On 08/07/13 20:37, Brian Gupta wrote: > On Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 2:18 PM, Patty Langasek <[email protected]> wrote: >> On Mon, Jul 08, 2013 at 07:57:07PM +0200, Holger Levsen wrote: >>> seriously, buy two dishwashing machines (max 1000€ total) and let them be >>> filled by volunteers... 5k for dishwashing is like 3% of our total budget. >> >> >> This was part of a long debate - unless we have enough volunteers dedicated >> to handling this, or people who will take responsibility in the event that >> the volunteers ... choose not to complete this task, it's unreasonable to >> expect that this will just get done. >> >> What this means is that for those volunteer hours, they will be dedicating >> an hour or so after each meal to duties that should have been (and aren't, >> so we're trying to cover it) included with catering. >> >> If this is the way we're going with this, we need to have the dishwashing >> volunteer crew staffed and ready to start with the first full meal (lunch) >> and finish with the last dinner, and someone to be responsible in the event >> the crew can't manage the workload. >> >> Front desk will not be responsible for dishwashing. > > My two cents. I fully agree with Patty. Although it is expensive, it > is time consuming and requires DDs to miss important sessions, which > means having people volunteer for this is counterproductive to the > mission of the conference. Thus, if we can find a way to afford it, we > should definitely outsource this task.
I also think it is not productive - it is an easy task to outsource compared to other duties that require more preparation and experience. Given the cost of eating out in Switzerland, I suspect that very few people will choose to eat off-site and there will be plenty of work around the kitchen. > That said, it does seem the hourly rates quoted seem high for the > nature of the work, so it would probably be worth exploring lower cost The dishwashing rates seem about right for Switzerland The cleaning rates seem reasonable for a cleaning company. I hear the lowest cash rate paid to a cleaner is about 20 CHF/hour although many refuse to work for less than 25 or 30. 20 CHF/hr is about the same as the net rate the cleaner receives working through a company here. The one thing not covered: do the companies involved guarantee to replace the staff if they call in sick, etc? Or do we need to commit to hire extra staff to ensure that we always have N+1 redundancy? None of these prices have changed dramatically in the time I've been in Switzerland and I don't believe they are substantially different from the time that the bid was assessed. _______________________________________________ Debconf-team mailing list [email protected] http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
