[EuroPython] Decision points and call to meeting

[tom]

> Hi everyone,
>
> It is time to gather and make some important decisions about Europython
2005.
>
> I would therefore like to call to a meeting this Tursday, 20 January 2005
at
> 1700 CET. The place is as usual the #europython channel in the freenode
IRC
> network.

Not sure if I can make it, but everything seems to be well under control.

> If you have anything you want to add to the agenda, send an email to the
> europython list as soon as possible. If you can't make the meeting, but
there
> is something you really want to be in on, send an email to the list, and
we
> will save it for later.
>
> Since I have heard very little on the list after my message of 8 December,
I
> assume that a number of items will be a mere formality to decide. I have
> listed those first on the agenda. Items that require more discussions come
> later.

There is a subject which I would like to stress out. The first day (I
believe), I noticed that some talks were cancelled. That's not funny when
you want to attend these talks. I would like that possible speakers think
very carefully when bringing in a paper. They've to be sure they find the
time to prepare the talk before the conference starts. It is not funny to
hear that a certain talk isn't given because the speaker had no time to
prepare it. (ofcourse there are certain circumstances that you can't forsee)

It might also be a good idea to assign to each talk a level of requirments.
So that the possible listeners know that a certain talk needs some type of
experience in a certain subject. Of course everybody is free to follow every
talk, but it is nice to now beforehand if a talk would be usefull.

Something should be done on the projectors as well. There was some trouble
the first day. Perhaps lock them with some keylocks so that the projects can
stay unattended in the rooms during lunchbreak?

> 0. Introductions, meeting procedure
>
> 1. Dates
> Monday 27 June - Wednesday 29 June 2005

> 2. Arrangements
> Lunches, pub and banquet similar to last year. Laura talks to new caterer
for
> banquet.

It was great. Why the need for another caterer?

> 3. Rooms
> VA (150), VB(150), VR (180) and VG (70) to be reserved. (see last years
site
> map)
> The big auditorium will probably not be available before 1800. I suggest
> extending the lunch break to 1.5 hours, to make better use of the time.

Some rooms were very crowed last year (that happens when their is success
:-) ). For instance the room in which the Zope talks were given the first
day. I'm not sure how this can be solved. I'm not sure if a prequestionaire
will help here (eg who will likely go to a certain talk). Do others have an
idea on this?
yes, this is a good idea. I still remember that it took the first day a lot
of time before everybody had his/her lunch.So it is a good idea to extend
it.

Is it correct that both keynotes will now be handled in the auditorium? That
would be great.

> 4. Keynote speakers
> We invite Guido again.
> We invite Adele Goldberg.

nice.

> 5. Key points in time
> This is my proposed timetable. Does anyone want to change anything, or add
> more time specifics?
>
> - 31 January - Call for talks and call for papers opens
>
> - 28 February - last day to submit proposals for refereed papers
>
> - 15 March - Registration opens
>
> - 30 April - last day to submit talk propsals
>
> - 15 May - last day of Early-bird registration
>
> - 17 June - last day of pre-registration

seems okay to me.

> 6. Sponsors
> I suggest we keep the same sponsorship costs as last year.
>
> 7. Track chairs
> My current list of track chairs looks as follows. Please tell me if your
name
> is not on the list, but should be there, or if it is on the list and
> shouldn't.
>
> As you can see, we still have vacancies in Applications and Zope lightning
> talks.
>
> Tutorials/Neopythes
> Harald Armin Massa
> Harald Armin Massa <ghum at gmx.net>
>
> Python Language
> Michael Hudson
> Michael Hudson <mwh at python.net>
>
> Python Frameworks
> Jeremiah Foster
> Jeremiah Foster <jeremiah.foster at gmail.com>
>
> Zope/Plone
> Paul Everitt
> Paul Everitt <paul at zope-europe.org>
>
> Business
> John Pinner
> John Pinner <john at clocksoft.com>
>
> Applications
> Vacant
>
> Refereed papers
> Armin Rigo
> Armin Rigo <arigo at tunes.org>
>
> Science
> Nicolas Chauvat
> Nicolas Chauvat <Nicolas.Chauvat at logilab.fr>
>
> Social skills/General topics
> Beatrice Fontaine
> Beatrice Fontaine <bea at webwitches.com>
>
> Education
> Aroldo Souza-Leite
> "Aroldo Souza-Leite" <asouzaleite at gmx.de>
>
> Lightning talks
> Anna Ravenscroft
> Anna Ravenscroft <rev_anna_r at yahoo.com>
>
> Zope Lightning talks
> Vacant
>
> 8. Breakfast
> We can get breakfast at the student union for SEK 50/person and day (~5.50
> Euro). This would include coffee, tea, juice, yoghurt, cheese sandwich and
> ham sandwich. Do we want this? If we have to increase our prices remains
an
> open question. We may save enough on cheaper locations.

Mmm, is this to pay on site? Or will this increase the general conference
price? People who booked a hotel mostly have breakfast at the hotel
(included in the hotel fee)
For people who don't stay at a hotel, this would be a great idea. But I
don't think this has to be on the payrole for everybody.

> 9. Price structure
> I suggest we keep the same general structure as last year. I would like to
add
> the following though:
> - Speakers who pay after the earlybird cutoff pay an extra 10 Euro.
> - Speakers who pay at the conference pay an extra 50 Euro.
>
> Motivation: People paying late add uncertainty and there is no real need
for
> speakers to pay late. People paying at the conference is a real bother and
> have to pay a steep premium for being that late. There were several
speakers
> paying at the conference last year and they were a hassle.

+1

> 10. Refunds
> We did not have a refund policy last year, which was something that bit
me.I
> had controversies with a couple of people. I would like to suggest that we
> have a policy of refunding everything except an administrative fee of 20
Euro
> for cancellations more than 30 days before the conference and make no
> refundds for cancellations later than that. We will allow switches of
person
> attending until the time of arrival at the conference. This is slightly
more
> generous than most other conferences.

Yes, it is a good idea to have a general rule on this. This would help
everybody and adds an extra security.

> 11. Cheques
> Cheques are a big bother. We can either say that we don't accept cheques
or we
> can attach a 100 Euro administrative fee to them. Our bank charges about
50
> Euro for cacheing a foreign cheque, and it normally takes an hour of
queueing
> to get to do it at all.

I wouldn't allow cheques. How many people payed for a check?
50 Euros for cacheing a foreign cheque... pfew...

> 12. Website
> The website structure should be ready to be filled with contents. We
should
> arrange a short sprint when we get together a number of people and get it
> done. Suggestions for a suitable time appreciated.

congrats.

> 13. Registration system
> The registration system is ready for demonstration. I intend to hand out
demo
> accounts and give everyone a quick walkthrough before the end of the
meeting.
> You can then do your best to trash the demo system for a few days before
we
> set up the real thing and go live. The registration system still needs to
> plug into the web payment system, but we have some time before that has to
be
> finished.

again congrats!

> 14. Budget
> I still need to make a revised budget. There are some small adjustments
that
> should be made, but I'm actually quite proud of the budget I made last
year.
> We were not badly on the wrong side anywhere and the reason we have money
in
> the bank is mainly because our keynote speakers were a lot cheaper than
> budgeted, and that we actually had many more people paying at the door
than
> we expected. Since we can't rely on either of those factors, we should not
> try to make a tighter budget this year.
>
> 15. Report on email sent to all of last years attendees
> I wrote a better script for the mass emails. About 20 emails bounced. I
will
> groom the list. Two volunteers for the Education track showed up. Two
people
> sent messages saying that they wanted to be speakers and were looking
forward
> to registration opening.
>
> Cheers

Regards,
tom.