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Colleagues:
If
there is really serious concern about the ~$11 difference between the
"advertised" registration fee and what showed up on your credit card
bill, please direct your comments to me. Under the LMSC P&P, I as
WG Chair am ultimately responsible for approving the meeting budget and meeting
fee. I apologize to the WG for not making sure the meeting fee was
announced in Won, how it was budgeted, with US $ clearly marked as an estimate
on the web page. Hopefully this will not occur again.
It has
been suggested that the meeting fee be fixed in US $. It is my opinion
that it is inappropriate to ask our hosts to take on the additional risks of
currency fluctuation in addition to the other liabilities we ask them to
incur. In this case, our hosts went far beyond what we ask of hosts.
I thank our hosts for their very substantial financial contribution to the
meeting. While on the dinner cruise provided to us at no charge, I
received favorable comments from a number of you about the meeting. More
than one person joked that they expected the same when meeting in Portland in
January (dream on, you won't see that kind of activity sponsored in
Portland).
Those
of you who think that the hotel set the exchange rate for the meeting fee are, I
believe, in error. If you were charged in Won, it is the bank behind
your credit card that sets the exchange rate. For those obvious to
financial markets, the dollar has been almost continuously moving down against
most currencies in recent months. A few years ago, the dollar was strong
and our non-US participants saw similar things to what you have seen this month,
while we got the benefit of meeting in Ottawa with the Canadian dollar at $0.65
US (now they are basically at parity).
Frankly, I'm embarrassed by some of the comments in
this thread and apologize to our hosts on behalf of 802.3.
Bob Grow |