Re: [Tccc] Conference costs and ComSoc transparency

Dear Sumit, all,

I would love to see the PIMRC conference budget published but I do not
have the authority to do so. The IEEE and, in the case of PIMRC08, the
SEE in France need to agree to release these data. Apart from the
transparency issue, other advantages of having these budgets public are
1) that future conference organizers can use them as templates to
prepare their budgets; and 2) the general audience sees how much we
sweat for more than a year hoping the budget to break even.

A great festive season to everyone and a good start into 2010!

Mischa.

sroy@u.washington.edu wrote:
> All:
> First off, I wanted to appreciate Joe's commendable spirit in keeping this
> thread alive with his level-headed diligence and the many other posters who have contributed to this thread (there have been several other equally valid inter-twined threads, but I wanted to refocus on a core - the relationship of conference costs to the broader matter of transparency). Also, I would like to acknowledge Mischa's recent post with PIMRC expenses data, found that very useful. Noticeably, Mischa's breakdown differs from Joe's assertions about costs in some significant way: e.g. Joe stated that ``food" was 70% of the budget (a statement that I found difficult to comprehend) whereas Mischa's estimate for food was more like 30% (Perhaps Joe meant "food + conference premises rent").
>
> Perhaps there are very legitimate reasons for these differences; but until we (the paying members) get some public data that is verifiable, the *perception* will persist that ComSoc is running an inefficient operation at the benign end, or there is misuse at the not-so-benign end.
>
> I'm still waiting for Joe to get and publish concrete data delivered by ComSoc, and I'd like to invite Mischa and anyone else to do same. The reason this is important is simple: when I was Vice-Chair of a Comsoc Conference, I did not see a full budget. I asked recently the TPC Chair(s) for upcoming ComSoc conference as to whether he had seen a full budget, and the answer was no. The bottom-line issue that I get stuck on: the lack of ANY public and verifiable data about conference budgets (i.e. no audit report, no URL ...) without which we are generally behaving like the blind with an elephant. What ComSoc does with any "surplus", what "overhead" or how "contingency" costs are factored in - very few of us (members) have any real clue.
>
> We are at a time globally when the activities of the governing elites of many institutions (banks, accounting firms, hedge funds ...) are being scrutinized precisely on these accounts - notably, transparency and oversight. I think many of us also believe that ComSoc (and generally IEEE) needs more accountability in general; the above is just ONE example of a general problem that is directly perceived by many.
>
> As some (Petri et al) have pointed out - we need to be constructive and figure out how. Certainly getting people dedicated to pushing greater transparency and accountability into positions of influence (Board of Governors, TAC etc.) is , and perhaps it's time to move the discussion in that direction.
>
> In that spirit, best wishes for the holidays to all. Perhaps in the New Year - we can drive this discussion towards some constructive action.
>
> cheers;
>
> Sumit Roy
>
>
>
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