NJ Drupal Camp Planning Conference Call

For anyone that can't call in, I'll be logged in to #drupal-nj on irc if you want to discuss.

Conference call 3:30pm, 2011-11-01

Ray Saltini
Peter Wolanin
Roopak Gupta
Henry Umanksi
Jill Moraca
David Hernandez
Nick (Nick, add your last name in a comment. I missed it.)

Location
Jill has confirmation on the reservation of the Friends Center.
We have the following rooms available for our use:
Friend 101, Type - Auditorium, occupancy 250
Friend 004, Type - Bowl, occupancy 59
Friend 006, Type - Bowl, occupancy 87
Friend 008, Type - Bowl, occupancy 58
And the Friend center computer classrooms. (For Birds of a feather) I’m awaiting clarification on exactly how many rooms this means.
Jill cannot confirm the Convocation Room (Friend 113) until later in November. This is the location where food can be served and it can only be reserved 3 months in advance. If I do not get this room, the Field Center is the backup.

"Details about the Convocation room: occupancy 127. There are 16 large round tables and 127 chairs available at no cost. Since we are serving food, they say we will need more tables and chairs. This will be an additional cost. Once I get a confirmation on this room, I will get a cost estimate. Also, if we have more than 127 registrants I will figure out the logistics of feeding everyone in a room that has a 127 person occupancy. It’s a very large room and I’m sure more people can fit but I have to see if there are any fire codes, etc." -Jill

Grant
Peter confrimed that we got the seed grant from the Drupal Association. http://association.drupal.org/node/13534

Website
Place holder site setup on Drupal Gardens. drupalcampnj2012.drupalgardens.com. A domain is being registered.

Registration and collection
We can use the website to register and take orders. Question remains how to we accept payment. PU would have to setup up an account to handle this internally. PU uses regonline.com, but they may be expensive. Blink Reaction might be able to accept the payments and manage the administration. Eventbrite.com is also an option.
Ray is getting information from DrupalCamp NY organizers as to what services they use. He believes they have used COD before. ( http://usecod.com/)
robbiethegeek confirmed that the NYC group has used eventbrite a couple times in the past.
Ray suggested having the site up by December 10 for session submissions, which coincides with DrupalCamp NYC. The thought is sessions that don't get accepted to NYC can be submitted to NJ.

Getting sponsors and session presenters
Peter will discuss sponsorship with people from the Drupal Association.
We'll need a program committee to decide on the tracks and sessions. (One focused track, one wide open track, and one beginner track.)
Peter suggests linking at least one of the tracks with what is going on in DrupalCon Denver. (emphasis on mobile development.) This opens the possibility of NJ being used as a test for some people presenting at Denver.
It is suggested that presenters be required to register for the camp, and pay full price, but be given some perk as a "thank you". Perhaps a dinner event.

Deadlines for next steps
December 1 for session submissions. (Start accepting session proposals as soon as possible.)
December 10 ready for accepting registrations.
Close registration early or mid January, 2012.

Catering
Jill and PU staff will take on catering. They are looking into an outside caterer.
Some sponsorship will probably be needed to offset catering costs.

Printed materials and graphic design
Ray is having a Blink designer help with the website theme and will also ask to help with printed materials.
Possibly create postcard sized handouts that can be distributed at DrupalCamp NYC and other places.
We will post a call for people to submit logo ideas and other suggestions.
Some of the seed money will go towards printed materials.

End ~4:35

Just adding my name to the list of volunteers, and I will join in on the conference calls.

Michael Muzzie