Let's start again #2

[lovingboth]

Hello lovely people. Here are some questions which I think are reasonable regarding BiCon 2001. I'd like to hear people's answers to them.

#1 Do you think that paying £2,200 to rent the accommodation for Monday night was the correct decision?

#2 (If you are a 2001 team member...) What alternatives were considered?

#3 Do you think that concealing this from everyone at the time was the correct decision?

#4 I have suggested that those of us - I'm one of them - who paid to stay elsewhere on the Monday night deserve at least an apology. Do you agree?

#5 Do you think that paying the full cost of the flight and other expenses for someone from Australia was a reasonable decision?

#6 (If you are a 2001 team member...) What financial planning was done that persuaded the team that it was affordable?

#7 What should 2002 and subsequent years do to avoid a similar situation in future?

Comments

[softfruit.livejournal.com]

#1 Do you think that paying £2,200 to rent the accommodation for Monday night was the correct decision?
Not given the way it was then handled. In principle, as a "BiCon is over but you may choose to stick around" arrangement, it's a fair idea. One year BiCon might like to have some flats which are "extra time" flats that people may choose to stay in. It seems remarkable that the whole accomodation block had to be taken for the extra day rather than just one or two flats though...

#2 (If you are a 2001 team member...) What alternatives were considered?
n/a

#3 Do you think that concealing this from everyone at the time was the correct decision?
No - I think we made the serious money decisions with Manchester pretty plain (which were going International, and paying for ents and the odd profile speaker, from memory.)

#4 I have suggested that those of us - I'm one of them - who paid to stay elsewhere on the Monday night deserve at least an apology. Do you agree?
Yep, and it may have happened somewhere in the melee on uk-bi lately! We had Manchester rooms available for longer than advertised and anyone who asked about extended stays or suchlike was informed that they ould stay, while as people were already onsite for five days we really didn't want everyone to still be around while the clearup operation began!

#5 Do you think that paying the full cost of the flight and other expenses for someone from Australia was a reasonable decision?
Not by a long chalk. It could have been justified for an international bicon; as it is, the money was UK bicon money for UK bicon startup funding. I can imagine a logic that ran "this is surplus from IBC6, therefore some of it should go to international work" - however that breaks completely with the IBC model which involves no passing forward of funds.

#6 (If you are a 2001 team member...) What financial planning was done that persuaded the team that it was affordable?
n/a

#7 What should 2002 and subsequent years do to avoid a similar situation in future?
Someday we may have a BBF type body which can hold the start-up funds. Myself I think we missed a great opportunity with the BBF when it could have worked, and the UK community is now too weak to support suchj a body. But that's a whole other thread!

Otherwise, as I have said in other places, a permanent BiCon treasurer or something like that is all I can imagine. Which would also be good for publishing of accounts etc, as someone whose entire role took place outside of conference time may be slightly less exhausted than I was after Manchester and feel slightly less loathing for the community than I felt!

Perhaps we should split the surplus between two teams, 200n & 200n+1, and so only half of the community's kitty could be blown by any one team. When the surplus was 10K it would have done that job pretty well. sigh