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