12 May 2016

Attendees

Budget link

Budget spreadsheet

Discussion

BPL Catering

Steven had a meeting with the events staff at BPL on 5/11/2016. Since Hydra is not actually a non-profit there is a question as to whether we can get the non-profit discount for the conference.

Options:

Duraspace steps in to be the entity signs the contract with the catering company

Originally the BPL said that they are not putting on the event from the catering company’s perspective. Steven is trying to push back on that because BPL is doing much of the administrative work.

3^rd option is that we will need to pay full price for catering.

Until that is resolved we will not have final costs for catering, which is key for establishing registration costs for the conference. The reception is estimated to cost $25,000.00

Hopefully the issue will be resolved by May 20, 2016 – next meeting with the catering company

Other notes on catering

Catering company would want to have a point person committed to catering issues for the duration of the conference – to be the main liaison between the program committee and the events staff. Could hire a temp person to do that for 4 days. Could anyone at Tufts, Northeastern, WGBH or DPLA, or BPL be available to be the liaison? Steven will send out an email to the group to see if anyone is available to serve in that role. It would be advantageous to have someone from the BPL, who is familiar with the space to be the liaison.

Checking badges at Meetings

Do we need support to have someone checking badges at the meetings? Is that something that the Hydra Helpers could do? We’ll need some volunteers to check badges. Perhaps combine the time keeper duties with badge checking duties. The Program committee has created a session spreadsheet. Once we have access people can volunteer to check badges. Each of the members on the call should put out a call for volunteers.

Sponsorship of the conference. With a ticket price of $200.00 we are about $2,500.00 in the red.

Mark at DPLA said that the DPLA is willing to contribute $1,000.00.
WGBH said that there is a possibility of providing a sponsorship donation
All institutions were asked to ask about providing sponsorship
Eban will ask DCE if they’d be willing to provide sponsorship

Other items

Steven is working to get the event site set up

Steven is getting quote for the tshirts

What info needs to be in the registration form? We will work with the program committee to iron out those details.

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