Organizing a Van to EA Global

Last weekend I organized a van down from Boston to NYC for EA Global:

I'm very happy I did this, and would definitely do it again. Being able to talk with folks both ways was like a bonus 8hr of the conference [1] and I had a very interesting ride each way.

Julia and I had been planning to drive down together, and I posted on the EA Boston mailing list and the FB group. I very quickly got more people than I had seats for in our Honda Fit, and decided to rent a 12-passenger van:

Hertz says it's a 12-passenger, though the two times I've rented one from them it's actually been a 15-passenger with zero trunk space. Essentially another row of seats where the trunk would be. This would be great for something in-town, is workable for my use case here where people have minimal luggage, and would be pretty awkward if folks had a lot of luggage since seats take up space that would otherwise be for bags.

I sent out an email in advance:

If you're receiving this email, you're on my list for a ride to the EAG conference venue, leaving 10am on Friday the 16th.

Please try hard not to be late, because you'll be delaying a large group and might get left behind, but if you are running late do text me at 617-871-0237. Feel free to ring the bell if you'd rather wait inside, but if you arrive before 9:30am I might not be back with the van yet.

We have a 12 passenger van [sic] and currently have 11 people. There should be a good amount of space for luggage [sic], but be reasonable: we're only there for the weekend.

The etiquette for the van is that if you want to read / sleep / work you sit towards the back, while if you want to chat you sit towards the front (I won't be reading, sleeping, or working).

Since the trip down runs through lunchtime, we'll probably stop somewhere quick around noon, or you can pack a lunch.

Cost per person-trip is ~$25. [sic] I'm happy to cover costs, but if you'd feel better about chipping in my Venmo is @Jeff-T-Kaufman .

I had been thinking of parking on the street in Hell's Kitchen or getting into the Upper West Side, since that's free and arriving Friday during the day seemed pretty doable for parking. But when I actually got there I decided I'd rather have the time than the money, and parked in a garage for $200 (since the van is oversize). This meant moving to street parking on Sunday morning, but since by then the streets were minimally restricted that was easy and free.

Total cost was $830:

The rental was on the high end: checking now for the weekend of November 13th it would only be $146, and usually when I look it's much cheaper than $494 for a weekend. This came to $38/person-trip instead of the $25 I put in the email (when I already knew the van would be $494), mostly driven by the parking cost. This is around bus cost, and much cheaper than train.

I got $305 in Venmo contributions, so total cost to me was $525. Julia ended up traveling separately, because with her work she needed to be there earlier and stay later. So I would likely have paid $279 to take Amtrak (given my constraints on departure timing), and have asked my work to reimburse $279 of the van rental. I think of the remaining $246 as well spent!

We had 12 people down, counting me, and 10 back. Different people since the times only fit some schedules. On the way down one of the people was someone who had missed their train, and it was nice that we had space to include them. Dropping off and picking up at the venue also saved people some time and hassle.

Lots of good conversations both ways, and a bit of a throwback to twenty years ago when I did a lot of renting vans to drive friends to dances.

[1] Since this was an EA event some pickiness is appropriate: I expect the hourly value was lower for the van, so we shouldn't fully count this as bonus time. In one direction, this was a group of EAs who happened to want a ride from Boston; they weren't selected for being useful to each other the way people choosing 1:1s at the conference would be. For example, there wasn't anyone I could go deep on biosecurity with, or evaluate as a potential hire. In the other direction, there's a value in building up a shared culture and in talking about things outside your specialty. So I'd put these hours somewhere between an EAG and one of the EA meetups we host.