> +1. If there is such a policy, it doesn't really seem in the spirit of
> a smaller, more intimate conference.
>

Just to give a little background on what's happening, it's not that we
don't think it would be desirable to be able to accommodate all these
requests. It's that you reach a point where it becomes impractical.

Providing administrative, financial, and logistical support for c4l is time
consuming. Current estimate is a total of 29 full person days between our
admin assistant and business manager. That figure is derived from actual
tracking and while imperfect, it should be pretty close to the real thing.
It's a big deal if you're a small organization like ours with only 7 full
time employees that are already fully utilized.

So where does that time go? This list will miss all kinds of things since
I'm just spitting it out, but it should give you the general idea:

   - Evaluating options and negotiating contracts
   - Payment processing, following up on payments
   - Registration. Time intensive because presentations were chosen after
   registration was opened so presenters may or may not be part of the open
   registration process. This also led to a more confusing waitlist process.
   - Responding to e-mails, late requests, etc
   - Managing budgets
   - Communicating with hotel (way more time intensive than it sounds)
   - Communicating with ??? committees (for an anarchic organization, there
   are quite a few)
   - Answering questions, dealing with late requests, etc
   - T-shirts
   - Refunds
   - Scholarship administration
   - Contacting late registrants
   - Sponsorship processing. Not nearly as straightforward as it sounds.
   - Catering (many details)
   - Creating and formatting agendas, registration packets, name tags, etc
   - Signs -- sure, they're just a few sheets of paper, but they need to be
   labeled properly for the rooms you already have with appropriate
   directional arrows
   - Filling vacated spots from the waitlist
   - Working with A/V company

This year, we have only one hosting proposal (as we did last year). Given
the high level of interest in c4l, I think it's fair to suggest that the
relatively low level of interest in hosting is a function of what it really
entails. By hosting c4l, your institution commits itself to a lot of work
and is legally on the hook for a lot of dough.

We host quite a few conferences, and c4l national is significantly more
labor intensive than other events (even ones that are considerably larger).
I don't say this to be negative on the community -- community building is
incredibly important, but it's important to be aware of what tradeoffs
we're making. Doing this successfully over the long term requires a minimal
level of administrative efficiency.

In a long rambly way, I guess what I'm trying to say is that no one likes
to say no, and there might even be some things that seem unfair. But we
probably give this stuff more thought than may appear on the surface.

kyle
-- 
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Kyle Banerjee
Digital Services Program Manager
Orbis Cascade Alliance
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