20:42:08 <mchua> #startmeeting
20:42:08 <zodbot> Meeting started Fri Jan  8 20:42:08 2010 UTC.  The chair is mchua. Information about MeetBot at http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot.
20:42:08 <zodbot> Useful Commands: #action #agreed #halp #info #idea #link #topic.
20:42:23 <wonderer> ok... show me... / us...
20:42:26 <mchua> Taking notes about how FAD travel works, for the benefit of future generations to come. ;)
20:42:35 <mchua> Since this is Fedora, we try to do everything we can transparently.
20:42:50 <rbergeron> PhrkOnLsh: we may have to leave mid-morning to get to raleigh before 11pm / really late hours, if you want to run that by your parents as well.
20:42:54 <mchua> We're going to do what we did for FUDCon travel funding, so in a nutshell, that means...
20:43:09 <mchua> 1) wonderer proposes what he needs funding for and why
20:43:09 <Southern_Gentlem> mchua,  flights info on wiki afterwards so we can coordinate airport runs
20:43:11 <PhrkOnLsh> rbergeron: Yeah, that shouldn't be an issue.
20:43:16 <mchua> 2) we have a bit of dicsussion
20:43:28 <mchua> 3) and if we say yea, then wonderer and I go off and book his ticket on kayak or something.
20:43:43 <mchua> Reimbursement-wise, I'll be putting everyone's tickets and hotel rooms on my RH credit card so we don't even have to worry about reimbursement.
20:43:56 <wonderer> just for the record: does this have to be a formal request or a mail or a wikientry?
20:44:07 <mchua> Travel-logistics wise, I expect everyone to make sure they have the proper visas, passports, coordinate their own airport transit, and such.
20:44:31 <mchua> We'll have cars going between the hotel and the RH office during the FAD, and going to get food and such in the evenings.
20:44:46 <mchua> (This means that one or two of us may be asked to take care of a rental car - again, this will come from the FAD budget.)
20:45:01 <mchua> And airport transit can be "someone with a rental car, please pick me up?" but you need to arrange it.
20:45:04 <mchua> Make sense?
20:45:27 <wonderer> yes.
20:45:31 <mchua> wonderer: We put travel proposals on a wiki page for FUDCon, but this is a much smaller event, so I think a few sentences of description in this channel (since we're logging it) should be fine.
20:45:52 <wonderer> so, should i ...?
20:46:04 <mchua> wonderer: Yep, you have the floor - what kind of funding do you need, and what for?
20:46:19 <mchua> wonderer: and what will you do at the FAD in person if you come that you wouldn't be able to do remotely?
20:46:58 <mchua> wonderer: (for instance, we sort of need you here in person if you're going to run our "PR day")
20:49:46 <wonderer> I, Henrik Heigl from germany need some funding to travel to the Fedora Marketing FAD 2010, because I want to participate, improve, hold a small workshop about Presstext writing and build some marketing plan together with other from the marketing team. I also will do some presstext in a small team and work on other things coming up at the event. For the PR day I volunteered to take the lead, so it is important that I can participate in person.
20:49:53 <wonderer> is that Ok so?
20:50:24 <wonderer> O forget traval and accomondation.
20:50:47 <Southern_Gentlem> lodgeing?
20:51:09 <wonderer> Southern_Gentlem: right, better wording I think.
20:51:33 <mchua> wonderer: Do you know what date you'd arrive and when you'd want to leave, so we can get a rough estimate on hotel pricing and airfare?
20:52:11 <mchua> wonderer: also, if you can say (just a sentence or two, for the logs) what your background in Fedora is, and your background in marketing is, that would also be a big help.
20:52:48 <mchua> Basically, what these logs are for is when I file receipts later on, if someone goes "hey, why did you bring this person over?" I can just point to this log and they'll go "oh yeah, okay, that makes sense."
20:53:46 <wonderer> The flight goes around 12h straight. So my idea was to arrive at the 12th (maybe "takeoff at the 11th) and have half a day to aclimate. Back I would take a flight on the 17th.
20:54:43 <mchua> Ok, so that's 5 nights hotel, which is about $300 (probably less, depending on which hotel we go for, and you can share the room with someone else who's coming)
20:54:47 * rbergeron notes that wonderer is coming from another country so having extra time to make the time zone switch is a Good Thing
20:54:55 <mchua> +1 to that.
20:55:13 <mchua> We'll all be tired out by the end of the FAD, no sense in /starting/ exhausted :)
20:55:40 <wonderer> My background within the fedoraproject is that I'm an Ambassador for a year or so, had in my past much event experience and do some press and marketing stuff also for other FOSS projects. For Fedora I did the press stuff for the LinuxTag 2009 with the FUDCON there.
20:56:07 <mchua> wonderer: what airport would you fly out from? I'm looking up plane ticket prices.
20:56:42 <mchua> wonderer: Oh! Never mind, I just saw your email.
20:57:00 <mchua> US Airways has a trip for 639,35 EUR
20:57:02 <wonderer> my nearest airport is Saarbruecken [SCN] and with two stopps I could get to Raleigh/Durham [RDU].
20:57:30 * rbergeron is not envying wonderers flight time :)
20:57:40 <mchua> wonderer: is that the flight you'd prefer? or do you want to go earlier, to give yourself some time to adjust to the other side of the world?
20:57:55 <wonderer> yes. I take a look at www.flug.de ... maybe that differs to other attendees... (just mentioning for reference).
20:58:31 * mchua usually uses kayak.com
20:59:03 <mchua> 639,35 EUR = ~$915 USD, for reference.
20:59:19 <rbergeron> my oh my, that exchange rate has improved
20:59:20 * wonderer checking flights.
20:59:36 <mchua> wonderer, how flexible are your travel dates?
20:59:51 <mchua> It may be cheaper to fly you in one day earlier and get an extra hotel night; I'm checking on that right now.
21:00:06 <wonderer> right now I'm flexible +- one day.
21:00:45 <wonderer> would prefer to start at 11th and maybe there are other rates for one whole week or so...
21:01:08 <mchua> Nope, it looks like we're at slightly over $900 for the flight no matter what we do.
21:01:17 <mchua> That's ok, though - just checking to make sure we can't get a better deal. :)
21:01:30 <mchua> So, let's make sure we can do this:
21:01:31 <Southern_Gentlem> ouch
21:01:39 <mchua> We have $3k for the whole FAD.
21:01:58 <mchua> We need hotel rooms for me, rbergeron, wonderer, Southern_Gentlem, stickster, and PhrkOnLsh if he can come; everyone else is local enough to stay at home.
21:02:12 <mchua> That's 3 hotel rooms.
21:02:28 <Southern_Gentlem> @$70 per night
21:02:37 <PhrkOnLsh> 6*300-350$
21:02:41 <PhrkOnLsh> thats a lot
21:02:47 <mchua> 5 nights each (Friday night through Tuesday night)
21:02:48 <wonderer> I'm small. can take a couch ;-)
21:03:01 * PhrkOnLsh is couchable if necessary as well
21:03:04 <mchua> and an extra night for wonderer since he's coming in early due to timezone changes.
21:03:40 <Southern_Gentlem> mchua,  depends when he flys out on the 11th
21:03:44 <mchua> Oh, maybe another room, especially if poelcat comes
21:04:02 <PhrkOnLsh> eek
21:04:07 <mchua> poelcat: ping, were you wanting to come out for the Marketing FAD?
21:04:17 <mchua> Well, let's start with the minimum we know we're going to need.
21:04:19 * rbergeron claps for that idea
21:04:32 <Southern_Gentlem> i am leaveing the 16th
21:04:32 <mchua> How is everyone in terms of hotel room standards? ;)
21:04:49 * rbergeron requires running water
21:04:55 <Southern_Gentlem> if it is clean and no smokeing i am happy
21:04:59 <rbergeron> internet is nice and i'm willing to pay for it myself if necessary
21:05:12 * rbergeron likes to keep in touch with the fam and whatnot
21:05:18 <mchua> Ok. I usually stay at the Days Inn near the office, which is $40 a night for a double.
21:05:27 <PhrkOnLsh> +1 on internet, even for cost
21:05:28 <Southern_Gentlem> cool
21:05:32 <wonderer> a toilet and something to wash and a poweroutlet for the computer and Photostuff. If Internet, Ok bt not necessary.
21:05:36 <PhrkOnLsh> mchua: days inn is usually decent
21:05:41 <mchua> Internet is a requirement for me. :)
21:05:43 <rbergeron> including taxes and stuff $40?
21:05:56 <mchua> Checking...
21:06:24 * wonderer needs US power thingy <-- just for the record.
21:06:26 <mchua> "Prices do not include: taxes, service fees, and extra guest charges."
21:06:40 <mchua> wonderer: I'm pretty sure we could find you one.
21:06:50 <mchua> So, let's say hotel is $50/night for a double.
21:06:55 <rbergeron> wonderer: i have one... somewhere
21:06:56 <mchua> We know we need at least 3 rooms for 5 nights.
21:06:58 <wonderer> oh, that would save some space in the luggage.
21:07:15 <rbergeron> maybe your luggage ;D
21:07:22 <mchua> That's $750 for housing.
21:07:32 <wonderer> ;)
21:07:40 <mchua> That leaves us $2250 for everything else - mostly plane flights, but also if we want to use that $ for things like... food
21:07:59 <PhrkOnLsh> mchua: the estimates I made were somewhere in the 2160$ vicinity, iirc
21:08:01 <mchua> (unless folks want to chip in for food - I'd like to be able to buy everyone dinner on at least one of the nights, Raleigh BBQ is magnificent.)
21:08:12 * rbergeron can chip in
21:08:14 <mchua> PhrkOnLsh: Yep
21:08:17 <wonderer> I thought we have baggels from RH :-) ...
21:08:22 <mchua> PhrkOnLsh: thank you so much for that, btw - it helps tremendously.
21:08:27 * rbergeron also pipes up with the car / van / whatever issue
21:08:29 * mchua opens PhrkOnLsh 's spreadsheet
21:08:31 <PhrkOnLsh> mchua: it wasn't a problem
21:08:54 <mchua> Southern_Gentlem, how would you feel about being a driver during the days of the FAD?
21:09:13 <mchua> Southern_Gentlem: if you and stickster can both do that, we may be able to get away with not renting cars.
21:09:18 <Southern_Gentlem> mchua,  i had planned on it
21:09:24 <mchua> Which should save us a plane ticket's worth of $.
21:09:33 <mchua> Southern_Gentlem: Thanks! We'll reimburse you for gas.
21:09:42 <rbergeron> mchua: does days inn have a rht rate?
21:10:04 <mchua> rbergeron: not that one, afaik - that's about as cheap as it gets.
21:10:14 <wonderer> is "days inn" the hotel ... ?
21:10:29 <mchua> wonderer: yep.
21:10:30 <Southern_Gentlem> hotel/motel chain here in the states yes
21:10:50 <rbergeron> mchua: Days Inn Morrisville-Raleigh-Airport-Research Triangle Park ?
21:11:03 <mchua> Ok. If we set aside $50 for Southern_Gentlem's gas, and $50 for stickster's gas, we're up to $850, leaving $2150 for planefare.
21:11:19 <mchua> rbergeron: Days Inn Cary
21:11:26 <rbergeron> ahh
21:12:08 <mchua> My plane ticket comes from not-the-FAD-budget, so we need to get wonderer, rbergeron, and PhrkOnLsh plane tickets for <$2k.
21:12:12 <mchua> this seems extremely doable.
21:12:29 <mchua> So I am inclined to say APPROVED! and book wonderer's ticket now.
21:12:30 <rbergeron> no rooms available at this property for the dates you selected?
21:12:41 * rbergeron is sure we can find a cheap room somewhere
21:12:55 * mchua agrees
21:13:07 <mchua> Any objections to approving and booking Henrik's flight now?
21:13:29 <mchua> It sounds like we definitely have the funds.
21:13:34 <mchua> And we certainly need him there in person.
21:14:49 <mchua> ...ok, sounds like there are no objections.
21:15:02 * rbergeron has no objections
21:15:06 <rbergeron> <----was turning on heater
21:15:20 <mchua> #info APPROVED wonderer (Henrik Heigl) for ~$950 plane ticket
21:15:34 <mchua> (We'll figure out hotel room all together, but wonderer, you will have housing taken care of.)
21:15:53 <Southern_Gentlem> for those lookong at hotel vs redhat vs airport http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=0,0,6955205232949841745&fb=1&hq=days+inn&hnear=cary+Nc&gl=us&daddr=1716+Walnut+Street,+Cary,+NC+27511&geocode=239653206843452621,35.762181,-78.748372&ei=rZ9HS_yXHc3l8QaX9PH0Ag&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=directions-to&resnum=1&ved=0CA4QngIwAA
21:16:06 <mchua> When we do funding for the rest of us, it should go much faster because we now have the "what do we need to spend?" background info logged here.
21:16:13 <mchua> And also, more people than me know how to have these conversations now. ;)
21:16:17 <mchua> Southern_Gentlem: thanks!
21:16:39 <mchua> All right, I'm going to close this log, send it to the list and put it on the wiki page where we're tracking FAD budget, and then ping wonderer in PM to get his plane ticket booked.
21:16:43 <mchua> #endmeeting