[EuroPython] Decision points and call to meeting

[Michael Hudson]

Jacob Hallén <jacob at strakt.com> writes:

> Hi everyone,
>
> It is time to gather and make some important decisions about Europython 2005.
>
> I would therefore like to call to a meeting this Tursday, 20 January 2005 at 
> 1700 CET. The place is as usual the #europython channel in the freenode IRC 
> network.

Hmm, don't think I can attend this.  But I'm not sure I'd have much to
say, anyway.

> Since I have heard very little on the list after my message of 8 December, I 
> assume that a number of items will be a mere formality to decide. 

I suspect so, yes.

> 3. Rooms
> VA (150), VB(150), VR (180) and VG (70) to be reserved. (see last years site 
> map)
> The big auditorium will probably not be available before 1800. I suggest 
> extending the lunch break to 1.5 hours, to make better use of the time.

Good idea.  Lunch was too short last year anyway.

> 4. Keynote speakers
> We invite Guido again.
> We invite Adele Goldberg.

+1

> 5. Key points in time
> This is my proposed timetable. Does anyone want to change anything, or add 
> more time specifics?
>
> - 31 January - Call for talks and call for papers opens
>
> - 28 February - last day to submit proposals for refereed papers
>
> - 15 March - Registration opens
>
> - 30 April - last day to submit talk propsals
>
> - 15 May - last day of Early-bird registration
>
> - 17 June - last day of pre-registration

All seems very reasonable to me.

> 6. Sponsors
> I suggest we keep the same sponsorship costs as last year.
>
> 7. Track chairs
> My current list of track chairs looks as follows. Please tell me if your name 
> is not on the list, but should be there, or if it is on the list and 
> shouldn't.
>
> As you can see, we still have vacancies in Applications and Zope lightning 
> talks.

> Python Language
> Michael Hudson
> Michael Hudson <mwh at python.net>

I'd still like to find someone else to do this...

> 8. Breakfast
> We can get breakfast at the student union for SEK 50/person and day (~5.50 
> Euro). This would include coffee, tea, juice, yoghurt, cheese sandwich and 
> ham sandwich. Do we want this? If we have to increase our prices remains an 
> open question. We may save enough on cheaper locations.

It sounds like a good idea to me, finances permitting.

> 9. Price structure
> I suggest we keep the same general structure as last year. I would like to add 
> the following though:
> - Speakers who pay after the earlybird cutoff pay an extra 10 Euro.
> - Speakers who pay at the conference pay an extra 50 Euro.
>
> Motivation: People paying late add uncertainty and there is no real need for 
> speakers to pay late. People paying at the conference is a real bother and 
> have to pay a steep premium for being that late. There were several speakers 
> paying at the conference last year and they were a hassle.

+1

> 10. Refunds
> We did not have a refund policy last year, which was something that bit me.I 
> had controversies with a couple of people. I would like to suggest that we 
> have a policy of refunding everything except an administrative fee of 20 Euro 
> for cancellations more than 30 days before the conference and make no 
> refundds for cancellations later than that. We will allow switches of person 
> attending until the time of arrival at the conference. This is slightly more 
> generous than most other conferences.

Having a defined policy certainly sounds like a good idea, and these
terms sound reasonable to me.

> 11. Cheques
> Cheques are a big bother. We can either say that we don't accept cheques or we 
> can attach a 100 Euro administrative fee to them. Our bank charges about 50 
> Euro for cacheing a foreign cheque, and it normally takes an hour of queueing 
> to get to do it at all.

Ouch.  How many people wanted to pay by cheque?

Thank you for keeping trudging on!

Cheers,
mwh

-- 
  Exam invigilation - it doesn't come much harder than that, esp if
  the book you're reading turns out to be worse than expected.
                                  -- Dirk Bruere, sci.physics.research