Call for bids?

[Robyn Bergeron]

On Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 6:44 AM, Paul Frields <stickster at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 7:26 PM, David Nalley <david at gnsa.us> wrote:
>> On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 7:00 PM, Paul W. Frields <stickster at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> In about a month, Red Hat will be operating in its FY 2011.  So I
>>> think it would behoove us to open up the bid process for the FUDCon
>>> for North America immediately.  Are there any blockers to doing that
>>> right now?
>>
>> The blockers would be $budget_giving_entity announcing a general
>> amount budgeted. Of course we have a known general amount that we can
>> use in the absence of the above.
>
> Yes, we should be able to assume a round number of $20K as in previous
> events for argument's sake, so this is a "soft" blocker.
>
> I realized that the bid process document doesn't make it clear that we
> should already have dates for the event. It won't be easy for bidders
> to get travel and lodging costs figured out unless they know when
> travel is taking place.
>
> So first, I recommend that we add some documentation directly to the
> FUDCon organization page that describes how and when event timing is
> decided:
>
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon_organization_process
>
> Now, having said that... We know the NA FUDCon will take place in Q4,
> December - February.  The key factors are:
>
> * Holidays. The last half of December and the beginning of January are
> out because most most North America will be celebrating the season.
> Also note that holiday vacations may make planning more of a challenge
> leading up to a January event.
>
> * School sessions. The beginning of December tends to be harder to
> schedule free space at most universities and colleges because classes
> or final exams are in session. We were fortunate that Seneca @York had
> space available in Toronto during the first weekend in December, but
> that may not be the case in most places.
>
> * Attendance. Similarly, students have a harder time attending an
> early December FUDCon because of classes and exams. For example, Ricky
> Zhou couldn't attend this year for this exact reason. While we don't
> want a schedule to hang on just a very small group of people, student
> attendance at any event can be a big gain for the event, exposing
> potential new contributors to the Fedora community.
>
> * Development cycle. If we wait until too late in the Fedora release
> cycle to have a FUDCon, there may not be sufficient time before the
> release to work on the initiatives set up at the event. However, if
> the FUDCon concentrates on initiatives *following* the next release
> this may be less of a problem. In other words, this NA FUDCon is held
> before the release of Fedora 14, and perhaps could concentrate on what
> will happen *after* that release.
>
> Balancing these conflicting pressures is always difficult. In Toronto
> we opted for an early December event, but it was not without
> tradeoffs. This coming year, December 3-6, January 7-10, or January
> 14-17 look like they will best meet our needs.

December 3 - 6 is right in the middle of Hanukkah (2nd - 10th this
year).  We should probably avoid those dates. :)

WIth the January dates, I'd imagine most college students will have
their first days back either on the 10th or 18th (17th is MLK day in
the US).  I'm not sure how this would impact things, but it is
something to consider.  Also, I don't know if venues / hotels take
advantage of the three-day-weekend-for-some-people opportunity over
MLK Day and raise pricing for events / lodging / etc (or alternately,
lower the pricing) but it might be worth looking into.

-Robyn

>
> Thoughts from the group?  How should we decide what dates to use?
>
> Paul
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