What to remember for future events

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Evan's notes from lessons session

Contents

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Things we Liked:

  • People
  • Ability to help easily
  • Open Space
  • Food (This category had varying opinions)
  • Vests (This category had varying opinions)
  • Venue
  • SpeedIntros (This category had varying opinions)
  • FishBowl -- a Watched Dialogue as seen Sunday Morning.
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Might Do:

  1. Start planning earlier (Like 6-8 months in advance)
  2. Keep a list of people who should be invited every time we have a RCC
    1. To spare them from spam, we shouldn't keep their e-mail addresses online, and mass-mailings should be sent via blind carbon copy (BCC). What we can do is to "check them off" as we're able to send them a personal invite -- which is probably better anyway
  3. Monthly conference calls (going to weekly in the last month) among co-conveners
  4. Pick an unleader / internal organizer, Decide if group think or top down buck stopper.
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To Adhere to the WallSchedule During the Event, Or Not, That is the Question:

  • Background: Kristin's point is OST means flexibility not rigidity. Chuck wants to start sessions at predictable scheduled change-over times, in CLEARLY labeled sections of the room, in order to FIND those sessions, then if I change my mind, and want to flexibly attend another session, I want to be able to find that session. Sessions at RCC2007 didn't start at predictable times & often I couldn't find the original session, let alone the alternates.
  • Issue: A number of sessions on the Wall Schedule never took place.
  • Solution: Below are some proposed solutions; to easily finding the session location, being advised at the start time of each session, and not being overwhelmed by major events, which effectively cancel any nearby smaller sessions without notice.
  • Where: In order for people to know where a session is, have large clearly labeled signs at each session area, visible from anywhere in the room. RCC07 had helium balloons, which deflated over time, making them less visible. Anyone planning their day would appreciate the most visible signs possible.
  • When: In order for people to know when a session is, consider doing one of the following:
    • a) Two Minute Warning Bell before each session change-over time, and again when each time period starts. Consider a school-bell that anybody can ring during change-over times. This way the task doesn't need to be assigned to a delegated person.
      • I would find that this violates both "Whenever is starts is the right time" and "When it's over, it's over." When great conversations are happening, the clock is much less important than doing the work.
  • Should there even be a wall schedule or not? Or should we have one and not adhere to it? Option: have a wall schedule, and support it with some basic principles, such as dinging a bell a minute or two before start time, with EASILY findable session sections, that have LARGE signs which aren't likely to be misplaced, and put events like the fish bowl on the schedule as as to make things PREDICTABLE to EVERYONE, so they can plan, people talking during change-over times continue to carry on, just like they do now. To pass all of this off & say, "it's not OST" does not address the question head-on, "should there be a wall schedule".
  • Yes, there should be a Wall Schedule, however the Wall Schedule is a suggestion. Question is, "With how much unpredictability are we comfortable? The agenda is not given ahead of time that's unpredictability. Then, it is pasted on a wall for our consideration. If we ask politely for everyone to stop at the hour then we are politely cutting off conversation for the sake of predictability. Yes, it's nice to have signs and perhaps this is a call to everyone if they see a placeholder sign coming down, to re-support it. I do like flexibility/mystery. On the other hand, I do not claim clairvoyance. :) Kristin 01:08, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
    • or b) Consider starting sessions every hour on the hour.
      • Shorter sessions have a tendency to feel and/or be too short in my experience.
  • Signage: At each session location, along with the permanent sign for that location, place a tripod, with a pad of paper, on which the topic for that time slot can be written.
This may require more administration. Sometimes it is hard to get someone to write down the sessions for the web or take a picture of the wall for posterity. Nice to have, will we pay to have a camp admin?
  • Major Events: Schedule major events such as SpeedIntros or the Sunday Morning FishBowl on the WallSchedule well in advance, before any smaller sessions are scheduled, and block out as many nearby session locations as necessary during that time frame. This way other smaller sessions can be scheduled during the same time period, they can be as far away from the major event as possible, and numerous close by smaller sessions won't be overwhelmed & effectively canceled without warning.
  • This may have been a situation peculiar to this year's event!-- Kristin
  • I'm not sure what this is about. We didn't have any open space timeslots that completed with fishbowl or speed intros this year. Should we?
  • I think yes, as it gives the people who don't like speed intros another avenue during that time, I had no idea speed intros were going to occur, because they weren't on the wall schedule, but it was a nice surprise, it would have been nice to have alternatives to the fishbowl, and maybe I was dreaming, but I thought I saw a few sessions on the wall schedule during that time which never took place, or at least I couldn't find them.
  • Overtime: If your session is going to last longer than expected, you might negotiate with the next session for the space.
    • If a session goes overtime, and if upon arrival, the scheduled occupants are gracious enough to negotiate the space away to the existing occupants -- there ought to be a best effort of advising new arrivals where the scheduled session has been moved to. Bear in mind that not everybody arrives at scheduled start times. Going overtime may appear to be canceling a scheduled session without notice.
  • When I saw my next session's host not in his assigned place I just went over and joined the group he was in. That became my session. And I got some key quotes out of that session. It was worth it not to tell him "mush." I would have missed out if I were concerned about schedule. We eventually did get the next session going and attendees arrived when we saw us gathering at the correct spot. Some like this, some probably don't. Kristin 01:08, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
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Would be Good:

  • Get sponsorship commitments earlier so we can plan the budget and spending priorities better
  • Better planning for nighttime activities. (Thanks for offering. If you build it we might come. --Kristin)
  • Labelling --please clarify.
  • Use the mailing list setup in 2006
  • Actually give leftover food to shelters, not just talk about it.
My experience at RCC07 was that shelters had limited drivers and time slots available to pickup. We were not flexible enough with them. Sometimes we had too much food. Sometimes we had too little food to be worth picking up. What was easy to give away were the individually wrapped sandwiches. Last minute buck passing was to a band of starving students. Dunno if that actually happened. Kristin 06:22, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
For those attendees who are on a budget, we could ask them to set aside something for themselves and give away the rest immediately after the meal. Too bad we can't predict how much leftovers there will be. Holding up donating in preference for attendees on a budget was what happened this time. Kristin 01:22, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
  • Pick a venue that already has a decent internet connection
  • If somebody signs up to be a co-convener, they should be contacted, but more importantly, they shouldn't be growled about.
  • If you see something that needs to be done, start doing it. I give you permission.
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Things that Could Have Been Better: (Includes multiple voices)

  • Food, Some liked, some did not care, some did not like.
    • Didn't want stress of having the food / money, cleanup,
    • Was not decided by community for or against.
  • Speed Intros, Some liked, some did not. Could mean Sales Presentations
  • Parking on Friday during work day meant limited spaces available.
  • Pre-organizing stress. (Stress is for those expected to "make decisions" for group.)
  • Angry asked to facilitate a meeting that no-one had planned for food
  • Disappointed compared to last year when we had phone calls with co-conveners.
  • Wanted more interaction with RoCoCo people.
  • The venue was centrally located and groovy, but also uncomfortably cold and without lots of space to get comfortable (on couches, floor, etc).
  • Have a front page that is a simple welcome picture instead of a portal-looking screen. Then users can enter by clicking if this is the site they meant to be on. Hey, how about a picture of a campground or a picture of a tent that people have to click to turn the curtain back. Maybe a big tent in the foreground with 2008 then smaller tents with links to A. Archives and B. Sister sites. Kristin 19:37, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
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Learning:

  • Need more coordination
  • clarifying expectations
  • Self organizing is not necessarily smooth.
This is a feature, not a bug.--Kristin
  • Unclear roles leads to confusion for some people.
Do we want assigned roles? How does that affect the concept of wiki/RCC/OST?
  • How to energize and magnetize?
  • Personal invitations encourage buy-in
  • Set specific goals/aspirations for the "ideal conference"
  • Quiet Space for being alone within conference.
This would also encourage people to be present in committee, by allowing downtime elsewhere.
  • Look at space with regard to how we are going to use it
  • honor the values and motivations over the goals
  • consider charging something for the event can create commitment and allow us not have to beg for sponsorship
  • Welcome the newbies:
    • Consider tadpole/frog mentoring requests.
    • Consider a You-Tube type movie. Maybe Geri could condense down the movie from RCC2006. Then when somebody shows up out of the blue, they can step over to an Internet terminal & watch the movie. It would also be a promotional tool for the event.
It would be hard for a mom to "divide the child." Maybe someone else could do that. I copied the whole vid to CD as part of my thank you to a sponsor. Kristin 01:29, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
  • Website setup for next year being done earlier.
I think it's already gestating now.
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Things To Do:

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