[Sig-l] Scheduling of SIG workshops for 07

[Mikel (Micki) Breitenstein]

Dick -- Thanks for this very interesting message -- I don't think SIG-CR, one of the traditional workshop groups, ever had a role in pricing.... not to my knowledge. I agree that these need to be priced to support themeselves and be worth it to ASIST for all the many costs, and also wonder why they are being held by so many all of a sudden.  These are costly efforts. How did those very low prices get set?  Why are so many running a workshop? It's a lot of work! Did they get ASIST approval?

I think I can speak for SIG-CR that we consider the pre-con workshops to be a serious commitment by the SIG and by ASIST and to of course require a payment by participants -- determined by ASIST -- that suits ASIST and in the case of for-profit providers, to cover their costs.

Thanks, Micki Breitenstein   SIG-CR Board Member

>From: Richard Hill <rhill at asis.org>
>Date: 2006/10/25 Wed PM 02:29:06 CDT
>To: sig-l at asis.org, board at asis.org
>Subject: [Sig-l] Scheduling of SIG workshops for 07

>At the '05 Annual meeting there were two pre cons sponsored by SIGs (CR and
>USE).  This year (AM 06) there are seven:  
>
>* Shaping Things to Come - Daser Summit III and Tri Society Symposium ($85)
>* SIG CR 16th Annual Classification Research Workshop: Social
>Classification: Panacea or Pandora?  ($105)
>* Symposia: Interrogating the Social Realities of Information and
>Communications Systems (SIG SI) ($40)
>* Doing Ethnography: Examining ICT Use in Context (SIG SI) ($40)
>* Information Realities: Exploring Affective and Emotional Aspects in
>Information Seeking and Use: 
>SIG USE 6th Annual Research Symposium ($80)
>* Workshop on Blogs and Wikis:  How They Can Improve Conference
>Communications (SIGs BWP & DL) ($40)
>* SIG HCI Research Symposium: Human Computer Interaction in Information
>Intensive Environments ($45)
>
>Our desire is not to limit SIG sponsored workshops.  But this is becoming
>increasingly challenging, as these sessions complete with our normal
>pre-conference offerings: compete in terms of bodies, time, and space (all
>of our prices from the hotel are contingent on how much space we require).
>And the SIG sessions are frequently configured to compete on a price basis,
>with SIG "workshops" being priced and configured only to break even or to
>return any surplus to the SIG's projects.  The "normal" pre cons are priced
>to provide a return over costs to the society.  In FY '05, the return was
>$13,871.
>
>Hence, for AM 07, it is our intention to have pre cons that are priced to
>provide a return to ASIS&T scheduled on the Friday and Saturday preceding
>the meeting and to move the SIG Workshops to the Thursday and Friday
>following the meeting.
>
>_____
>Richard B. Hill
>Executive Director
>American Society for Information Science and Technology
>1320 Fenwick Lane, Suite 510
>Silver Spring, MD  20910
>Fax: (301) 495-0810
>Voice: (301) 495-0900 
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Sig-l mailing list
>Sig-l at asis.org
>http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sig-l