Three weeks ago, I asked NZNOG subscribers who expect to attend to express a preference for a conference with UniForum broadly similar to last year's on one hand, or a lower-cost gathering hosted by The University of Waikato. In counting votes, I have ignored those received from UniForum members who are not subscribed to this list. The envelope, please ... Preferring UniForum: 16 Preferring Waikato: 13 Will attend either, not worried: 6 Volunteering to help: 3 I'm inclined to conclude from this that we do not have a clear majority for either option, or more positively that we have quite a bit of interest in both. The three volunteering to help were two who favoured the UniForum option and one who would attend either. Partly for that reason, partly in the interests of getting an event under away sooner rather than later, and partly because it worked last time, I believe we should proceed with the UniForum option. It is also clear that we have significant interest in an alternative, and I believe that should be followed up, possibly for February 2004. One longer-term question would be whether 2004 could support two events, one at Waikato and another jointly with UniForum in the Wellington region. Unless I hear significant numbers of complaints soon, I'll seek to follow up who's doing what with UniForum's convenor, Roger De Salis, and those who've volunteered; and myself contact The University of Waikato with a view to working out some details for a later conference. One of my aims here is to have decisions about the conference after next made not later than during the next conference. - Donald Neal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "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." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------