[Baypiggies] Planning remaining 2006 meetings

[Dennis Reinhardt]

>TC> I'm wondering if scheduling a meeting this close to the holidays is a 
>good idea.
>A lot of people travel early in December.

Our traditional 2nd Thursday falls on the 14th, the latest possible date in 
December. Christmas falls on the 4th Monday.  There is an entire week in 
between.  Air travel is going to be a ratcheted-up hassle this year.  For 
people to miss the meeting because they are traveling means they are taking 
off 3 weeks.   This may happen but I don't see it as a huge 
effect.  Perhaps the general business of the season is an issue but travel, 
per se, seems a minor impact on attendance.

 >>DR> 8:30-8:50  Oscon reports (3-4 presenters)
TC> Trying to squeeze 3-4 presenters into 20 minutes could be too
TC> much in too little time. ... if only 2 people do reports, then
TC> 20 minutes may be enough time.

Point taken.  I was assuming here that material had been prepared with 
clear coverage responsibilities.  If we do this (and I am dubious), I think 
the presenters should be identified in advance and they should know what 
others will cover so that duplication and holes are minimal.

IMO, Oscon coverage is better handled here on the list via postings and 
blog links.

TC> How about keeping the mapping sessions as a filler, so presentations
TC> can run longer, and without being rushed? (not just for September's
TC> meeting, but in general)

Presently there are 75 minutes for presentations and 15 for mapping.  IMO, 
the presentations are not "rushed".  Look at Stanford EE380 lectures.  Look 
at Google tech-talk videos.  Look at any number of conference 
sessions.  The norm is for a technical talk to take an hour.  At 75 minutes 
allocated, we need not be "rushing".

I would rather not have "filler" in any meeting.  Either mapping pulls its 
own weight as a valuable contribution to the meeting or it doesn't.  If we 
don't have the program to make the entire 90 minutes worthwhile, then let's 
end early.  People's time is valuable.

Perhaps you meant "buffer" rather than "filler".  To some extent mapping 
can do this.  If we cannot start at 7:30, then the whole schedule needs to 
slide and compress.  So far, we have been relatively successful starting on 
time, and thusly, running on schedule.

WC> months where we do not expect a lot of ppl are good candidates
WC> for either a "newbies nite" or meeting offsite, say at a
WC> restaurant for more of a "roundtable" type of meeting.

I think we should avoid that.  Unfocused meetings dilute the image of all 
the meetings.  I would rather cancel than improvise.  So far this year, the 
choice has not come up.  As far as restaurant meetings, Brian already 
organizes that (rather successfully) on a regular basis.

I did have some prior ambivalence about a Christmas meeting.  But it looks 
like we have good meetings scheduled though the end of the year, including 
Dec. 14.

Moving into 2007 & beyond
-------------------------
Wes, I think you had mentioned earlier that BayPiggies may want to put in a 
bid to host Pycon (?) in 2008 (?) in the Bay area.   Do you have more 
details on what the conference is and when the opening is?  Who is 
interested in working to make this happen?





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| Dennis    | DennisR at dair.com   |
| Reinhardt | http://WinAjax.com |
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