Re: Planned changes to registration payments & deadlines

[Andrew Sullivan <[e-mail]>]

Hi,

Thanks for the comments.

On Mon, Apr 23, 2018 at 05:42:03PM +0100, Stephen Farrell wrote:

> That makes my life a bit harder. Not sure if it also
> affects others hence cc'ing the list.

We appreciate that it will indeed make certain things harder.

> I usually register early, and make some hotel reservation
> at about the same time. Later, I arrange flights via our
> travel agent, and then generate one purchase order for
> the meeting fee, flights and hotel (I get them to pre-pay
> the room cost). They then do the meeting fee payment etc.
> 
> The above change will force me to do two purchase orders
> which is a pain.

Or else, it will require you to commit to your flight dates earlier,
or else pay a higher fee later, yes.

> I'd ask that the IAOC reconsider requiring payment at
> registration time.

If we do not make this change, then I expect we'll see an
across-the-board fee increase, and I don't think we're keen on that.
 
> I'm also not that keen on the earlier early-bird. It's
> fairly common that I won't know if I want to be present
> for the weekend when the hackathon happens until close
> to the meeting time. If you do move to requiring payment
> at registration time, then that'd make no difference,
> but with the current setup, I usually know enough before
> the current cutoff to book flights at the same time as
> we pay. I'd normally not know that seven weeks before
> the meeting though so that change is also a bit of a pain.

That sounds like you're not actually planning to be an "Early Bird"
registration, then, but a "Standard Bird" or a "Late Bird".  I think
what you're really arguing is that it would be bad to face an increase
in registration fees if you decide late about your registration.  But
that increase is indeed exactly what is contemplated here.  "Early
registration" to the meeting is a commitment that you're coming to it,
no matter what.  Otherwise, use a standard registration.

> bunch of others who do similar things, then I hope that
> you take that into account and don't make many lives a
> bit harder:-)

Some lives have to get harder: we can't afford to run the meeting the
way we do now, so something needs to change.  One way to change is to
make "early" mean, well, "early".  So that's what we are proposing.

Best regards,

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
[e-mail]