Its getting expensive to get involved these days...

[spacechild]

This morning I was looking into the Sojourners conference coming up in April. For those who don't know Sojourners, here is the synopsis from their website of what they do

Comments

[clynne]

I really like the Sojourners organization; I've been looking into their work since the 80s when they were busting the tragedy of Nicaragua wide open, but I have to admit that I, too, have had my disillusioned moments about the price tag they give people who want to be involved. For me, it was finding out in the mid-90s that you could go and live/work in Sojourner House for a year, but only if you paid them! I was like, really? I have to *pay you* to go an do work in the community for a year? It was some token sum, but with no other income coming in for that year, and uprooting yourself from your entire life to go there (hey, DC is far, far away from SoCal) it works out to be a pretty huge amount, something only for rich people to do

[spacechild]

Its been brought to my attention that conferences are usually way more expensive than this, and I realized that I got conferences confused with conventions.

I still really like the organization, but I still can't help feeling iffy about a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting poverty being cost prohibitive.

[scarydavedc]

I really hope you didn't send this. An email such as this one will automaticly put them on the defensive, and end up in the trash. An email left with only your opening remarks regarding your situation and how the cost is prohibitive, and excluding the attacks on their conference and organization, might have opened them up to registering you on a sliding scale.

As someone who has, and does, work in the convention industry I can tell you that this registration fee is nowhere near outrageous considering what they will be having to pay the hotel.

[scarydavedc]

1) If enough people are willing to pay for them to host this conference and at least break even, then it isn't cost prohibitive - Just cost prohibitive for Danny & Holly (and folks like them). Sounds cold, but it's true

[baldchik]

I don't know what kind of "secular" conferences you usually go to, but every conference I have ever been to in my life has cost between $750 and $1500 to register, not including meals or lodging, which they usually gouge you for in cities/convention centers. In college, I had to work my ass off getting undergraduate research grants to go to Siggraph, which between flights, lodging and registration, costs around $3000. I am not sure how long this conference is, nor the place they are holding it, but if it is in downtown DC, then I imagine that the $249/person is pretty much cost for renting the space/hosting an event/paying the speakers' guarantee, and seems pretty reasonable. Event management stuff is super expensive to run. Sometimes you can get grants to go to conferences and stuff, and organizations have bursary funds for students/youth who can't afford to register. If you haven't sent the above letter, maybe write to politely inquire about those options.

[spacechild]

You make a good point, and I realize that I got conferences confused with conventions. My heads is no worky.