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I believe it comes down to this: a) Either establish a standing committee and hire an event production company, or b) keep doing what we are doing. With 'a', we get consistent rules and policies, a longer planning cycle, and the possibility of higher prices. With 'b' we retain our eclectic, occasionally peculiar, and subject to local interpretation set of rules, customs, quirks and secret (albeit well documented) handshakes, all governed by the rule that "if you don't like it, do your own code4libcon." Personally, I like 'b' and support the brave souls who step up to do the work, even if they are occasionally in places that are way too cold. Cary On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 1:18 PM, Kyle Banerjee <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >> +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 > -- > ---------------------------------------------------------- > Kyle Banerjee > Digital Services Program Manager > Orbis Cascade Alliance > [log in to unmask] / 503.999.9787 -- Cary Gordon The Cherry Hill Company http://chillco.com