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

Joe..
Quickly, the points are the following:
1) Conferences should not pay money to IEEE support staff, this will cut down the expenses and save money in registration fees.
2) Universities (at least some of them) can support functions like Globecom and ICC. I did not say that attendees should also sleep in students dorms. Attendees can arrange their own hotels.
We will gladly host Globecom or ICC at CUNY, during the summer time or during the winter recess for Globecom. Why does it have to be when school in session?? This does not make sense? ofcourse no university will host anyone when school is in session. ICC is already in June or July so that is very easy to do. Globeom can be moved to January and that also will be no problem to host.

I can give you any proof you want. We have ample class rooms to hold sessions (50 people per room, 100 per room whatever you want), we have several auditoriums all over the city in our campuses, each one can host up to 600 and some up to800 people). CUNY hosts lots of meetings and conferences in various fields of science and humanities. So it is nothing new for us here.
Go to our CUNY website and see for yourself and you can also send a formal request to our COO and ask our adminstration to host Globecom and ICC and there you will have your proof.
If there is a will there is a way.

3) Let us cut down the huge waste of funds that goes in supporting some volunteers and executives fancy travel expenses.

Prof. Ibrahim Habib

---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:38:00 -0800
>From: Joe Touch <touch@ISI.EDU>
>Subject: Re: [Tccc] Cost of attendance from developing countries / in general
>To: habib@ccny.cuny.edu
>Cc: tccc@lists.cs.columbia.edu,Roch Guerin <guerin@ee.upenn.edu>
>
>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>Hash: SHA1
>
>Ibrahim,
>
>habib@ccny.cuny.edu wrote:
>> See my reply within..
>...
>
>>>> >> 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.
>
>In your earlier post you argue that our conference should not pay for
>journals, because we aren't all subscribers.
>
>Well, why should journal or membership dues pay for the salaries of IEEE
>members who support conferences, if they are not attending the conference?
>
>I'm saying that *by your argument*, the salaries of those staff MUST be
>paid when serving the meeting, but you seem to conclude the opposite.
>
>We *cannot* benefit from IEEE staff without considering that we are part
>of that larger organization, and we need to support that organization.
>
>>>> >> 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.
>
>That's an assumption. In past meetings, what I have saved on food I have
>spent on transportation either to hotels or to the banquet venue. The
>*whole* budget needs to be considered when making this decision.
>
>>>> >> 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?!!.
>
>I was talking about not providing food at the meeting to save funds, FWIW.
>
>> 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.
>
>Well, you're at a university, and so am I. We recently hosted the
>Infocom TPC meeting at USC on a Saturday - during homecoming - and
>arranged for food boxes to be delivered for lunch. Yes, that can work
>well, and IMO did. But that was on a weekend, and involved 150 people.
>
>Give you're at a university, and you think this will work, let me ask
>you to provide some evidence. Can you post dates when you think that
>CUNY could host a Globecom-sized event, including room for, e.g., 100
>students in dorm rooms, as well as rooms to support the Globecom tracks
>with 50 people/room, as well as the plenaries, ***when school is in
>session***?
>
>The point is that we *can* change this, but not by making assertions. We
>need to offer alternatives - specific alternatives, with realistic
>capacity to support our large meetings. I invite everyone on the list to
>post any details they can offer.
>
>Joe
>
>
>
>
>
>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
>Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (MingW32)
>
>iEYEARECAAYFAksdPXcACgkQE5f5cImnZrt21ACeIv9Zjy3r5sWAs1XtpkDae5ZM
>ytwAn3PNHzLyjTQn1eAqZFVJ/LNpCyv3
>=UPgI
>-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>_______________________________________________
>Tccc mailing list
>Tccc@lists.cs.columbia.edu
>https://lists.cs.columbia.edu/cucslists/listinfo/tccc
_______________________________________________
Tccc mailing list
Tccc@lists.cs.columbia.edu
https://lists.cs.columbia.edu/cucslists/listinfo/tccc