the Sunday tour.

The capacity for the frequent flyer points session before dinner is 32 people. If you're coming along to the dinner, attendance of this is optional (and free), but I will ask those interested in attending this to indicate so when confirming their spot for the dinner (when I open this up). If you just want to join us for dinner, that's absolutely fine - you can still attend the dinner, and it will free up space for somebody else at the masterclass. We can have people moving between the main area and the next room between the masterclass/dinner, so it means that you may be able to attend the masterclass even if you're seated next door for dinner. I hope this makes sense!
 
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For those still needing to book accommodation, Rydges have launched another flash sale with room rates starting at $101 for the Friday and/or Saturday night. Can be cancelled up to 24 hours before arrival.

 
For those coming from places other than Victoria/WA, who have reserved spots (i.e. not waitlist) for all nominated activities, I'll be contacting you in the coming days to provide details of how to pay & complete your registration. When paying, please enter your AFF username in the reference field so we know who the money came from!

If you have a confirmed spot at the gathering, we'll keep your reservation for each of the activities/dinners until Sunday 15 November. You'll need to pay and confirm your registration (instructions will be sent to you in an AFF conversation) by then. After that, we may open up your spot to somebody on the waitlist.

If you're coming from VIC or WA, I'll keep your reservation until the border situation becomes clearer but won't ask you to pay just yet as it's not yet clear if you'll be able to come. If the borders open, there will be a spot for you.

If you're on a waitlist, the good news is that I currently expect more places at all activities/dinners to become available. I will contact you in due course, so please be patient.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with me.
 
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Social distancing will now be available on JT001 as we will be catching BM001 instead. -- unless there are others willing to risk travel on/in either of these.
 
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As the border with Victoria is reopening before this event, I've now sent messages to all of the Victorians that had expressed interest with registration & payment details.

If I haven't contacted you yet, it's most likely because you're still on a waitlist for one or more activities. Your spot in the queue hasn't changed and you still have a confirmed spot at any activities that weren't full when you filled in the Expression Of Interest form - I'm just waiting until we know for sure which activities you'll be able to attend before we collect any money from you. Please be patient - I haven't forgotten about you :)

I will do my best to accommodate everybody if it is possible to do so, and I don't expect anybody will miss out on any of the dinners.
 
A couple of people have informed me that they submitted Expression of Interest forms, but for some reason I hadn't received them.

If you submitted a form and I have not yet contacted you at all since then (either to send payment details or inform you that you're on a waitlist), please start a conversation with me.
 
QF making more changes to flights on this event weekend, Ive just been moved to an even later flight on the Sunday.
 
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