[Rats] FW: IETF 107 Vancouver In-Person Meeting Cancelled

["Nancy Cam-Winget (ncamwing)" <[e-mail]>]

FYI,
In case there are those that do not follow the [e-mail] mailer.  There is also a follow-up on cancellation policies which I've attached in this email too.

The chairs are awaiting further input, but be assured that virtual meetings will be scheduled sometime in the not too distant timeframe.

Warm regards,
	Nancy

On 3/10/20, 12:11 PM, "ietf on behalf of The IESG" <[e-mail] on behalf of [e-mail]> wrote:

    The IESG and the IRTF Chair have decided to cancel the in-person IETF 107 Vancouver meeting. This decision is based on input we gathered from Working Group (WG) and Research Group (RG) chairs about our ability to hold productive WG and RG sessions at IETF 107. Our assessment of this feedback is that a majority of sessions would not be viable if we were to hold the in-person IETF meeting. On this basis, we believe we cannot hold an effective in-person meeting. 
    
    As a result of this cancellation, the in-person Hackathon, Code Sprint, all other in-person events planned for the weekend of March 21-22, the chairs training scheduled for March 20, and all other in-person sessions during the week are cancelled.
    
    The IESG is working on an alternative all-virtual agenda for the week of March 21-27 with a limited schedule adapted to accommodate the time zones of as many participants as possible. We are also planning to support an increased volume of virtual interim meetings during the weeks that follow. We will send another update to the community soon with more information about these plans. The Hackathon organizers are also considering plans for virtual Hackathon support.
    
    We have re-opened Internet-Draft submissions, which had been closed on March 9 in anticipation of the in-person meeting. Internet-Drafts may be submitted at <https://datatracker.ietf.org/submit/>.
    
    A separate announcement from the IETF Executive Director will follow with details about registration cancellations and refunds.  
    
    These are unusual times given the circumstances created by the spread of COVID-19.  We hope that everyone remains safe and healthy.
    
    Regards,
    The IESG and the IRTF Chair
    
    

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Following the announcement by the IESG and the IRTF Chair that the in-person IETF 107 Vancouver meeting is being cancelled, this is an update on various financial and administrative details.

1. Meeting registration fees:

- Starting now we will be refunding any cancellation fee that we have retained for the cancellation of an in-person registration.

- Starting in 48 hours time we will begin to refund in full all registration fees for those registered to participate in-person.  

- Unfortunately we are not able to roll forward the registration fee to IETF 108 Madrid for a number of administrative and financial reasons, most notably the different taxation requirements between Canada and Spain.

- We are aware that some people do not want their registrations fees refunded and have asked us to convert it to a donation, which we will do.  Anyone else who prefers this option please let us know at [e-mail] before the refund process starts.

- The delay of 48 hours is to give us time to see if we can process all refunds  automatically, but if that is not possible then each registration will be processed manually by the Secretariat team and this will take some time. 

2. Hotel bookings in contracted hotels:

- If you are booked at the Hyatt, Metropolitan or Sutton Place hotels then you can cancel with 72 hours notice and no cancellation fee.

- If you are booked at the Fairmont hotel and have paid the one-night non-refundable deposit, they have informed us that they will refund this deposit.  

- If you are booked at the Coast Coal Harbour Hotel then we understand that they retain the right to keep the deposit.  We are working with them to see if they will consider waiving that given the extraordinary circumstances.

- Contact information for each of the IETF hotels is available on the IETF 107 Vancouver hotel webpage [1]. Should you experience any difficulty cancelling your reservation, please contact us at [e-mail] for assistance. 

3. Financial impact on the LLC:

- We are discussing with the venue the possibility of rescheduling the meeting to a later year.  Doing this may mean back-to-back North American meetings.

- We particularly want to thank the meeting host, Huawei, for supporting us fully in these difficult circumstances. 

- Our sponsors have been contacted and a number have already responded that they wish to sponsor the virtual meeting or roll forward their sponsorship to the next in-person meeting, for which we want to express our thanks. 

- We have comprehensive insurance and are exploring what claims we can make.

- We expect that we will still need to dip into reserves to cover substantial unavoidable costs but we do not anticipate any significant financial impact from doing so.


If you have any questions or comments then please feel free to contact me directly.  

[1] https://www.ietf.org/how/meetings/107/hotel/

-- 
Jay Daley
IETF Executive Director
[e-mail]

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