Anyway, this topic will evolve over time, and if any fellow Sci-bloggers are attending and want to de-anonymise over a pint or two, let me know.
Today's irate posting is to do with Getting Shit Done in the office. Around 33,000 delegates register for the SfN meeting. It's fucking huge...and because it's huge and powerful, the Society prevents you from booking a hotel at Conference rates until you've registered for the conference. The problem here is that I can't afford to pay the $260 registration fee myself and need it to get processed by our business manager. Advance registration for Society members closed on Tuesday, which means that every motherfucker and hir fucking dog can book their hotel in downtown San Diego.
And I just checked and the BM hasn't processed my godamned registration yet. Quoth she, "This is in my stack to do. I’m hopeful to get it started this week. Registration deadline is September 8th. Is there something I’m not aware of that you need to take care of on your end, but cannot do until your registered? If so, just let me know."
Fucking hell, yes, dude, I told you repeatedly this was urgent and that I can't book my motherfucking hotel room until I get registered. Now one of two things is going to happen, both of which have happened before:
- There will be no goddamned hotel rooms left downtown and I'll be stuck miles out of town. This happened in 2004 and I had to rent a motherfucking car to get to the conference every day.
- There will only be the incredibly expensive hotels that company CEOs and Famous Profs with fat consulting fees can afford. This happened in 2006 and I got fucked for almost $2000 in hotel fees when my roommate backed out at the last minute.
On top of this I found out that I can't attend a mini-conference next week I was looking forward to either. I just wish, for once, people would get their shit together. Tell me, Dear Reader, does this happen to you too, or do i just have the worst luck?
**Note added in proof: it's not all bad...my staff know I am addicted to spring rolls; one of my programmers just came into my office with a gift from their lunch at the local Vietnamese place...***
12 comments:
Gah!! That's so annoying!
Recently, I submitted some receipts to get a travel advance so the registration fee and transportation costs wouldn't have to sit on my credit card. The total was about $900 - I wasn't allowed to get a travel advance because they have to be > $1000!!! Grrrr....
Dude, I hope it gets processed quickly. We can't advances, and they've even canceled the company credit cards, so everything has to go through finance and procurement. It's so fucking slow and annoying.
Dude. It's just you.
-antipodean
Seriuously though because we have to fly halfway around the world we tend to get shit organised 4 months out anyway. Plus our admin is so utterly useless I would never dream they would sort anything like a conference out for me.
You can sleep in my lab, we have an air mattress! I will be at SfN too, but giving my first ever talk. Scary!
What if you just book a room at a conference hotel at the regular rate, and then call back to tell them you qualify for a discounted rate from the conference registration? (I'm assuming only partial blocks of rooms are saved, but maybe that isn't the case with such a large conference.)
Plus, how much is the discount? If you are only saving enough to cover the cost of a rental car then the net savings aren't worth it.
'Cause I work for a small biotech company, I sourced out alternative (and cheap) places in SD last fall while there for a conference. This place called "Island Inn" was sketchy but cheap and two blocks up from mega-conference venue.
@Sciencesmooches: Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate the offer, but I, uh...well I haven't slept in a lab since grad school LOL.
Talks are scary indeed, but they are *the* best thing for forcing you to have your shit together. I had to give a keynote lecture on my Unit's work after having been in the job only 4 months. Talk about pressure...
@Natalie: Usually you can't get a room a one rate and change it (I can't remember why I think it). They have some safeguards in to stop that from happening. And TBH, the discount isn't much. We're in budget hell right now and I feel honor bound to find a cheap option. A fellow Sciblogger emailed me yesterday with some suggestions, so i intend to start looking for Plan B
First of all, hurray for spring rolls!!
Sorry about the hotel problems. I'd probably be ready to punch someone. Thankfully, booking rooms and registering for conferences goes pretty smoothly at my current institution.
However, in grad school I had the bad luck of working for a really, really cheap PI. She would force as many of us as possible to stay in one room with her, as possible. At one conference she slept on a roll out cot. It's not that I didn't like my PI, but it was just plain weird. Not to mention, I sleepwalk, so I was totally paranoid that I was going to do something crazy in the middle of the night.
In grad school my PI was more anal than me, so I only shared a room with a labmate. Until He couldn't go...then two labs combined to save $$$ and we're four in a room... 2 double beds. And the PI who booked the room was a morning guy with no shame and a fondness for tighty whighties...
I "slept late" everyday.
Last SfN I shared a room with my PI but he's a lush like me (and a good guy despite a lot of the shit I dump here) so it was all good.
This time...we'll see what drama unfolds...
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