[OSGeo-Conf] Call for Votes: Host Venue for 2007 conference

[Jeff McKenna]

> 
> [ ] Portland, Oregon, United States
> [x] Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
> 

It was a close vote for me.  I ended up scoring the proposals by each 
requirement, out of 5 for each requirement.  My scores show how close it 
was for me (out of possible 45):

   Victoria: 41
   Portland: 37

I think the flaw in our voting is that the bidders don't get much 
feedback from us, except in various emails and IRC chats.  For future 
hosting votes, I would propose that we create and implement a scoring 
template for each committee member, with space for comments, that is 
later sent to all bidders.  (the weights would be included in the RFP as 
well).

Also, it seems now that I wasn't the only one with hesitations about 
having a public vote for this.  I think all future hosting votes should 
be private (the scoring templates would be filled out anonymously). We 
can discuss both of those ideas at a later time.

Back to my own decision: I was impressed with the Victoria bid 
submission (very professional, with a detailed budget for several 
different scenarios).  I'm a little hesitant to change the workshop 
structure, but am glad to see that they have budgeted for machine 
rentals and are open for further discussions regarding this.

I really like the enthusiasm of the Portland group.  That is what made 
this decision difficult for me.  I look back at OSGIS in 2004 and at our 
organizing committee, and wonder how our own proposal would have looked 
like.

In the end the Victoria bid gets my vote.

Thanks to both groups for all of their time on this.  I hope that both 
groups get their chance to host this conference someday.

jeff