[RPRWG] Refund for the May Meeting
Dear RPRWGers,
now that the finances have been figured out we have an opportunity
to provide a refund to people who attended the May meeting based
on the Cisco Systems sponsorship. We are in a position to refund
about $75 - $90 per person.
Clearly having set the meeting fee lower to begin with would have
been preferrable, but given the ever shifting number of people who
attend and certain costs that change depending on attendance it
is difficult to safely determine what the fee should be without
opening ourselves up to a large potential short fall. Hint -
please book your rooms at the hotel early. This gives us a chance
to guess at the pre-registration fee we should be charging.
The purpose of this email is to find out if there is a significant
number of people who have a problem with use issuing a refund on
the credit card you provided to pay for the meeting.
Some issue that I can think of, and my response to them
Q) I already expensed the meeting with my employer, and I
can't (or its difficult) to change it).
A) - you can always charge less for the next meeting. Last
time I checked no accountant ever complained that an invoice
for $250 was expensed for less
Q) Why don't we just save the money and use it to buy
equipment.
A) I've just spent about $1100 US on what I think are our last
purchases. We have enough reserves to meet our deposit
requirements for a future meeting. Without the cash from
Cisco we would have ended up just slightly short of cash
at the May meeting. Hence, our ability to predict the cost
is getting better and I expect to be o.k. in September.
January is sponsored by Scientific Atlanta, so a reduced
fee will be possible.
Q) Why not buy T-shirts?
A) I suppose that is possible, but that is still less
than 80 per person (unless we get really really good ones)
and is it really an appropriate use of meeting fees.
Q) So why not just reduce the cost of the meeting in September or
January.
A) Because it is a joint interim with .1/.3/.17 we can't easily
have differentiated fees. Besides - the people who generated
the surplus should be the ones to benefit from it. Technically
in order to keep non profit status - any surplus we have must
be spent by the end of each year. Most dot groups accomplish
this by putting the money into a deposit on the January meeting.
Also, since January is sponsored it would mean the money hanging
around until May.
If I see alot of people with concerns on issuing a refund I will reserve
judgement until the July meeting where we can have a debate.
cheers,
mike
--
Michael Takefman tak@xxxxxxxxx
Manager of Engineering, Cisco Systems
Chair IEEE 802.17 Stds WG
2000 Innovation Dr, Ottawa, Canada, K2K 3E8
voice: 613-254-3399 fax: 613-254-4867