After a spring 2009 round of cutbacks and staff layoffs, Davies' department was, she says, extraordinarily lucky to have had staffing affected minimally, with one full-time administrator reduced to part time. However, gearing up for the General Assembly in 2010 in Minneapolis, “We have to look at big and little things, even sacred cows, like tote bags for attendees.”

Nonetheless, 2009 saw the initiation of a new meeting for the denomination. The Big Tent conference, held in Atlanta this past summer, brought together 10 regional conferences of the church, replacing the separate meetings each would have held that year. Given the economy and the church cutbacks, it was an extraordinary time to launch a meeting, but the outcome was very positive, Davies says.

“We had hoped for a turnout of 1,500 people, and we got 1,450,” she says. However, many of the registrations came in at the last minute, which presented challenges and created anxiety for the staff. “We're hearing from other meeting planners and from hotels and CVBs that registrations are coming in last minute for a lot of organizations,” she notes. “It's a function of the economy.”

Big Tent offered an early-bird registration fee, but it didn't seem to help the number of registrations. The organization then decided to keep the early registration rate in place for all registrants, Davies says, noting that attendees paid their own way for the event.

“We really worked very hard to keep this meeting as affordable as possible for attendees,” Davies stresses. “We got a great rate at the Hyatt, and the hotel was near public transportation from the airport.” The upshot: It has been decided that the Big Tent meeting will be held every other year.

“We are looking for a venue for the 2011 meeting,” Davies reports happily.

If You Have to Make Cuts…

• Act promptly. Don't wait until your conference is around the corner to make difficult budget decisions. “It's much easier to add programming and services back than to take them out once they are part of the published program,” says the UUA's Janiece Sneegas.

• Book room blocks conservatively. You might find it much more difficult and costly to unload rooms than to shop for them if you need them, Sneegas says.

• Scrutinize all expenses. For Deborah Davies of the Presbyterian Church (USA), no line item can be too small or big to consider cutting.

• Look for opportunities to tweak. Alan Morrison of The United Methodist Church looks at whether a meeting can be cut by a day, or whether a twice-a-year meeting can be offered only once. Consider using technology for meetings that can be done online.

• Shop around: If you don't feel that you're getting best deal, look somewhere else — even if it means breaking traditions. That was the case with the Church of God in Christ, which moved its annual convocation to St. Louis in 2010 after holding it in Memphis, where the denomination is headquartered, for more than 100 years.