John,
I am not arguing that the business models are the same or that the IETF can
make “everything free” in the long run. I am arguing (as have others), that the
fee change happened rather quickly with not much community discussion or consensus.
This would be an excellent time IMO to ask ISOC for additional support while we
figure out the longer term strategy.
With respect to the actual meeting income for f2f meetings, my understanding is that
these come from both (usually) a major sponsor (called “The Host”) and of course the
registration fees. This goes into paying for everything on site, ++ RPC etc.
The expenses are clearly going to be different for online-only meeting.
