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 All, 
I agree with Bob; in fact, we have all probably spent more 
than $11 reading these e-mails. 
Steve From: Grow, Bob [mailto:bob.grow@INTEL.COM] Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 11:28 AM To: STDS-802-3-HSSG@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG Subject: Re: [HSSG] Shilla hotel charges 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  |