Greetings once more from the Chattanooga Local Planning Committee - We come with another update regarding the annual Code4Lib conference. After the announcement of our survey, two other groups immediately reached out about the possibility of hosting the conference. Of those two, the one that is the most confident about being able to secure a fiscal host and still pull off everything within the existing timeframe, is the LA-based C4L-SoCal. We spoke with three of their members earlier in the week - Gary Thompson, Christina Salazar, and Joshua Gomez. After discussion, we collectively envision a collaboration between the two groups, given the effort, energy and commitment the Chattanooga group has already invested. The LA group would handle more of the venue and local arrangements, with the Chattanooga group helping spearhead other planning elements.
Thus, the idea is to host the annual conference in the greater LA area. However, even though Chattanooga's proposal was the only one put forth for next year, since this suggestion does reflect a significant change, and because LA is still working on securing a fiscal host, we are proposing to the community the following: - Since a handful of individuals came forth w/alternative cities subsequent to my last update, any group who now wishes to put forth a proposal, do so by July 1st. - Given the specter of timecrunch, we ask anyone, including LA, who would put forth another city, to only do so with written confirmation of a fiscal host by that same deadline. - If more than one city has put forth a proposal and secured a fiscal host within that window of time, we will put it to a community vote, with polls being left up through July 15th. As always, comments and suggestions welcome. Thanks for all the existing feedback, dialogue, various offers people have come forth with, and the patience while we try to wrangle up a physical home for 2017. - Brian Rogers
