Re: NANOG costs

[Susan Harris <srh () merit edu>]

> We used to pay $150 or so to attend NANOG conferences.
>  Why are we charged $300 now?  Where is our $150,000+
> going?
>
> Inflation?  

That's certainly part of it.

> Are we paying for the salaries and RIPE attendance of
> MERIT employees, and to what tune?

The fees cover salaries or parts of salaries for Merit people supporting
the meetings and list.  Plus we help defray expenses for non-Merit
volunteers and the occasional speaker.

> Conference space is free or greatly subsidized in
> return for room blocks.  Connectivity, terminal rooms
> (who uses those anyway?), operational support, and
> hardware are all no-cost items to MERIT.

It's true that the hotel gives us some free stuff in exchange for booking
a certain number of rooms, but our costs aren't zero - Merit covers food,
A/V, and other expenses.

> Continental breakfast costs $8k to sponsor.  Morning
> or afternoon break costs $6k.  Lunch or dinner, $18k. 
>  Beer and Gear is $6k per vendor, and has been booked
> solid for the last ten NANOG conferences.  That's a
> lot of money right there.

Depends on how many sponsors we get, and we still have breakfast and break
openings for Toronto :)

> So what are we actually paying for, the t-shirts?  Are

Yes.

> we subsidizing other MERIT money losers?
>
> With IT and engineering budgets shrinking, and
> unemployment on the rise, should MERIT be obligated to
>   share with us a more detailed financial accounting,
> or is this none of our business?
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
> http://taxes.yahoo.com/