A small organization with no full-time staff may be expected to produce meetings that are amateurish at best. But that's not the case with Friends of the Creche (FOTC), an organization of people who collect nativities and the U.S. affiliate of the Universalis Foederatio Praesepistica, the international association of creche societies, headquartered in Rome. At least that wasn't the case when FOTC member Susan Weber was in charge of the conference last year.

After she had attended two Friends of the Creche annual meetings, Weber, of Susan's Christmas Shop in Santa Fe, N.M., proposed that the organization meet in her home city, suggesting that the group's members would enjoy the opportunity to learn about Southwestern nativities. Group leaders agreed, with one condition - that Weber would chair the event.

Weber agreed to the challenge and set out to make the group's leaders and attendees glad they had chosen her destination. As a collector and dealer of nativities, and resident of Santa Fe, she knew that the location would be an ideal match for the group. Her challenge was to coordinate unique local resources to convince FOTC members that the destination had plenty to offer them. "A lot of people didn't realize that this area has a unique, indigenous tradition of crafting nativities," Weber said. "In fact, New Mexico has one of the oldest histories of Christianity in the United States, so nativities have been made here for a long time."

Harnessing Local Attractions

As a member of the Santa Fe community, Weber knew there were local attractions and groups that would value the opportunity to educate visitors about the area's rich traditions. She turned to her own contacts and knowledge of the area to call in special favors for her group.

First, Weber turned to the renowned Museum of International Folk Art, nationally and internationally recognized as the home to the world's largest collection of folk art, with a collection of more than 135,000 artifacts. At her request, museum curators altered their displays to help welcome FOTC to the city.

"We started our meeting with an opening reception at the Museum of International Folk Art," Weber says. "They already have tons of nativities there, but just for our event, they brought out more than 70 nativities that are usually in storage." The opening night event was a success, piquing attendees' curiosity about what else the meeting and the destination would have to offer.

Like the museum, Weber found that other local attractions were equally willing to cater to the group's needs. For instance, a community group that performs an annual Christmas play changed the traditional date of its performance to the time when the attendees were in town. "The Colonial Christmas play is performed every year and is free to the public," she said. "Our group stayed right downtown and because the performers were willing to change the dates of the play for us, we were able to walk right to the performance. They loved it."

Highlighting Local Artisans

In addition to local attractions of interest to her group, Weber recruited a number of local artists, especially those specializing in nativities, to participate in the FOTC meeting. Several of the meeting's speakers were local craftspeople from the Native American and Hispanic traditions, who spoke about crafting nativities.

In the ballroom of the meeting hotel, Weber organized a quasi-exhibition, featuring artists and craftspeople from the region. A number of artisans representing living artistic traditions came to the meeting to demonstrate various crafts used in nativity-making. "The demonstrations were the most popular part of the meeting," Weber said. "People could watch artists show them how to do nativity-related things like spinning, weaving, carving, painting, and tinwork. They could go all over the ballroom watching all these different crafts in action."

Finally, attendees even had an opportunity to get up close and personal with at least one of the local craftspeople. A Native American artist who spoke at the convention hosted interested members of the group in her own home village for the Pueblo Feast Day that followed the dates of the conference.

Thanks to Weber's efforts at crafting an event with local flavor, the FOTC meeting in Santa Fe drew almost 25 percent higher attendance numbers than in previous years - and Santa Fe's unique resources and activities received rave reviews from those in attendance.

If you have a story to share about an idea that made your meeting particularly successful, we'd love to hear from you. Please e-mail pswisher@pcma.org with your contact information and "Great Meetings" in the subject line.