Posted by cfennell on August 13, 2010 at 7:34pm
So, it's looking like we have a number of people willing to put in some time on the DrupalCamp MN (a.k.a. "Ice Camp" a.k.a. "Camp Code Freeze") conference planning committee. I think we need to formalize that list and begin a regular weekly meeting in order to tackle the substantial amount of work involved in making the camp happen.
If you are interested in working on this group, please post a comment here just so we all know who's interested. Based on what I've heard informally from a couple of people, Thursday evenings look like a possibility. Please note your (general) availability on that night of the week.
Here we go!!
Comments
I'm onboard for helping with
I'm onboard for helping with the camp planning and really looking forward to moving this forward! Advantage Labs would be happy to offer meeting space for some of the planning meetings here at our offices if it's helpful.
We'd also like to provide hosting for the camp website, in fact I'd love to resurrect the tcdrupal.org site and it could sit on that domain. I can potentially also volunteer some of my time for site design, theming and implementation.
Thursdays should work fine for me for meetings.
Thanks for posting this Chad!
Count me in
I'm willing to help.
Keith Pierce
Fabulous
Awesome, many thanks to you and to Advantage.
I'm in, too
Thursdays are generally good for me. See you over on the Wiki.
Meeting Time/Location?
What do you all think about an on-campus meeting? We could walk to a couple of possible camp locations too, if you'd like. I have conference spaces for us - Gabe probably does too.
So, on-campus meeting ok?
It might make sense to start
It might make sense to start with a more preliminary meeting and review some of the materials such as the survey, start to determine what people may be helping with, etc. Get an understanding of some of the basics and go from there.
While I don't have a lot of ideas on other venue spaces, availability size and cost will certainly be factors whether we do it on campus or elsewhere. Have you and Gabe been able to get ideas on cost yet?
Not to say I'm against meeting on campus. I'll just need to know time and place so I can plan ahead. After 6 usually works best for me but I don't want to hold things up either.
"It might make sense to start
"It might make sense to start with a more preliminary meeting and review some of the materials such as the survey, start to determine what people may be helping with, etc. Get an understanding of some of the basics and go from there."
I haven't done much in the way of an agenda, but yes, this is the sort of thing I had in mind. However, I have been working under the assumption that we'd most likely have the event on-campus (based on the feedback I got at several TC Drupal events) and thought we may as well start getting acquainted with some of the available spaces (several are very near my office) as soon as possible - we'll need to reserve rooms in the very near future.
"While I don't have a lot of ideas on other venue spaces, availability size and cost will certainly be factors whether we do it on campus or elsewhere. Have you and Gabe been able to get ideas on cost yet?"
Yes, I have begun to look at costs, which I will report on this Thursday evening. Availability will depend on how quickly we can get our act together, I think. Size will not be a problem. I think there are a variety of reasons why it should be on-campus beyond those factors though, perhaps mostly because the U is an under-tapped source of Drupal customers, contributors and converts.
How about we meet in front (mall side) of the Walter Library at 6:30? Would that work for you?
I can attend on Thursday.
I can attend on Thursday. I'll likely bike to the meeting, so parking would be an issue only if weather doesn't permit biking.
Can't make it
Sorry, won't be able to make it -- I've had a meeting scheduled for a while now with our local food coop, and since I'm running for the board I really need to be there.
Steve Hanson
Cruiskeen Consulting LLC - http://www.cruiskeenconsulting.com
Meeting Agendas Wiki
Is here: http://groups.drupal.org/node/87564
Take a look at meeting #1 and edit as needed.
As far as the location goes, I should say that I'm open and can even shuttle Gabe along with me to another location if that's easier for the rest of the group. Let's just pick somewhere. Other volunteers?
I'm in, too
I can make it on Thursday. I'd prefer to meet somewhere where parking isn't an issue, so Advantage Labs would work for me. But I don't have strong feelings about where we meet.
I would love to help out with
I would love to help out with organization of the event. However, I can't make it to the meeting this Thursday. Keep us posted on what you come up with and I'll try and jump in with a running start next time.
I'll be there
I'm location agnostic, but for the sake of making some decision, I'm throwing my weight behind Chad's '6:30 @ walter' suggestion. The U is a likely place to hold the actual camp and - as such - it's probably a good idea to see / be on campus, look at facilities, notice issues w/ WIFI access and otherwise discover things we may not think about by meeting somewhere else (like parking).
Ok, let's do Walter
But rather than meeting in the front, meet me in the back (on the Pleasant Street Side). The Libraries closes to the public at 6:00pm during summer break, so I'll have to let you in. Tell you what, I'LL buy the Pizza for this meeting to give you all a reward for sorting through the parking/transit to campus :).
http://www1.umn.edu/twincities/maps/WaLib/
I stopped by the McNamara Alumni Center (No relation to Robert, fwiw), and chatted briefly with their events coordinator. There's an event getting out at 7:30 in one of the main halls, so IF we're done before then, we could head over and take a look at a "live" setup.
FWIW: McNamara does pretty much everything for you: AV/Whiteboards/etc, etc. It's a little bit pricey, but I think you get a pretty good value, and the venue is sensational, particularly since they will have a whole brand new wing by September. I have glossy handouts and will have more information for you to chew on this evening (along with info for other locations).
See you all tonight!
I can't make it to the
I can't make it to the meeting tonight, but am VERY interested in helping out. If someone could post the notes here after the meeting, I'll try to keep up.
FYI: I (and perhaps others) don't get off work until 6 every day. So meetings at 7 pm or after work better for me.
Not sure I'll make it
My wife takes our kids to a homeschooling group on Thursdays, not sure I'm going to make it :(
I'm unsure if I'm going to be
I'm unsure if I'm going to be able to make it tonight too, we're headed out of town for Drupalcon this weekend and there's a lot of last minute stuff to get done.
Advantage Labs is super excited to participate in this process and do whatever we can to make a camp happen, it's something we've been wanting to work on for awhile. Individually I'm really excited as well! I'll be ready and raring to go when we get back from CPH.
Who is available to meet tonight? Does it make sense to schedule something for the first week of September instead? Give folks a bit more advanced notice? Or do we have a quorum to get things going with today?
Bummer
Dang, sorry to hear a few folks won't be able to make it.
That being said, I think we need to at least get started. At a minimum, several of us can coordinate on preparatory legwork. We'll be that much further along by our next meeting.
I've set up a virtual meeting space w/our U Connect system here: https://umconnect.umn.edu/icecamp1/
Members who cannot make the meeting in person but who will be available virtually can log in and join us there.
@theunraveler noted - we'll move future meetings back to 7:00pm.
Awesome - have fun in CPH!
Have an awesome time in CPH - represent the Twin Cities well - I think the Advantage Labs team may be the only locals who make it there.
As far as tonight goes, I'm still willing to attend. We _definitely_ need to have more people involved to make this a success. I've personally cleared the time and that's a little tricky - so am willing to stick with tonight. Not sure about others, though. Also recognize that we'll need you and others who aren't able to attend tonight to be part of the planning.
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Had this comment reply sitting open for a bit - didn't see Unexpand's reply before posting.
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What's a quorum, though? 5 people? I'm 1.If we can't make a quorum, my suggestion is to meet at the same time as the Happy Hour - not at the same place - but the same time - as that may help with scheduling (e.g. for people who've already cleared that time).Thoughts? What's the head count for tonight?Oh, and have fun :)
I am extremely jealous but glad some of our crack TCers are going.
And, just to echo Drew, I am personally super excited and grateful that Advantage Labs is going to play such a big role in making Ice Camp happen. I don't think it'd be possible otherwise, certainly would be a PITA for the rest of us in any case :).
Finally, we (obviously) won't make any big decisions tonight. Mostly, I hope we end up identifying some things for us to research and/or think through in order to make it easier to move forward in our next meeting.
Cheers,
-Chad
Not thursday? =)
Could we not do it on a thursday next month? :)
Ack!
I don't think we'll ever get a night that always works for everyone, but in the meeting last night we talked about two similar issues: the need for regular meetings to keep this moving along and the need to move locations around (last night we had one person in traffic for 1.5 hours).
So - I don't see any reason why we can't move days around as well. A regular schedule will help people, but we could switch the days as far as I'm concerned.... mebbe a quick poll is in order....
An organizing committee is only as good as its organizers
Consistency is key when you're trying to keep the doors open to a community of interest. That's why, rain or shine, we've kept the home fires burning for local tech meetups on consistent times and dates for as long as we've been around. It's disappointing that you can't please everyone, but when the goal is being an ongoing resource, you need to prioritize the 'ongoing' part.
The contrast here is that an event organizing committee has a different goal: to organize an event. Setting up a consistent meeting time certainly assists in that goal, but should not be central to that. Making this successful will consist of:
As democratic as it sounds to have an open space to collect ideas, an open meeting format for drop-in participants, and a wholly-transparent process; the bottom line will come down to a whole lot of gory details that are best managed by a short list of organizers - who's the point of contact for sponsorships/vendor wrangling? Who's organizing venue? Who's doing the books or providing fiscal sponsorship? Who's making the announcements? Who's printing schedules?
If you look at any successful CON or Camp, you can always find one or two harried organizers running with the ball. Because at some point, the minutia of the event are either too boring, too sensitive, or too prone to bikeshedding to be put out for display and feedback.
People with the time, skills and inclination for that are few and far between. If someone is willing to step forward on that front, let's do whatever we can to help them participate!
Yep, work in progress
"the bottom line will come down to a whole lot of gory details that are best managed by a short list of organizers"
http://groups.drupal.org/node/86869
I had hoped we could begin to hash out who could commit to taking ownership of critical pieces last night, but too many people simply could not make the meeting to make that possible. Given that Advantagers will be out of town next week, I expect we may not be able to throw stakes in the ground until you return the following week. We could obviously hash things out online, but in-person is a little nicer.
So far, we have people volunteering to take leadership roles in track development, financial management, sponsorship outreach, web development/hosting and venue planning. A few of us will be working on multiple fronts, and I expect that we'll be able to identify one or three people to play key organizing/continuity roles once we get together. FWIW, I obviously have a significant stake in the outcome.
"Because at some point, the minutia of the event are either too boring, too sensitive, or too prone to bikeshedding to be put out for display and feedback."
Agreed. Right now, our intent is to establish a basic conference site where a handful of us can do the serious organizational work and hold "internal" discussions, mainly to keep things moving and to keep from spamming the TC Drupal site. But, of course, our initial efforts were naturally public and open just to see who might be interested in helping out and to generally start sorting things out.
I had hoped we could begin to
Maybe next week we should try to hash out a reasonably detailed list of tasks - a checklist, or bullets, outline, action items, whatever - and then the following week get agreement and ownership for the tasks.
Sounds like a start :).
Sounds like a start :).
Can't make it tonight.
Sorry to pile on, but thought it better to let you know. Generally, Thursday's are good, so I should make the next one.
heh
No worries! I expected it'd be hard to get people together on short notice. It sounds like Thursdays are generally good for most people, so I expect it'll be easier in the coming weeks.
Right now, it looks like Keith, mtift, dgorton and yours truly.
I am still planning on meeting with whoever can make it. I've been doing research on venue locations, and I suspect there are a few other tasks that can begin to happen prior to the next meeting. There really is a mountain of stuff we need to sift through.
-Chad
I'll come tonight
Mostly to find out whether I can actually be useful to the planning.