Logistical Arrangements

University or college dormitories are one option for academy participants. Vermont presented its VVAA at local government agency conference rooms and an all-inclusive conference site. Limiting refreshments to mornings only and holding the training near restaurants where participants can pursue lunch options on their own can further reduce costs, although the VVAA pays for participants' lunches. Sending the pretraining reading packets without binders reduced postage costs considerably. (Participants received binders on arrival.) Recently, the VVAA did away with a printed text and went exclusively to a CD-ROM format to reduce costs even further. The number of meals figured in the working budget was always fewer than the number of participants because caterers tend to provide more food than needed; thus, 80 people could eat for the cost of 60.