cc: "Ben Santer" , "Tom Wigley" , "Phil Jones" date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:51:58 -0600 (MDT) from: "Kevin Trenberth" subject: Re: Wigley Symposium - Logistics so far to: lbutler@ucar.edu Many thanks Lisa At this time of year I am inclined to gamble and go for the tree plaza which can be nice. Need to check on backup if weather inclement. We can request funds from NCAR and UCAR: two classes, one to support breaks and one separate for alcohol. Suggest a draft program and speakers would help make the case. Should go to Bill (CGD), NCAR, and UCAR. Bill does not have much in funds for alcohol, but can and should support breaks. I actually feel strongly about this as it sets a bad precedent for others if no such request is made. Maybe we can argue it should come from "stimulus" package? Kevin > Dear Ben et al., > I want to bring you up-to-date where we are so far with logistics for > Tom's retirement symposium (not very far, actually, but a good start). > > 1) Room Reservations: > a) For the symposium itself, I have the Mesa Lab Main Seminar Room > booked on June 19th from 8 AM - 6 PM > b) For a reception, I have the Mesa Lab Damon Room booked on June > 19th from 5:30 PM - 8 PM > c) For dinner, I have a double booking (we will have to let one go > eventually) on June 19th, either the Mesa Lab Tree Plaza or the Mesa Lab > Cafeteria (which can be "dressed up" fairly nicely), both are reserved > from 5:30 PM - 9 PM. If we do decide to have the dinner here on the > Mesa we probably want to let the Damon Room go and have the reception > and dinner in the same location. > > 2) Dinner: we can have it here (our Event Services and catering staff > are available) and we can direct bill LLNL (or DOE or however it works > with Ben's DOE Fellowship money). There are some distinct advantages to > this. If NCAR/CGD was to pay for the dinner and then recoup from Ben's > DOE funds we would have to submit a mini proposal (not a big deal but > really slow wending it's way through the bureaucracy) AND we would have > to pay NCAR overhead on the costs (at 51.9% that IS a big deal). The > cost to bill outside parties is the same basic charge that we at NCAR > would pay, plus a 10% surcharge -- a big savings over the 51.9% > overhead! The mechanics of this can be flexible. I can be the > contact/coordinator and still have LLNL as the paying party, or Ben &/or > his admin can work directly with NCAR Event Services, whichever is best > for you. The other big advantage is transportation cost savings: $76.87 > per hour plus overhead for a 44 passenger bus, minimum 2 hour charge, > which we would incur to transport out-of-towners to restaurant. This > would be in addition to the bus cost I expect we will incur transporting > people to and from hotels to NCAR. > If everyone is in agreement about having the dinner here then we just > need (1) to decide whether to use the Tree Plaza or the ML Cafe -- a > tough call in afternoon shower season. However, I *think* that we may be > able to reserve the Tree Plaza as our 1st choice with the cafe as > back-up for inclement weather. I'll confirm that if the Tree Plaza is > our first choice. Personally, it would be my first choice; and (2) who > will be the point of contact (me or Ben or his admin) for NCAR Event > Services. > If everyone is not in agreement about having the dinner here I will > check on price and availability at the St. Julien and a couple of other > places (Chautauqua, Millennium, Broker -- whatever anyone wants). > > 3) Recording: we can both record and present live webcast the symposium > (for free!) and archive it on a web page for posterity. The webcast and > archive will have both sound and video so people can both see the slides > and the speakers and hear the presentations. I will have to have consent > forms signed by all speakers, but if anyone doesn't want to give their > consent I can just turn it off during that particular talk. A couple of > caveats: as I understand it, people at DOE labs cannot view the live > webcast due to the DOE firewalls, but they can access the archived web > version after the fact (usually takes about a week or two to get the > archive up). Also, this is only available for free in the Main Seminar > Room. If we want to record speeches at dinner it will cost us (I don't > know how much -- I need decision on dinner location before I can pursue > cost details of recording dinner). Let me know if I should look into > recording the dinner speeches. > > 4) Potential charges to CGD (coffee break catering, bus transportation, > reception, alcohol for dinner and/or reception, registration). I haven't > put any real time into this yet. I feel it's too dependent on how much > the dinner will cost (i.e., what Ben will have "left over"), and > regarding the bus transport; where we will have the dinner and how many > out-of-towners we will have. As soon as we make a decision about the > dinner and I get an estimate from Ben re out-of-towner numbers I will > put pencil to paper. > > 5) Registration: note I put registration as a potential cost to CGD > above. If we want to I can set up an on-line registration that will cost > us $1.95 per person (plus overhead). The main advantage would be to get > a firm count and names and contact details if we wanted to have a > participants list. This would be a "no fee" registration for the > participants. Alternatively, for more money (I think $3.75 per person, > but I need to confirm if that rate is still current) we can set up a > registration wherein people have to pay a registration fee and we can > use the fee to pay for alcohol. I think we would only want to do the > more expensive registration if we can't get enough discretionary funds > from NCAR to pay for the alcohol. Just something to chew on. > > 6) Alcohol: I should probably get the discretionary request in for > alcohol in ASAP, at least partly so we can decide if we need to charge a > registration fee. Ben, can you confirm that 100 is a safe guess for > number of participants? Again, how much we need for alcohol will depend > on deciding whether we are going to have *both* a reception and dinner, > and where we will have the dinner. > > 7) Hotels: waiting on Ben's out-of-towner estimate. It can be a rough > guess for now. > > Again, I will develop and post on the web detailed logistics info as > soon as we are far enough along for it to be meaningful. We can post the > agenda on the web too, I can make flyers in PDF that can be distributed > to colleagues and institutions for posting on bulletin boards if we want > the symposium (not dinner or reception!) to be open to the public. > Before we decide to advertise widely we might want to give a little more > time to collecting responses from Ben's invitation -- the Main Seminar > room holds 115 people. > > That's it for now. Any and all input appreciated. > > Best, > Lisa > > > > -- > Lisa Butler > Administrative Assistant > AIMES Program and Climate Analysis Section > Climate and Global Dynamics Division > National Center for Atmospheric Research > P.O. Box 3000 > Boulder, CO 80307, USA > > Tel: 303-497-1366 > Fax: 303-497-1333 > Email: lbutler@ucar.edu > Web: http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/Staff/lisa/ > > ___________________ Kevin Trenberth Climate Analysis Section, NCAR PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307 ph 303 497 1318 http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/trenbert.html