Re: [Tccc] Cost of attendance from developing countries / in general

I would like to remind you all that one of the main sources of income- and yes profit (lots of it)- to the IEEE is conferences. From experience, all ways to cutting-down costs will not really make a big difference in terms of what the IEEE charges you. In fact, I would argue that even if all events are cut-down attendees will still be charged at least US$500 or US$600 or more per person. This is to ensure a profit margin of at least 20% to 30% or even more per event.
The IEEE will continue to utilize these events as a main source of profit-generating. The bigger the conference the higher is the profit.
The IEEE does not care if you have a grant to pay for your registeration or not, or if you are coming from a poor country or not. They are in the business of making sure that their costs as an organization are covered and that they have profit. Non-for-profit status does not mean that they do not want profit. It gives them many advantages in terms of taxes liability, legal, finanical and adminstrative operations.
So in summary, I do not think the IEEE will change the current mode of operation because it is proven to make them a good profit margin.
To them, it really does not matter that we are suffering from these registeration fees as long as we continue to pay.

Prof. Ibrahim Habib

---- Original message ----
>Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 15:48:24 -0500 (EST)
>From: obazan@ee.ryerson.ca
>Subject: Re: [Tccc] Cost of attendance from developing countries / in general
>To: "Joe Touch" <touch@ISI.EDU>
>Cc: tccc@lists.cs.columbia.edu
>
>I think the travel expenses represent the real burden. Unfunded graduate
>students can find it impossible to pay for an air flight from a developing
>country (Africa/Asia) to US, EU or Australia. This could cost more than
>50% of the least possible expenses (IEEE student registration, no banquet,
>2-stars hotel,..).
>
>With the IEEE no-show policy, those MASc./PhD students won't be able to
>publish in major conferences.
>
>One solution would be a new registration category (online attendance)in
>which the author can participate through online video conferencing. For
>example, the author should be present online during his paper's session.
>Moreover, a special 1-hr or 2-hr session could be organized in which
>"online attendees" should be present online to communicate/network/answer
>questions with interested "regular attendees" via video conferencing.
>
>Conference organizers can limit the "online attendance" registration to
>specific countries /IEEE regions. However, it's worthy to note that not
>every graduate student in developed countries' universities can get the
>sufficient funds to attend conferences.
>
>-Osama.
>
>
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>>
>>
>> Miroslav Skoric wrote:
>>> Ruay-Shiung Chang wrote:
>>>
>>>> Please see the following Letter-to-the-editor in the October issue of
>>>> IEEE
>>>> Computer magazine.
>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> To rectify the situation, conferences should be returned to university
>>>> campuses where there are many classrooms that could be used as
>>>> conference
>>>> rooms. The professors and students could help organize and provide
>>>> services
>>>> for the conferences. Lodgings around universities typically are
>>>> relatively
>>>> inexpensive. It would be possible to reduce the budget for holding
>>>> conferences and decrease the attendance fees.
>>
>> A few points on this:
>>
>> - - assuming this were viable, this would push all our conferences in the
>> June - mid-August timeframe
>>
>>> In addition,
>>> when lunches and/or conference banquets are provided (either included in
>>> registration or offered for a small fee) within the campuses - the more
>>> chances to feel academic lifestyle and mingle with students in a foreign
>>> educational institution.
>>
>> - - you can't mingle with students and stay in their rooms at the same
>> time. I.e., whenever the rooms are available, it's because the students
>> are gone
>>
>> - - not only are the students gone, but many campus services shut down as
>> a result. at universities homed in small towns (Cornell being one I have
>> experience with), this shutdown spreads out to the surrounding town,
>> i.e, some restaurants are closed
>>
>> The final point is that what universities contribute doesn't help the
>> bottom line that much. Food still costs money, and dominates the overall
>> fees. The only way to substantially reduce meeting costs is to:
>>
>> - do not provide lunch ($35-40/day)
>> - do not provide breakfast ($25/day)
>> - do not provide coffee breaks ($25/day)
>> - do not provide a reception ($40-50)
>> - do not provide a banquet ($80-100)
>>
>> Skip all these on a three day meeting and your overall costs will drop
>> by $400 or so. Even if university costs drop *all* of these by 25%
>> (which would be a lot, and would mean every event was at the
>> university), that only saves $100.
>>
>> Joe
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>
>
>-----------
>Osama Bazan, PhD
>Post Doctoral Fellow
>Electrical and Computer Engineering
>Ryerson University
>Toronto, Ontario, Canada
>Phone: +1 416 979 5000 Ext. 4528
>
>
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