Sometimes the selection of a host city for the Mennonite convention turns on the unexpected: 60 double-bed inflatable mattresses and 114 rollaway beds.

Of course, these inflatable mattresses and rollaway beds were not the sole reason the 2009 Mennonite convention is meeting in Columbus. But it was a factor as Columbus bid for the third time to host the convention.

Hyatt, the largest hotel in the city, offered to stock 300 twin rooms with additional high-quality inflatable mattresses for the youth groups who will be staying there. The committee thought about putting adults at this hotel, but the Hyatt wanted to host the youth.

Choosing a convention location is a long-term process, beginning with narrowing down a list of possible cities to three primary candidates at least three years before the convention will take place. The director of convention planning, Jorge Vallejos, along with Ron Byler, associate director of Mennonite Church USA, and  Rachel Swartzentruber Miller, the associate director of convention planning, travels to each city for evaluation.

“What I do is a site inspection,” Vallejos said. Each city is critiqued on numerous aspects such as the price of meal plans, average hotel rates and traveling distance for participants. Even factors such as sales tax and hotel tax rates are considered to estimate the true cost of living in a given city for convention week.

“It took three tries to get it right,” added Vallejos, but this time Columbus was a more competitive option compared with the other cities.

After evaluating all three cities, Vallejos, Byler and Swartzentruber Miller rate each city and make a final recommendation to the board of directors of Mennonite Church USA, who then make the final location decision. “My job is to bring the best recommendation based on space and costs,” said Vallejos.

As expected, the decision for Columbus included a combination of these factors of space and cost. Columbus had been considered as an option in both 2005 and 2007.

There is no official rotation based on ease of access for the East and West coasts, but the board takes geography into account. “We never go back to a city twice because we always want to reach a new group of people,” said Swartzentruber Miller. Along with Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis were top contenders for 2009.

Meal plans also favored Columbus. Vallejos gave the Greater Columbus Convention Center reasonable meal plan prices and sample menus,and  the center  returned the most competitive meal package offer.  On his visit over three years ago, Vallejos met with the general managers of Columbus’ hotels to discuss the Mennonite convention’s needs, concerns and price range. According to Vallejos, these general managers then went back to their sales representatives and said, “Make this work.”

Once a convention site is officially chosen, the work for Vallejos and Swartzendruber Miller is far from over. They attend every convention, serving as the on-site managers.  ”There are a million things going on behind the scenes,” Vallejos added. “If the participants think things have gone smoothly, we’ve done our job.”

Pittsburg will host the convention in 2011. This decision was made earlier than usual due to shifts in the economy. According to Vallejos, choosing and securing a location before economic issues became more complicated was key in keeping the convention affordable.

Mennonites will travel to Phoenix in 2013 for the first convention in the Southwest. “Phoenix put together a phenomenal package for 2011, but we needed to get to another area of the country before we went to back to the West Coast,” said Swartzentruber Miller. “They were able to keep their rates very similar to the 2011 prices.”