On 10/5/2010 9:20 AM, Steve Gibbard wrote:
> I think the experience so far has been that NANOG Steering Committees have
> been pretty responsive to the concerns of the community, and I suspect
> NewNOG boards will be going forward. I think if the community agrees that
> meeting discounts to balance the cost of membership are a good idea, it
> will probably happen.
I've been following along on this, with quite some interest. I'd
actually be happy to pay to be a member, and be able to retain my
natural state as a recluse. I attended a meeting a few years ago, and
one of the motivating factors was that I could vote. The meeting was
local to me, although I've considered going to others, since, that are
not. Yes, I actually paid several hundred dollars to vote.
I strongly recommend that you do not bundle the full cost of membership
into the price of the conference. You may want to consider that a
*portion* of the conference fee may be applied to membership, but you
will simply end up with a similar state to the one you have now, where
you will find that most who attend the conference care very little about
who is on what committee, or involved in governance, or not. Providing a
discount from the fees to be applied to membership will give the option
for those who are interested to add that amount on to the cost, and you
should probably also continue to discount the conference fee some small
amount to those that are members.
The conference fee ($450 for early bird registration, $675 at the door)
is substantial, and yet still a bargain, when considering other
professional conferences. The proposed membership fee ($100) would be a
very high cut of that. Certainly there are attendees that have no
interest in becoming a member, just as there are people interested in
membership, but not in attending.
Do you plan to limit membership to verified North Americans? How will
you know?
--
The difference between a Miracle and a Fact
is exactly the difference between a mermaid and a seal.
Mark Twain
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