The problem with STC/Speaker's fees?

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

I'm not claiming to represent STC here, since I have no official
relationship with the society other than as a satisfied member, but I do
have a logical explanation for why speakers don't get free attendance: it's
a question of economics.

I've been invited to speak at WinWriters next year (not confirmed yet), and
yes, they both pay an honorarium and waive my attendance fee. But at
WinWriters, I'd be one of at most a few dozen speakers, and their attendance
fee is roughly twice that asked by STC, so the total amount of revenue
forgone (speakers times entry fee) is relatively small. STC can easily have
an order of magnitude more speakers, and though the organisation itself is
nonprofit, conferences must be self-financing through the fees paid by those
who attend. I suspect it would be economically infeasible for STC to offer
every speaker free passage. I don't doubt that the incentives for speaking
could and should be improved, but comparing the STC conference with
something like WinWriters isn't strictly fair.

fwiw, I've attended three conferences, and feel I've got my employer's
money's worth from each one. That's speaking as a wage slave, with the fare
paid by my employer. Were I contracting, the time and money spent might not
be justifiable to me, particularly for the more remote conferences. On the
other hand, if I were contracting at Silicon Valley rates, the expense would
be considerably easier to justify as a kind of working vacation,
particularly since the expense should be entirely or mostly deductible.

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

"I vowed [that] if I complained about things more than three times, I had to
do something about it."--Jon Shear*

* And to follow up on Jon's suggestion, I've contacted STC and passed along
a very brief summary of some of the main objections to membership and the
conferences. With luck, they'll consider what's been said and make some
changes to make membership more attractive.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Develop HTML-based Help with Macromedia Dreamweaver! (STC Discount.)
**NEW DATE/LOCATION!** January 16-17, 2001, New York, NY.
http://www.weisner.com/training/dreamweaver_help.htm or 800-646-9989.

Take XML and Tech Writing courses online!  Our instructor-led courses
(4-6 hrs/wk) give you "hands on" experience at your convenience. STC members
get 20% off!  http://www.online-learning.com/index.html.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.