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Aharpo.496 net.usenix utzoo!decvax!harpo!ber Tue Apr 6 08:30:25 1982 Letter from John Donnelly, Re: Boston Meeting March 12, 1982

MEMO TO: USENIX Members

FROM: John L. Donnelly

SUBJECT: Boston Meeting

The following comments are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other member of the USENIX Board of Directors.

I believe the USENIX Board of Directors is committed to serving the technical community in the UNIX world. The joint meeting with /usr/group in Boston is an effort to accommodate the commer- cial members of USENIX, who represent a considerable number. These people do not want to be attending four separate UNIX meet- ings a year.

USENIX is not losing any time for technical presentations at Bos- ton. In fact, we may even be gaining time slots. We are able to hold concurrent sessions in Boston, a situation which is necessi- tated by the growing attendance at out meetings. Reviewing the Santa Monica agenda, I can identify at least seven hours of what I consider commercial presentations. Allowing for lunch and cof- fee breaks, that constitutes one full day, so the technical peo- ple only had two days at Santa Monica.

Boston is a four day meeting. Two days will belong to /usr/group and two days to USENIX. Software Tools will be help concurrently with one of the commercial days. USENIX will have the ability to hold concurrent sessions on the days /usr/group is meeting. This yields an increase in the amount of time available to USENIX for technical presentations.

This scenario is based on the premise that USENIX does not want total exclusion of commercial presentations at its meetings. The "hackers only" attitude is what caused /usr/group to exist in the first place. I feel that if USENIX ignores the commercial interests it is digging its own grave. A lot of USENIX members, my organization included, look to the commercial world for UNIX support and development.

The topics of "profits" from the meetings is very misleading. All of the budgets for the previous meetings have been designed to cover our meeting expenses, with a buffer of about $2,000.00 to cover unexpected costs. Any surpluses resulted from a larger attendance that anticipated. We are now attempting to move away from a volunteer concept in running the organization and produc- ing the newsletter. This is going to require a substantial amount of cash and our most likely source of generating income for operating expenses is the meetings.

/usr/group is in the same position. It depends on meeting reve- nue to cover most of its operating expenses. This does not por- tend a drastic rise in registration fees for attendees. A sub- stantial portion of the meeting expenses at previous meetings has been borne by the vendor exhibits. The demand for exhibit space at our meetings is tremendous. We have doubled the amount of space available for vendor exhibits in Boston and will increase the fees. Since two exhibits a year instead of four will signi- ficantly reduce vendor costs, increased vendor fees should not be met with much resistance.

Finally, the joint meeting with /usr/group in Boston was not unanimously endorsed by the Board of Directors. I acted in good faith when I approached /usr/group about a joint meeting in Bos- ton and committed USENIX to such a venture. A majority of the Board members voted to support the joint meeting proposal because of this, even though they had serious reservations. I sincerely feel the joint meeting is in the best interests of both organiza- tions and the fears expressed by USENIX members about the Boston meeting will not materialize.

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