--- Harald Tveit Alvestrand <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Bonney - > > 1) the meeting fee is USD 425. You pay an USD 150 > penalty for forcing us to > staff the registration desk with people authorized > to handle credit card > transactions and so forth; I don't have numbers on > whether the penalty is > enough to pay for the overhead.
Harald, Thanks for taking time to respond. For a fee of $425, a late fee of $150 doesn't seem reasonable to me at all in the percentage term. All they do at the counter is charge to the credit card and print the tag. No more than five minutes to process. I can still do most this stuff on line a day before - if you would let me do it with no or small late fee. Only argument may be that it lets you plan in advance for sponsor hand bags - but I for one don't care if i get those conference bags and tee shirts if the counter runs out them. Big deal. > > The average fee paid in 2001 was USD 431 - most > people preregister. > > 2) Of the USD 2.7 million taken in on meeting fees > last year, USD 1.38 > million shows up as direct meeting costs - the > largest single item is "food > and beverages" - breakfast and cookies. I think that can be reduced substantially. As most people stay in Hotels any way, and some of them include breakfast as part of the room stay. It is pretty much a duplication, and only beneficiaries are near by Hotels!. Funds can definitely be better used to fund secretariat activities or building reserve funds for the IETF. All we need is to offer plain english tea and coffee during breaks, and simple crackers and of course, people are free to order any thing from coffee shop if they are into eating sandwitches or gourmet cakes and pastries etc. But then it is me - others may feel the need of more sugar calories after each sessions. I don't eat cookies so couldn't care. > 3) The rest of the meeting fee covers the cost of > keeping us with a > secretariat. We have people working full time on > running the IETF - a lot > of those people behind the desk are working for you > full time, all year. > Internet-drafts don't publish themselves. I think it will be a good idea to have a fresh look at how to fund IETF activities in a way that increase the individual/ Graduate student/ University researchers participation. I think corporations can bear more of the cost after all they do make billions in profit thanks to IETF standards, and can afford mega million packages for CEOs. If there is a need to sponsor individual sessions so be it as long as that only gets them (sponsors) a mention, and perhaps a display board (this sesion sponsored by....xyz.) and doesn't affect independance of technical discussions. > > This is a recurring subject - I guess I just have to > continue making the > "money" presentation. > > BTW - the economy presentation is available as part > of the London minutes. > Look at the numbers for yourself. I am not disputing the tight funding situation at IETF. All I am saying is that let us freshly examine how to fund IETF activities in a way that doesn't make it harder for researchers, individual contributors and single consultants to attend IETF meetings. regards, == Bonney __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - live college hoops coverage http://sports.yahoo.com/
