On Thu, 2010-04-08 at 16:15 +0200, Koen Martens wrote:
> Hi Dave,
>
> (i will shortly go into German's email as well)
>
> On Thu, Apr 08, 2010 at 01:40:17PM +0200, Dave Neary wrote:
> > Koen Martens wrote:
> > > The below terms & conditions will be put on the guadec registration
> > > site. These have been written by a Dutch lawyer. The registration
> > > site is due to go up today (if we can get the DNS change worked out
> > > that is).
> >
> >
> > Concerning the terms & conditions... I think this may be the first time
> > we will have had some. So bear in mind that my feedback comes with zero
> > experience.
>
> Ok, i'd be happy to go without t&c, if that is better for the Gnome foundation.
It is natural to have concerns if this is the first time having terms
and conditions.
> I do need to know what's the policy regarding cancellation though. What if
> the venue burns down, swine-flu strikes again or whatever and we have to
> cancel? Does the Gnome foundation have adequate funds to reimburse those
> that chose the EUR 100 or EUR 250 levels (instead of the EUR 0 level)? Or
> is there adequate insurance? If not, i'll have to look into insurance for
> this risk.
For people who paid €100 or €250, we would only be reimbursing what they
already paid plus the wire transfer cost. The same would happen for
the training.
However, I think you refer to the cancellation *during* the event, not
before. As far as I remember, the insurance would cover the part
related to the venue and it would interesting to know what else would
cover.
Anyway, I do not have any objection to this part of the terms and
conditions. Given this is the first time having terms and conditions,
may be a brief explanation of the purpose of this T&C may help to avoid
bigger concerns.
> > Again, this insistence on the ticket ("The purchaser is responsible for
> > any loss, theft or damage to the ticket.") doesn't feel appropriate for
> > a conference. It's much better to use the person's identity as their
> > "ticket".
>
> No, it is not, actually. The ticket contains a barcode, with which we
> can handle quite a large volume of people arriving in a short time by
> scanning the barcode to hand out the badge. Doing this manually is
> tedious, error-prone and takes a long time.
I think it is a good idea, but it was not obvious in the text. May be a
similar paragraph explaining the purpose would help to avoid
misunderstandings.
However, if somebody lost his or her ticket, it should not invalidate
his or her participation in the conference. It may delay his or her
registration once everybody were registered.
It comes to my mind the GUADEC at Kristiansand, where at least 20 people
(me included) received their luggage between three and four days after
they arrived. So, it is not strange to think that somebody may have his
or her ticket in his or her luggage.
> > For comparison, here is OSCON's registration page:
> > https://en.oreilly.com/oscon2010/public/register
> >
> > including human-readable cancellation policy:
> > > Cancellation and Substitution Policy
> > >
> > > If you must cancel for any reason you must notify us in writing by
> > > June 21, 2010, for a refund less a $100 processing fee. Cancellations
> > > received after June 21, 2010 are non-refundable. You may transfer
> > > your registration to another person by July 6, 2010 by providing
> > > authorization to us at confreg oreilly com Confirmed and paid
> > > attendees who do not attend or who cancel after the deadline are
> > > liable for the entire fee. In the unlikely event of cancellation of
> > > the conference, the liability of O'Reilly Media, Inc. is limited to
> > > the return of paid registration fees.
> > >
> > > For questions about registration or assistance with any registration
> > > problems, please contact us at confreg oreilly com
> >
> > And they manage a registration page with no terms & conditions, and no
> > "we are not liable for cancellation" bit.
>
> Allright, I hope German can shed some more light on the cancellation bit,
> and how the Gnome foundation deals with this liability.
This is another alternative, which looks shorter and clearer.
I like the idea of the ticket (assuming it has a fallback for people who
lost their ticket for any good reason), so If this alternative were
chosen, the ticket idea should be explained somewhere there.
Regards,
--
Germán Póo-Caamaño
Concepción - Chile
http://www.gnome.org/~gpoo/
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