Re: [Debconf-team] Letter from NGO DIVA
Hello,
I am one of the DebConf global team members, and have been involved in
DebConf since 2009, working with the global logistics regarding
registration, accommodation, budget, etc.
This year, the global team has had very little contact with local
logistics, thus, we have not been able to really know what is going on
(despite our repeated requests to help). Now that we have your
contact information, I hope that we can work directly together and
work out the different problems.
Since there is so much we don't know about local logistics, first we
need to know what the exact situation is locally. Since we don't know
the local details, it is hard to do things. As someone once said,
"DebConf is not like another conference, in almost any way
imaginable". This is why normally the DebConf local and global team
handles most of the planning - we have experience and know what to
expect.
Our global team would be happy to work with you directly - you could
call me or some of our other global team members and we can discuss on
the phone to rapidly clear up a lot of things.
Please see below for questions and answers.
On Wed, Jul 06, 2011 at 05:02:31PM +0200, NVO DIVA wrote:
> Dear and respected,
>
> We comprehend this conference as a mutual project between Debian team
> and DIVA and we're sending this email in aim to resolve all possible
> and/or current issues so we could organize DebConf11 the best way we
> could possibly do. There are changes we would like to let you know
> about and changes we would like to discuss with you, as we would not
> like these changes to harm DebConf11 organization in any way.
>
> For the needs of this conference we reserved three hotels, Hotel Bosna
> as main hotel from 17th to 31st and Hotel Vidovic and Hotel Palas from
> 24th to 31st. Price we managed to negotiate with hotel Bosna is 38€
> while Vidovic is 18€ and Palas is 23€. As we reserved Hotel Bosna from
> 17th we planned to accommodate DebCamp attendees in this hotel and
> rest of the attendees (DebConf) from 24th to Vidovic and Palas. We
> didn't expect DebCamp attendees number to be so high and we didn't
> think that attendees would be arriving everyday, these things have
> greatly enlarged our expenses.
These prices match what we were told. Could you confirm how many
rooms we have available? Is there a block reservation, or will you
reserve them per-night when we have people?
Our estimated DebCamp and DebConf numbers have been available here:
http://rkd.zgib.net/http/debconf/only-reconfirmed/rooms-by-date-2.txt
This is a fairly standard pattern for DebConf and DebCamp: the number
of people at DebCamp slowly increases during the week. Many people
arrive a day or two early for DebConf, to use the time to informally
work.
These numbers are less than last year, but increased by the strong
emphasis on getting as many Bosnians to attend as possible.
> Government of Republika Srpska gave us a guarantee to 150.000€. Please
We had originally heard that we would have 150.000€, and then heard
that was no more and instead they would cover "all costs". Either way
is fine, but if it is 150.000€, we need to know and then we can
include it in our budget.
Are there any conditions on the use of this money which we should be
aware of?
> do note that besides paying expenses for accommodation and food for
> all the attendees that requested the same in this number there is also
> the cost of Venue (which is incredibly expensive); our own organized
> transport with buses/shuttles; DayTrip; T-Shirts/bags/printing; use of
> pools; transport and accommodation for reputable guests from Google
> and Canonical and as well as the accommodation of whole DIVA team.
> Members of NGO "DIVA" have done all their work for 2 years now on
> volunteer principles without any charges and all expenses we had so
> far to organize it all we covered using our own financial resources.
It would help us if we knew these costs. Right now we know of:
- Hotel costs (as above)
- Food, 7.5€ per meal
We thought the venue was free - can you please tell us costs
associated with the venue?
We don't know costs of buses/shuttles, the day trip, t-shirts, pools,
or any of these other costs. I have asked many times for what the
local costs would be, but never heard anything from the DebConf local
team. The sooner you can tell us about the costs, the sooner we can
make a good budget.
Normally, the DebConf team would know our budget, and expenses, and
balance it out. It is late, but we can try it now.
> Today we got a list of attendees that require accommodation/food, from
> very beginning we planned this whole conference using certain
> statistics and the number of attendees we got today is not congruent
> with the statistics/number we had, and we would like ask for your
> advice. Please help us to overcome this problem by either edit list or
> to help us with some of the financially expenses.
It is normal for the numbers of people to change a lot. Our
experienced team works with the hotels, venues, etc., to handle these
things, everything from budget to hotels to venue.
What numbers of attendees were you told, and when?
I am very sorry if the conference was dumped on you as a "here, please
arrange this". I hope that we can work together to combine our
experience with running DebConf, and your knowledge of local
facilities, to make DebConf11 a success.
Since the main problem seems to be the budget, I think it would be
best for us to hear what all the expected costs are, and then we can
tell you what we can afford or not afford based on our expected
budget.
Does this sound like a good plan?
Thank you very much for your time and support of DebConf11,
- Richard Darst
--
| Richard Darst - rkd@ - boltzmann: up 715 days, 14:49
| http://rkd.zgib.net - pgp 0xBD356740
| "Ye shall know the truth and -- the truth shall make you free"
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