Quoting Andrew Fife (afife@untangle.com):
I'm definitely open to your suggestion of a rephrasing, but I do think one of the really neat things about BALUG is that everyone has the chance to eat dinner and really spend quality time with the speaker. For example, how cool is that in January 9 people are going to get to eat dinner with Eric S. Raymond?
I'm going to have to write to Eric, and tell him he's a raffle prize. ;->