[colug-432] Wanted: COLUG meeting coordinator

[Scott Merrill]

On Tue, Mar 13, 2018, at 13:14, Jeff Frontz wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 12:20 PM, Scott Merrill <skippy at skippy.net> wrote:
> > Is anyone interested in picking up the mantle of meeting coordinator?  I'd
> > hate to see the group dissolve completely, so if anyone has the time and
> > energy to schedule meetings, please step up!
> 
> 
> What's the job description (e.g., is it just poking at people to give talks
> & sending reminders of upcoming meetings?  Or is there a coincident
> obligation to have access to an ongoing meeting spot)?  Is CMM still a
> viable meeting location (and, if so, what's the scheduling process for
> that)?

No formal job description.  In general, it does require making an effort to find a venue and a speaker, and coordinating the schedules of both, then sending a meeting announcement to the list with enough advance notice that people can coordinate their schedules appropriately.

There are a lot of people on the list who can help make venues available. Generally it's just a matter of "Hey, we need a spot next month.  Who can help?"

Getting speakers is much more challenging.  There are a few folks on the list who are willing to present at a moment's notice, but I tried to ensure that we had new voices and new topics with some regularity.  Finding presenters who are not on the list is a bonus, but also requires more effort.

In the distant past, we had regularly scheduled meetings on the last Wednesday or last Saturday of the month (alternating by month).  This was great for attendee scheduling, but much harder for venue and speaker scheduling.  As such, I had taken to deferring to speaker availability first, and then finding a venue to accommodate that.  Saturday meetings were also often poorly attended, especially during OSU football season, so I stopped scheduling them.

CMM is available, but parking is less convenient there than it used to be.  Contact me directly off-list to facilitate.

This is a volunteer position for a volunteer group.  No one should feel pressured to perform this role, and no one should feel obligated to make undue sacrifice to ensure that any meeting happens.  If a couple of people want to tag-team the effort, that'd be great!  If someone wants to take a stab at the job for a couple of months, with the express intention of giving it on to someone else soon, that'd be great, too!  I'm happy to help in any way I can, but I realize I've been a huge bottleneck of late.