FILE NAME: sigcomm/conf/guidelines/tutorials AUTHOR: Chris Edmondson-Yurkanan, chris@cs.utexas.edu, +1 512 471 9546 DATE: 9/24/94, modified 8/11/2003 CONTENTS OUTLINE: 1. Role of tutorial chair 2. Selection process 3. Quantity/length/presentors 4. Topics 5. Compensation 6. Contract 7. Reimbursement Procedures 8. Input to advance program 9. Tutorial Notes 10. Books 11. Questionnaire 12. Oversold letter ******************************************************************************* 1. Role of tutorial chair a) Tutorials are crucial for SIGCOMM ( the SIG ); this is how SIGCOMM makes money for special projects or for unexpected conference losses. The conference on the other hand is budgeted on more of a break-even basis. b) Tutorial plan: one of the earliest action items is to plan out numbers of attendees, number of tutorials, and sketch out tutorial expenses for the business plan. Helpful hint: "When you do your budgeting please include AV, lunches, room rental, and printing of tutorial notes (we paid alot for the tutorial notes in 1993)." 2. Selection process a) Every year we solicit tutorial proposals in the Call for papers. However, I think that some of the most successful tutorials have been put together proactively by this volunteer. b) Sometimes a tutorial has actually been given to several other conference audiences, so be sure to ask for a history of when/where they've given a tutorial that overlaps with the one they are proposing. 3. Quantity/length/presentors a) We currently have 1-2 per day tutorials before the conference: eg Monday and Tuesday. (or Mon/Wed) Thus, (without workshops) we tended to select 4 tutorials ( 2 per day ). On the other hand, be very careful about planning too many tutorials that take away attendance from each other. b) The tutorials are a better money maker when we have full-day tutorials, because our costs are going to be about the same for half-day vs full-day tutorials. We did not make money on tutorials the one year that we had half-day tutorials. c) One issue is always: how many presentors should there be per tutorial? If 2 people share a tutorial, they must understand that we cannot double our payment to them, so again, costs become an issue. 4. Topics a) Be careful about repeating tutorials from one year to the next, because the SIGCOMM attendees are largely a loyal following. Yes, we draw attendees from the region, but possibly not enough to offset the regulars who saw it last year. ( This is based on Paul Green's tutorial being cancelled in 94, that was also given in 93. However, he had given the tutorial to many other audiences also. ) b) One source of topic ideas would be from the questionnaires from previous conference, where we collected requested tutorial topics. 5. Compensation a) Even though the 2003 budget is in Euros and the following honorarium are in dollars, we should not equate them. I believe that we prefer to pay them in Euros, but we'd have to convert the $1200 into Euros. b) This has been a hot topic for sure. The arrangement from 2002 was: ____________________________ "The honorarium is $1200/full day tutorial (split among speakers) and $600/half day tutorial (split among speakers). If a tutorial draws more than 75 attendees, this increases by $1000 and $500 respectively. Sigcomm will also cover round trip economy airfare to Pittsburgh (advance purchase), 2 nights lodging, cab fare, 2 days per diem expense (e.g., meals) up to a maximum of $1250 per tutorial. In addition, Sigcomm will cover full conference registration for each speaker... actually we limited it to one complimentary registration per tutorial. Please let me know if you have any objections. The cap allows us to maintain the current budget. In addition, after examining advance purchase airfare (even without Sat night stays), this should be sufficient to cover most/all of all of the speakers' expenses. The only exception will be Jay Lepreau but he has already agreed to pay for his additional speakers." _________________________ c) The arrangement for Europe in 94 was: for 3 nights hotel and perdiem for presentors crossing the Atlantic. We've had requests for business class travel across the Atlantic and have resisted... it needs to be a cheap flight, which by defn. is non-refundable (or typically changeable with a $200 charge) d) In 1992 we went with a different plan, but this wasn't very popular. "After discussing the issue of payment for tutorials at SIGCOMM conferences during an executive committee teleconference yesterday, we decided that the best thing to do is to offer a flat $1000 honorarium per tutorial (not per person), full stop - i.e., no additional payment for travel, expenses, etc. This is much simpler than trying to establish reimbursement ceilings for travel & expenses." - Lyman e) we ought to get some other tutorial policies and compare them ACM's Multimedia conference has a very different approach in these hard economic times. f) We have occasionally saved "some" money, when the hotel has offered complimentary room nights, and we have assigned those room nights to tutorial presentors. g) Compensation is expensive for multi-presentor tutorials, and we may want to cut back on the description of what each speaker gets, and/or give a cap. 6. Contract a) This is absolutely crucial. You have to follow up in writing any discussion over the phone or in person or email with an explicit statement of the arrangements. See in (c) a sample letter used by the SIGCOMM94 committee. Note: this varies significantly based on how you want to handle compensation. However, I don't think a contract has been sent in a long time. b) Here are 2 wordings emails sent to the presentors (from Srini Seshan in 2002 and from Chuck Kalmanek in 2001.) 2002: ____________________________ The honorarium is $1200/full day tutorial (split among speakers) and $600/half day tutorial (split among speakers). If a tutorial draws more than 75 attendees, this increases by $1000 and $500 respectively. Sigcomm will also cover round trip economy airfare to Pittsburgh (advance purchase), 2 nights lodging, cab fare, 2 days per diem expense (e.g., meals) up to a maximum of $1250 per tutorial. In addition, Sigcomm will cover full conference registration for each speaker. _________________________ Please let me know if you have any objections. The cap allows us to maintain the current budget. In addition, after examining advance purchase airfare (even without Sat night stays), this should be sufficient to cover most/all of all of the speakers' expenses. 2001: >I wanted to fill you in on the details of the honorium >Sigcomm is providing this year to tutorial speakers. >(The tutorials are intended to help Sigcomm's financials, >so this is really an expression of gratitude for the >effort all of you are putting in). > >The honorarium is $1200/full day tutorial (split among >speakers) and $600/half day tutorial. If a tutorial >draws more than 75 attendees, this increases by $1000/$500. > >Sigcomm will also cover round trip economy airfare to >San Diego (advance purchase), 2 nights lodging, cab >fare, 2 days per diem expense (e.g., meals), and full >conference registration for each speaker. > >Also, as a reminder, the deadline for your tutorial notes is >**July 1st.** (Typically the tutorial notes are copies of the >speaker's presentation slides, but annotated slides are >another possibility.) Note that extra tutorial notes will be >available for purchase at Sigcomm, but not afterward. > >Let me know if you have any questions, and I'll do my best >to get them answered. ---------------------------- c) 1994 draft letter Dear : The purpose of this letter is to confirm our arrangements to have you teach a tutorial at SIGCOMM '94 in London. We are asking you to teach a one day tutorial on on Tuesday, August 30. In addition, you would provide us with hardcopies of your presentation materials, suitable for photocopying, by Monday, July 25th. In return, we will pay you $1000 USD (amount in sterling?). Furthermore we will pay up to $1,600 USD in airfare and reimburse you for three nights of hotel (single room rate) at any one of the SIGCOMM hotels, and three days of meals (not to exceed $25 USD per day). Regarding the airfare, the rate was set high to allow you to try to arrange a business class seat (possibly by paying a full fare tourist ticket combined with frequent flyer miles), however if you are not flying business class, we ask that you try to get the lowest possible fare. We reserve the right to cancel this arrangement without compensating you until the Advance Program is mailed out on May 1st. We can also cancel this arrangement up until July 15th by paying you $300 USD and reimbursing your airfare (if the ticket was non-refundable and there is no way for you to make use of it). ---------------------------- 7. Reimbursement procedures: a) Before reimbursement, given that ACM is based in the US, there are some US IRS-related issues related to only the HONORARIUM payments made by ACM. 1) Read this for some background: http://www.acm.org/sig_volunteer_info/conference_manual/3-4-3.HTM 2) Ask each presentor for the following 2 key data values * their SSN if they are a US resident, or tax ID number for Non-US residents and * just check "honorarium" as the box) or fill out this form: http://www.acm.org/sig_volunteer_info/conference_manual/Approval_Form.doc For more advise, talk to the ACM Program Director who handles the SIGCOMM Conference. b) Steps to reimburse the tutorial presentor 1) Have the tutorial presentor fill out a typical expense report such as: http://www.acm.org/sig_volunteer_info/ACM_Expense_Template.xls 2) Then they will send it to you for approval (electronically) and you will ok the expenses (of course, you will have set a limit) plus the honorarium and total that amount and send it to the ACM Program Director who handles the SIGCOMM Conferences. 3) then the tutorial presentor will postal mail the receipts and the expense report to the ACM Program Director... Or if we choose to pay in the currency of the host country, then the conference treasurer "might" do the reimbursement (and thus replaces the ACM Program Director above). 8. Input to advance program a) Tutorial topics/presentors have to be finalized before this time. b) Tutorial abstracts and bios of presentors c) ( with treasurer ) Final agreement on tutorial registration fees 9. Tutorial Notes a) The tutorial chair typically acts as the contact point and taskmaster, urging the presentors to get the materials to you. Review the tutorial notes and give the presentors feedback. Schedule: In SIGCOMM 2002 (where the conference was 8/19-8/23) Srini Seshan gave them a deadline (approx July 1st) for a rough draft copy of the tutorial notes. He reviewed the notes and gave feedback. Final tutorial notes were due July 31st, with them being reproduced at the conference city. b) Actual reproduction of the notes is best done in the city of the conference, in case some originals are received late, or last minute extras are required. They have traditionally been spiral bound, but could also be tape bound. c) COVERS of Tutorial Notes: Using the same logo as in the web/proceedings/advance prog on the cover, along with the tutorial name and presentor and sigcomm 20xx. You can ask the publicity person if they have time to handle this. You will definitely need to review the covers. d) Sale of tutorial notes: As a general policy issue, after the tutorial notes are distributed to the peop le attending the tutorial, the tutorial notes will be for sale. They will not be for sale after the conference. e) Number of copies - see the "reg.history" web page. f) 1995 Formatting suggestions: see the "format" web page. 10. Books a) SIGCOMM 94 was the first to have to deal with a presentor who wanted registrants to get a copy of his book. This was arranged for 2 presentors, but it is costly to SIGCOMM. b) Some attendees at SIGCOMM 93 resented the presentor "pushing" their book. 11. Questionnaire a) This is an important planning tool for next year's conference committee. This needs to be prepared in coordination with the SIGCOMM conference planners. See the 2001 sample html questionnaire. 12. Oversold letter a) This should normally not be an issue, but was an issue in 94 because a tutorial was scheduled on a bank holiday and thus normal facilities were closed. Here is the text that was used in 94. SIGCOMM '94 Attendee: We have received your registration forms and have registered you for the SIGCOMM '94 Conference. Unfortunately, the Monday tutorial taught by Dr. David Clark for which you signed up is now completely full and we have been unable to arrange for a larger room as that Monday is a holiday in the United Kingdom. So the fee for the Monday tutorial of your registration will be refunded or credited to your credit card. SIGCOMM '94 deeply regrets the inconvenience to you. Please note, that should you be interested, Dr. Zygmunt Haas is also teaching a Monday tutorial at SIGCOMM '94. The topic is Personal Communications Services and Network. Also, Dr. Clark will be teaching a two-day version of the course he is teaching at SIGCOMM at the Networld+Interop convention in Atlanta, Georgia on September 12 and 13th. (Networld+Interop can be reached at +1 415 578 6900). Sincerely,