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[802SEC] ITSATAAFL?





Pat ,

You should have gone to New Orleans. We ate well.

A strong majority of our (dot1, 3 and 17) members really
want lunch to be provided. Box lunches sound okay, and they
should be both inexpensive and easy to set up.  An occasional
sit down or buffet lunch seems to have a strong appeal for the
majority. Such lunch arrangements also buy us an
extra half hour or so of meeting time each day, because
we can do an in-house lunch in 45 minutes, whereas you have
to allow 1:15 if people are going to go outside the hotel, plus
another 15 minutes for people to straggle back into the room.
With box lunches, we can serve an arbitrarily large number
of people if they are willing to return to the meeting room
to eat.  Also, if the lunches are paid for via the attendance
fee, we don't have to run transactions in the lunch line,
which greatly speeds things up.

I also prefer downtown locations where there are dining
alternatives within walking distance of the meeting hotel.
New Orleans gets a 10 on that scale.
We had choices ranging from Popeye Chicken ($) to Brennan's
Steakhouse ($$$$) in the same block as the Astor Crowne Plaza.
And we didn't have to show a boarding pass and photo ID!
(I am not getting a dime from the local chamber of commerce,
I swear it).

On the subject of budgets, we ran the New Orleans
meeting with essentially zero host contribution, we provided fairly
lavish F&B, including sit down lunches, and the same level
of service we get at plenaries, with a registration fee of $250/$300.
Yes, this would not have been possible for any meeting
planner except F2F, and yes, we had no social (another
benefit of  fun down town locations).  If we were to tack
on $75 for the "Get 802 A Lawyer" tax, the fee would come
to $325/$375. Toss in another $25 to keep the reserve at
a safe level, and you are at $350/400.

This happens to be exactly the fee that was charged at
the wireless interim meeting in Monterey last month. They
did lunches and a social, but no "Get 802" head
tax.

Howard

pat_thaler@agilent.com wrote:

>Personally, I would rather choose my own food for lunch. Hotel lunches are often pretty unhealthy and limited choices. Also, I like to get out of the hotel for a few minutes.
>
>I like the arrangements Buzz has made to have the hotel to sell a quick sandwich or pizza lunch that attendees can pay for on those days when they have a real time crunch. Even better are the downtown locations where there is a wide variety of fast food available near the hotel. 
>
>Pat
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Harry Worstell [mailto:hworstell@research.att.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2002 6:24 AM
>To: Matthew Sherman; 'Rigsbee, Everett O'; 'Howard Frazier'; IEEE 802
>SEC
>Cc: scarlson@hspdesign.com; 802info
>Subject: RE: [802SEC] 802 Plenary registration fees
>
>
>
>Buzz,
>
>It has been my experience in the past that if there
>is a deficit that needs to be made up in the financials,
>the Officers of the group needs to protect the organization
>and do what is necessary for the organization to continue.
>Taking polls of the group won't fix the problem. 
>Its best to do what is necessary and move on!
>
>Best regards,
>
>Harry Worstell
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Matthew Sherman [mailto:mjsherman@research.att.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2002 12:46 AM
>To: 'Rigsbee, Everett O'; 'Howard Frazier'; IEEE 802 SEC
>Cc: scarlson@hspdesign.com; 802info
>Subject: RE: [802SEC] 802 Plenary registration fees
>
>
>
>Buzz,
>
>Can we e-mail a poll to the community and see how they respond?
>
>Mat
>
>Matthew Sherman
>Vice Chair, IEEE 802
>Technology Consultant
>Communications Technology Research 
>AT&T Labs - Shannon Laboratory 
>Room B255, Building 103 
>180 Park Avenue 
>P.O. Box 971 
>Florham Park, NJ 07932-0971 
>Phone: +1 (973) 236-6925 
>Fax: +1 (973) 360-5877 
>EMAIL: mjsherman@att.com 
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Rigsbee, Everett O [mailto:everett.o.rigsbee@boeing.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2002 12:50 AM
>To: 'Howard Frazier'; IEEE 802 SEC
>Cc: scarlson@hspdesign.com; 802info
>Subject: RE: [802SEC] 802 Plenary registration fees
>
>
>
>Howard,  Interesting numbers.  It will be fun to try and figure out exactly
>what they mean.  Here are some questions to ponder: 
>
>1.  Lunches run $15-20/person/day so you can swap the social for 1 day of
>lunch.  Do folks want to do that or are they pretty happy with the
>do-your-own cash lunch deals which we do now and you have the option to do a
>restaurant instead ?
>
>2.  Are folks willing to ante up another $50 plus lose the social to get
>lunches all week (M-Th) ?  or $75 and keep the social ?  
>
>3.  Or do we do frugal lunches (e.g. box, salad bar, soup, etc.) for less ?
>
>
>Maybe there's a way to collect and tabulate further survey data as part of
>our web reg process so we can resolve some of these points to more clarity.
>
>
>
>Thanx,  Buzz
>Dr. Everett O. (Buzz) Rigsbee
>Boeing - SSG
>PO Box 3707, M/S: 7M-FM
>Seattle, WA  98324-2207
>(425) 865-2443    Fx: (425) 865-6721
>everett.o.rigsbee@boeing.com
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Howard Frazier [mailto:millardo@dominetsystems.com] 
>Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 9:13 PM
>To: IEEE 802 SEC
>Cc: scarlson@hspdesign.com; 802info
>Subject: Re: [802SEC] 802 Plenary registration fees
>
>
>Steve Carlson, Mike Takefman, Tony Jeffree, and I conducted a
>survey at our interim meetings in New Orleans.  A copy
>of the survey is attached.  I haven't had time to tabulate
>all of the responses yet, but this thread stimulated me to
>tabulate the responses to the question we asked about
>F&B.  The results for this question are also attached.  
>Please keep in mind that we explicitly stated that this survey
>applied only to our interim meetings, and that it was non-binding,
>but that we would use it to help us plan future interims.
>
> From the chart in meeting_survey.pdf, I conclude that:
>
>A) Continental breakfast, morning coffee service, lunch,
>and afternoon coffee service have overwhelming support.  Our
>members really want these services to be provided.
>
>B) Afternoon snacks have slightly positive but equivocal support.
>
>C) Hot breakfasts, dinner, and a mid-week social reception have
>much more opposition than support.  The first two seem obvious,
>but the third surprised me.  I won't, not even for a femtosecond,
>suggest that this result reflects what all of 802 would say about
>the Wednesday social during a plenary week, but I would suggest
>that maybe it's time we asked the question. Socials are certainly a
>large expense, and maybe we'd be better off redirecting the money
>towards lunch. I find that it makes us more productive if every one
>can stay near the meeting rooms for lunch, and get back to
>the meetings quickly. The members we surveyed seem to agree.
>
>Overall, I think the survey went over well.  From scanning
>the responses, it seems like people took it seriously, and
>gave it some careful thought.  I know that it will help us plan our
>next interim.
>
>Howard
>
>