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

See my reply within..

---- Original message ----
>Date: Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:58:41 -0800
>From: Joe Touch <touch@ISI.EDU>
>Subject: Re: [Tccc] Cost of attendance from developing countries / in general
>To: habib@ccny.cuny.edu
>Cc: Roch Guerin <guerin@ee.upenn.edu>,tccc@lists.cs.columbia.edu
>
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>Ibrahim (My apologies for using your last name before),
>
>habib@ccny.cuny.edu wrote:
>
>> 1) The profit or surplus that conferences make should be minimized.
>> It does not have to be 20 or 30%. Some number like 10% or 5% should be
>> fine. This alone would pass on lots of savings to the attendees.
>
>It'd be really useful to distinguish between the amount that the IEEE
>expects to receive as conference 'revenue', vs. the amount the budget
>includes for contingency purposes.
>
>In the ACM these are separate and can total over 30%. The 20% number is
>not unreasonable when you consider it *includes a buffer for unexpected
>expenses*.

The 20% or 30% are just examples, and they can translate into tens of thousands of dollars or more. So the savings could be passed on to the attendees. Even if those savings are 200 dollars per attendee. If we add to this the money that will be saved from freebes to some volunteers, we will end up with with good savings and thus cutting down registeration costs.
>
>> 4)IEEE staff members are already paid by the IEEE. There is no need to charge the conference for their time.
>
>Where do you think that money comes from? We're the IEEE - we're paying
>when we use them. To use your analogy, why should other meetings,
>journal subscribers, or the general membership pay for a service that
>only conference attendees benefit from?

I do not know what is your point here? I am very clear: The IEEE should not charge the conference "budget" for the IEEE staff time who help in registeration and other logistics support. This will save lots of expenses charged to the conference. Hence, the savings should be passed on to attendees. That is what I am talking about. ofcourse We are already paying the IEEE staff ofcourse from our memberhip fees and other sources of revenues.

>> 5) It makes a lot of sense to conduct meetings in research labs and universities as opposed to expensive 5 stars hotels.
>
>This is 4-star out of 5 in the US. The next step down often cannot
>accommodate a meeting this large.
>
>I agree that we should consider cost when selecting a venue, but let's
>not start with an assumption that research labs or universities either
>can accommodate us or would be less cost effective when considered as a
>whole meeting (e.g., including transportation, etc.).

AS I said before, it should be fully investigated because it will save lots of expenses paid to hotels, specially food functions.
>
>> 6) Food functions and social events could be eliminated. A single social gathering could be sufficient.
>
>Remember that these are also networking opportunities. Also keep in mind
>that it's not feasible to have 600+ people descending on small local
>restaurants in synchrony, which is why lunch has typically been
>included. Same for coffee.

WHo said anything about a local restaurant?!!.. All Universities over the whole world have local dinning rooms for students and Faculty and attendees of a conference could simply use it and socialize and mingle there. One function is enough. People can socialize in the hallways or anywhere they want. The point is that We certainly do not need to socialize in fancy 5 stars hotels in Hawai or Paris or London or New York where they serve dinners costing US$100 or more per person and may I add the food is always lousy and not worth it!. These are technical meetings NOT commercial meetings.
It is just a waste of money and we (the members of the community) cannot afford it.
The IEEE existing model is turning conferences into a mess. This is unacceptable to the scientific community.
Ibrahim Habib
>
>Joe
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