<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font color="#0000ff">Dear Jeff:</font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font color="#0000ff">Thanks so much for your thoughts, observations, advice and questions. We greatly appreciate your input. Below and in-line (and in blue text) you will find some answers to the questions you've interspersed as well as "our take" on some of your ideas. Here goes:</font></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Nov 2, 2015 at 2:27 PM, Jeff McKenna <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jmckenna@gatewaygeomatics.com" target="_blank">jmckenna@gatewaygeomatics.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">Dear Michael and BLOC team,<br>
<br>
Thank you for your proposal for Boston, Mass. Here are<br>
some comments from me, that I hope will help you in this final stage and beyond:<br>
<br>
- thank you for including a Vision Statement for the local team. It is nice to read that the OSGeo foundation plays such an important part in that vision.<br>
<br>
- I think your inclusion of a promotional video really helps get a sense of the community. As you know, the FOSS4G 2016 team really hit a home run with their own promotional video (<a href="http://2016.foss4g.org/index.php/promotion-video.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://2016.foss4g.org/index.php/promotion-video.html</a>)<br>
<br>
- thanks for describing the full BLOC team, it seems like a wide representation of the local community<br>
<br>
- I like that you are already thinking of leaders for subcommittees. One that is often forgotten, yet is very important, is a subcommittee for managing Volunteers. Roles such as room monitors, workshop monitors are a great way to give local students a chance to network and experience the event, but someone needs to manage this. Please consider this important role in your plans.<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div><font color="#0000ff"><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;display:inline"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;display:inline">BLOC: </div>Great point. We will definitely add that to the list.</div> </font></div><span class=""></span><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
- You have strong letters of support, including several from the community sector.<br>
<br>
- I think your choice of going with a local PCO is very smart, as this will give you a boots-on-the-ground edge that is needed for so many months in advance of the event.<br>
<br>
- You get strong bonus points from me for the section on working in partnership with OSGeo. This proposal gives me a sense that you value the importance of the foundation. I like your idea of an executive committee, as well as OSGeo being a "presenting sponsor".<br>
<br>
- Regarding the workshop locations, will you be providing transportation to these offsite venues? (such as transit passes)<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font color="#0000ff"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;display:inline">BLOC: </div>We have not gotten to this level of detail, but the workshop locations are all an easy public transportation ride from one another and the conference hotel. There wouldn't be any other transportation offered, but transit passes would be a feasible and affordable option. Subway fares are between $2.10 - $2.65 each way<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;display:inline">; and a daily pass is available for $12.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;display:inline"></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;display:inline"></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;display:inline"></div></font></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
- I like that you target some workshops for high school and undergraduate students<br>
<br>
- Your proposal mentions a welcome event on the Wednesday, but also mentions the same event for the Tuesday. In my opinion, having such a gathering place on the Tuesday night is as important as the official welcome party on Wednesday. Maybe you could simply "recommend" Tuesday arrivals meet at the Harpoon Brewery, and then have the official welcome party there on Wednesday. Often many LOCs mistakenly do not recommend a meeting place for the early (and workshop) arrivals on that Tuesday.<br>
<br></blockquote><div><div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;display:inline"><font color="#0000ff"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;display:inline">BLOC: </div>Since we are at the planning stage, the details can certainly</font></div><font color="#0000ff"> <div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;display:inline">evolve. Here's what we were thinking even if we inadvertently used overlapping language. In short, it's two distinct events:</div></font></div><div><ul><li><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><div style="display:inline"><font color="#0000ff"><b>Welcome party/gathering</b> on <i>Tuesday</i> night at the Harpoon Brewery for workshop attendees and early arrivers</font></div></span></li><li><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font color="#0000ff"><div style="display:inline"></div><div style="display:inline">"<b>Welcome social</b>" (or perhaps better named "<b>First night social</b>") immediately following the first day's program, <div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;display:inline">on <i>Wednesday</i>, </div>and on-site at the World Trade Center.</div></font></span> </li></ul></div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
- Thank you for listing the possible themes for the presentations, for technical and academic and social<br>
<br>
- I like your idea of early-bird registrants getting a free gala pass<br>
<br>
- regarding budget, have you also planned for some possible travel grants, to allow some underfunded participants to attend? I believe FOSS4G Seoul had 10 recipients of these.<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div><div style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;display:inline"><font color="#0000ff"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;display:inline">BLOC: </div>We have budgeted complimentary passes for this purpose, but we do not yet have a cash set-aside for this <div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;display:inline">kind of program</div>. We believe it is a good and worthy idea and will try to work it into the budget.</font></div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
- thank you for specifying the possible sponsor packages and benefits.<br>
<br>
- regarding conflicting events and timing, I think this discussion has already been handled on the mailing list. However I would have liked the proposal to list the conflicting September events, for the reason to move to August. (like I said, you can ignore this comment from me, as you have likely already answered that publicly)<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font color="#0000ff">BLOC: Thanks for recognizing our earlier comments on the list, but I can offer a little further elaboration on September specifically (and if you look at Attachment 2, last page of the proposal you'll see the conflicts that occur in October). The conflicts with September were less about other geo events/conferences and more about conflicts with the academic school year (as several BLOC members and prospective attendees are in academia) and religious holidays.</font></div><div><ul style="font-size:12.8px"><li><font color="#0000ff"><span style="font-size:12.8px">School start-up:</span><span style="font-size:12.8px;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span><span style="font-size:12.8px"> </span><span class="" tabindex="0" style="font-size:12.8px"><span class="">August 28 – September 8, 2017</span></span><br></font></li><li><font color="#0000ff"><span style="font-size:12.8px">Islamic New Year:</span><span style="font-size:12.8px;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span><span style="font-size:12.8px"> </span><span class="" tabindex="0" style="font-size:12.8px"><span class="">September 21, 2017</span></span><br></font></li><li><font color="#0000ff"><span style="font-size:12.8px">Rosh Hashanah:</span><span style="font-size:12.8px;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span><span class="" tabindex="0" style="font-size:12.8px"><span class="">September 21–22, 2017</span></span><br></font></li><li><font color="#0000ff"><span style="font-size:12.8px">Eurogeography:</span><span style="font-size:12.8px;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span><span class="" tabindex="0" style="font-size:12.8px"><span class="">September 29–30, 2016</span></span><br></font></li><li><font color="#0000ff"><span style="font-size:12.8px">Yom Kippur:</span><span style="font-size:12.8px;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span><span style="font-size:12.8px;white-space:pre-wrap"></span><span class="" tabindex="0" style="font-size:12.8px"><span class="">September 30, 2017</span></span><br></font></li><li><font color="#0000ff"><span style="font-size:12.8px">Ashura:</span><span style="font-size:12.8px;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span><span style="font-size:12.8px;white-space:pre-wrap"></span><span style="font-size:12.8px;white-space:pre-wrap"></span><span class="" tabindex="0" style="font-size:12.8px"><span class="">September 30, 2017</span></span><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small"></span></font></li></ul><div><font color="#0000ff" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font color="#0000ff" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:12.8px;font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font color="#0000ff">Thank you once again for the time you put into carefully reviewing our proposal and providing these good questions and helpful suggestions.</font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:12.8px;font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font color="#0000ff"><br></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:12.8px;font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font color="#0000ff">MT & the BLOC</font></div></div></div><div><font color="#0000ff" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font color="#0000ff" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font color="#0000ff" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><br></font></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
Thanks again for your proposal.<br>
<br>
-jeff<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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