The UniForum NZ board met on Saturday, 16th March, and spent most of its
time discussing matters related to the upcoming conference. NZNOG has
been proceeding on the basis that it is going to be holding a gathering
which is to take the form of a stream at that conference, to be held in
Auckland in July.
NZNOG seems to me to have a strong programme lined up, and there have
been many expressions of interest in attending. But given the fact that
we've never done this before, it is hard to be precise about how many
people we can expect to turn up. At which point things have the
potential to get a bit more complex.
Two views were expressed at the meeting of the relationship between
UniForum NZ and the conference. The majority view held that UniForum
holds the conference in part to attract membership. Also, a surplus made
on the operation of a conference for a society's members is not taxed,
while a surplus made on a conference attended by non-members has a tax
status which is not clear. UniForum NZ has in the past included a year's
subscription in the non-member registration rate for its conferences, so
that in fact only members attended.
The minority view - held by me and by one other board member also from
outside Wellington - held that UniForum NZ exists primarily in order to
provide the conference. Since NZNOG's involvement contributes
substantially to the conference, it is therefore a good thing.
Attracting UniForum membership is good, but not the purpose of the
conference.
The board decided that all attendees at the upcoming conference should
be members of UniForum NZ. This has the potential to be a problem, but
it is not yet clear to me how large a problem.
No final decision has yet been made on registration charges for this
year's conference, but a figure for ordinary registrants of around $200
per day including morning and afternoon teas and lunch seems likely.
Arrangements regarding dinner are still being considered. An "early
bird" registration offer of noticeably less than that is planned.
At present, UniForum NZ's annual subscription is $85 including GST. To
add this figure to the sort of registration charge previously discussed
on this list would make a noticeable difference to the amount people are
being asked to pay. Among the issues now being considered by UniForum NZ
is what sort of organisation it wants to be. If it decides to take
something like the minority view of itself, it has the option of cutting
its overheads and reducing its annual subscription to something low
enough that bundling it in with a conference registration would not be a
problem. This will be considered in the next couple of months, but I
cannot predict the outcome of that consideration.
This discussion came as something of a surprise to me, but it appears
that Linux User Group members with whom this has been discussed do not
have a problem with this level of registration charge.
The first question then becomes how much money NZNOG people are willing
to part with to attend. $200 per day is not bad when compared to
commercial training of any kind, but is significantly more than the
amounts that have been discussed on this list in the past. A rate well
below that is to be available to those who register early. I'd like to
hear (to me, not the list please) from anyone who'd plan to attend at a
cost of around $200 for two days but have a problem paying more than
that, and from anyone who'd attend at a cost of around $300 for two days
but have a problem paying more than that.
And what happens if I hear from lots of people? I'm not sure. For now
I simply intend to see how many people get back to me over the next
couple of days.
--
Donald Neal
Special Operations
Network Delivery
Telecom New Zealand Ltd
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"This communication, including any attachments, is confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, you should not read it - please contact me immediately, destroy it, and do not copy or use any part of this communication or disclose anything about it. Thank you."
==============================================================================
-
To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz
where the body of your message reads:
unsubscribe nznog
