<div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Message: 2<br>Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:53:36 +1100<br>From: "Dan Flett" <<a href="mailto:conhoolio@hotmail.com">
conhoolio@hotmail.com</a>><br>Subject: [MLB-WIRELESS] Your Feedback on General Meetings<br>To: <<a href="mailto:melbwireless@wireless.org.au">melbwireless@wireless.org.au</a>><br>Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:BAY114-DAV17AAD2626132229053D95AAF1C0@phx.gbl">
BAY114-DAV17AAD2626132229053D95AAF1C0@phx.gbl</a>><br>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"<br><br>Hi Guys,<br><br>The Melbourne Wireless Committee have been discussing ways to get more<br>people to come back to General Meetings. We've had a few ideas, and we'd
<br>like your feedback on them.<br><br>The general ideas we've had are:<br><br>Bringing structure back to the meetings<br><br>Bring back nametags - different colours for Committee, Members and Visitors.<br><br>Giving people a reason to attend - Potential drawcards for meetings could
<br>be:<br><br>Presentations at every meeting - from hardware distributors or from<br>Melbourne Wireless people<br><br>Workshops - breaking the meeting up into smaller, specialised groups to<br>discuss and learn about particular issues
<br><br>Having a "welcoming committee" - make sure we acknowledge all attendees and<br>ask them what they want from the meeting - then direct them towards the<br>appropriate person/group.<br><br>A Swap Meet - encourage more members to bring in under-utilised wireless
<br>gear to swap or sell. If this proves popular we may start to invite<br>hardware retailers to attend.<br><br>Also, I've been thinking about the structure of the evenings - what time<br>should things happen? I'd like to keep things moving along fairly fast so
<br>the evening doesn't drag out for newbies. When the planned events are over<br>people can hang around until late chatting like they usually do.<br><br>Here's a proposal for an agenda:<br>7pm - Doors Open - Prepare BBQ
<br>7.15pm - BBQ up and running. Newbies directed towards "welcome committee"<br>or introduction workshop. Members mingle and chat.<br>7.45pm - Committee Report, Official Meeting Business<br>8pm - Region Group reports - pre-planned - short and sharp
<br>8.15pm - Workshops - newbies, setting up a node, hardware "show & tell", etc<br>9pm - Presentations - hardware vendors, Melbourne Wireless people, etc<br>9.30pm - Swap Meet until late.<br><br>The timing and order of things can be fiddled with - but once they are
<br>agreed upon I'd like to try sticking to them.<br><br>I know having the BBQ that early is a radical idea. :) But I'd like to try<br>having it as part of the early welcoming phase of the meeting. Once people<br>are fed they are more likely to focus on the meeting... That's the theory.
<br>I thought I'd fly the idea up the flagpole.<br><br>Your feedback on these ideas would be much appreciated!<br><br>Cheers,<br><br>Dan</blockquote><div><br>If someone wants to have a few minutes on the floor to talk about a Melbourne Wireless/Wireless/Computer issue to the whole group, there should be a proceedure to say your thing at the 9PM Presentations. Perhaps put your name down on a list on the wiki, or on a hardcopy list at the meeting to be allocated a place after the person before.
<br><br>Also with the Presentations, a whiteboard should always be available, and possibly a large map of Victoria. <br><br>Also, we should set a 'standard' or expectation for attendies to install a VNC client on thier Wireless-Connected laptop before the Presentations, so that Presentors are able to have a view-only VNC server enabled (at a resolution of 800x600) for attendies to see their website, powerpoint presentation, software, etc. that they are talking about to complement the presentation. Not everyone brings a laptop to meetings, but there should be enough people with laptops in the Audience for others to look at someone else's. Projectors arn't as cool, even if we had a projector.
<br><br>--Simon Gnieslaw (QuickReply -- <span class="content">#492</span>)<br></div><br></div>