Re: Payouts for missed blocks (was Re: Hotel situation)

[Theodore Ts'o <[e-mail]>]

On Mon, Dec 28, 2015 at 06:23:32PM -0500, John C Klensin wrote:
> >  Note that such a
> > payment would be quite bad for us, because it'd be in effect an
> > unbudgetted expense the IETF would have to cover somehow.
> > It's part of the reason (as I noted in my other posting on
> > this topic) I'm a little uncomfortable with making hotel deals
> > so far in the future.
> 
> And another strong argument against making plans nine years in
> advance rather than three, at least IMO.

When I was treasurer, Usenix used to make hotel contracts five in
advance, because that was the only way the Executive Director could
get desirable hotel contracts for its bigger conferences (which are
roughly the size of IETF these days, BTW).

This hurt a _lot_ after the 2008 crash.  As more than a million of
dollars.  On the plus size, Ellie negotiated with the hotel to convert
the penalties for missing the room block into increased minimum
payments for catering, so we ate really well at the in-hotel reception
for the next couple of years.  So the money wasn't _entirely_ wasted,
but it did make a pretty big dent into Usenix's endowment.

Oh, the IETF doesn't have millions of dollars of endowment banked
away?   Hmm....

						- Ted