[sigcomm] attendance policies for SIGCOMM-affiliated events

[Vern Paxson]

> >>  desire to limit the content of the group discussing the work
> >> 		this is, I believe, the hidden intent behind some of the
> >> 		nature of 'invitations';
> ...
> This allows the chair to skew the content of the discussion. E.g., if we
> want to have an ATM-fest, we might invite only ATM-friendly folk. Or for
> ATM-bashing, only ATM haters.

I must say, I was about this close to laughing out loud when I read this.
I have a hard time seeing this view as anything other than, well, paranoid.
Yes, what you describe is *possible* if the chair can invite attendees,
but it's by no means likely from my experience; and it's a presumption of
bad faith that I find disheartening.

> While I appreciate that we all would like to 'trust the chairs', we do
> NOT trust the chairs to _invite_ all the papers (or the PC, for that
> matter)

Regarding your parenthetical, in fact we do.  Case in point, this year's
SIGCOMM PC was selected by the chairs without input from the TAC.  We
requested that they solicit input; they declined; we still sponsored the
event.

		Vern