[Board] wondering about short interest in proposals this year

[jo at frot.org]

dear conference list,

I had a quick skim through the list archive to find out how the
conference venue was selected for 2009. I was surprised to see 
only one proposal to host the main OSGeo conference in 2009.

To be honest that concerns me a bit, as there were four proposals for
the 2008 one. Is the bar raised too high by Victoria's amazing
performance? Are local user groups struggling to get it together?
Was there much followup/nudging of groups who've submitted proposals
in the past which have not made it over the bar?

I would appreciate it if anyone here could fill me in with their
insight on this. I'm not criticising the Sydney proposal, from what
little i saw it looks solid and there is some real dynamism behind it.
However the board is being asked to "Approve Sydney's selection" this
week, this seems like rubberstamping to me but is a big committment. 
I feel i need to know more about the organising and decision process
before offering a +1 and i can't find anything on the wiki. 

cheers,


jo