Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2003 10:33:53 -0400
From: Richard Sproat <rws@research.att.com>
To: acl-exec@aclweb.org
Cc: rws@research.att.com
Subject: Workshop fees

To the ACL Exec:

I have already raised the following issue with Kathy McCoy, who
suggested I should also send this to the Exec.

As you are aware, the ACL used to have a policy in place whereby
people who just wanted to attend a satellite workshop of the main
conference were still required to register and pay the full conference
registration fee.  Evidently a number of people were unhappy with
this, and as a result, at ACL 2003 the additional fee was reduced to
half the main conference registration fee. I understand that this was
largely due to the efforts of Priscilla Rasmussen, and I applaud
Priscilla for doing this.

However, one still has to wonder what the justification is for even
this much of an additional charge. I believe that if the ACL wishes to
continue to charge additional fees to those who want to attend
workshops, but for one reason or another do not attend the main
session, then it should publish some financial data that demonstrate
that such a charge is necessary, and that justify the amount.

Richard Sproat
ACL Archivist
archivist@aclweb.org