Dear colleagues, About a month ago, I posted a plan for changes to the registration payments and deadlines for IETF meetings. You can find the beginning of the thread at https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/ietf/JlD0W0TwDdWcmeWqCJ4L-tQRbcE. I reviewed all the comments and drew some conclusions, which the IAOC has seen: 1. The plan is basically sound. The deadlines are about right and the amounts are ok. 2. We must make crystal clear that we will permit registration to happen in multiple parts, and allow people to return later to pay (whatever the fee is on that day). We must make clear that we are changing the meaning of "registered" to be "paid registration" and getting rid of the idea of unpaid registration. 3. We must make clear how we'll handle visa letters. 4. When announcing a meeting, we should announce how we plan to communicate the plans about any social event. 5. We should request WG chairs to announce to their WGs as early as possible their intention (or not) to hold a WG meeting at an IETF meeting. Ideally, this will happen before the early bird cut off so that people have a better chance of getting travel approvals. Given this feedback, I believe our plan is fundamentally sound and that we will be going ahead with it. There are some details to work out, but the dates will be as previously announced. (This is important to announce now, so that the "Important Dates" for this November's meeting can be published.) We on the IAOC appreciate the comments we received and the confirmation from the community that what we plan to do is a reasonable way forward. We heard and understood the concerns people had about details of implementation, and will attend to those comments. There were two issues that came up more than once, sometimes in off-list comments, that I wish to note. The first was a question about why we can't just lower the cost of the meeting, by reducing "frills" such as cookies and coffee and so on. Unfortunately, that's not really how the hotel and conventions business works: the venues have a dollar amount they want to get, and if they don't get it from food and beverage they'll increase meeting room fees or the like. Because we are a large group with quite specific needs, we are not that flexible in our destinations, and the lack of a competitive environment therefore reduces our ability to negotiate even more. The second was a question about the registration terms and conditions. I didn't answer that before now because I didn't know the answer. It turns out all of the terms and conditions are part of the registration process itself, and are presented during registration. Thank you for the feedback. As we implement this plan we will continue to keep the community informed. Best regards, Andrew for the IAOC -- Andrew Sullivan ajs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
