KWLUG Organizational Tasks

pnijjar

Here are some checklists related to organizing KWLUG.

Arranging Presentations

  • Some people offer presentations in person or the mailing list. When this supply dries up we solicit new presentations on the mailing lists, at meetings, or by asking people directly. Occasionally we poach meeting topics from other meetups, and ask the people in question to re-present their stuff.
  • When somebody agrees to present, decide what size meeting slot they would get. "Half slots" are about 40 minutes. Use them when we want to schedule two meetings in an evening. "Full slots" run about 90 minutes, with a break in between. Sometimes we try for more presentations, but logistics get difficult. You can fit three topics at about 25-30 minutes each.
  • Create a meeting agenda for the meeting to reserve it in place.
  • If the presenter is new to KWLUG, tell them about logistics and what we supply. Pointing the presenter to the presenter tips can help.
  • The week before the meeting, check in with the presenter to make sure everything will be ready for the meeting.
  • Sometimes presenters have to cancel. In this case the first step is to ask the list whether a fill-in presentation is available. In the worst case you can schedule a roundtable discussion, but do not depend on this too heavily.
  • Sometimes you may explicitly want to schedule roundtable discussions or social nights. As a general rule these should not be last-minute "filler" slots.
  • Schedule something every month. If you cancel a month for a lack of a topic, the entire group falls apart. Trust me on this.
  • A few days before the presentation send out a reminder email to the kwlug-announce list. (This message will have to be approved by a moderator in the Mailman interface.)
  • If the presenter has slides to share, post those slides on the kwlug.org website by attaching them to the meeting agenda and updating the agenda body.
  • If podcasts and vidcasts for the meeting are recorded and posted, make sure they are associated with the agenda as well. (There are fields in the form for this.) This may require creating "podcast" nodes (for podcasts) or "page" nodes categories as vidcasts (for vidcasts).

Pre-Meeting Prep

  • Arrange for a projector, sound system, screen, and internet for the location, or learn where they are stored.
  • Arrange for keys and understand how to use them. Note that in order to unlock St John's Kitchen you use an allen key.
  • Learn how to use the elevator at St John's Kitchen and learn where those keys live.

Meeting Day Prep

  • Get the keys for the location.
  • Bring attendance sheets, a clipboard, scotch tape, the doorbell and doorbell receiver (if you have a doorbell), signs ("You found it!", wifi password signs), the podcast recording netbook, the contact cellphone (if you have it), and whatever A/V equipment is not already on site.
  • Get to the venue at 6:30pm. Tape the "You found it!" sign to the door. Unlock the door (at St John's Kitchen, you use an allen key for this). Tape the doorbell to the door too if you have it.
  • Clear enough tables so the projector can hit the projector screen. You can arrange other chairs too if necessary, but it usually is not necessary.
  • Set up the projector and screen.
  • Run network cables to provide wired and wifi access. (At St John's Kitchen we get this from the Outreach office).
  • Tape up wifi signage and get somebody to make sure wifi works.
  • Set up the sound system and set up the podcasting netbook (see below).
  • Greet the speaker and help the speaker get set up.
  • At about 7:30-7:45pm, lock the door. (This is required at St John's Kitchen.)

Post-Meeting Cleanup

  • Put all the A/V and wifi equipment away. Make sure the podcast is saved before the netbook loses power!
  • Put back tables and chairs you moved in roughly their original spots.
  • Take down all the signage (wifi signs, "You found it!') sign.
  • Clean up the doorbell.
  • Triple-check that the door is locked.

Recording Podcasts

  • Connect the podcast recording netbook to the sound system. I use RCA cables plugged into "tape out" on one end, and a 1/8" microphone end for the other.
  • Log into the netbook. Make a folder in the "podcasts" folder for this month's meeting.
  • Start Audacity and save a project with the name "kwlug-YYYY-MM-DD-topic".
  • Get the speaker to talk into the sound system, and check volume levels as you record.
  • Get a few seconds of background noise recorded if you can, so you can cancel the background noise later.
  • When the meeting starts, begin recording. It can be helpful to note at what time the speaker starts presenting and when we hold the break.
  • At the end of the presentation, stop recording and save the project before somebody "cleans up" by unplugging the netbook.
  • Afterwards, edit the recording. Chop off the meeting introductions and announcements, the break, and the chatter afterwards. Include the intro and outro. Record a topic section. Arrange everything.
  • Save the project in OGG, MP3, FLAC formats.
  • Copy "tag-template.txt" into your podcast's folder and fill it out.
  • Use the shell script set-metadata.sh to annotate the sound files with metadata.
  • Upload the files to archive.org . Use the tags "kwlug", "podcast", and whatever other tags are appropriate.
  • On kwlug.org, make a new podcast entry. Fill out the fields according to archive.org . This populates the RSS feeds.
  • In the relevant meeting agenda node, associate the podcast with the agenda.

Add a Vidcast

  • Create content
  • Add a “Page”
  • Set the title to something like: “2021-01: Minimal Desktop, 3NWeb” where 2021-01 is the meeting month, and “Minimal Desktop” and “3NWeb” are the topics
  • Set the text format of the body to “YouTube HTML”
  • Set the “Page Category” to “Vidcast”
  • Put a description of the talk in <p> tags.
  • Copy the embed code for the video and paste into the body. (This is tricky for archive.org. Use previous meetings as your template.) For advanced instructions see: https://archive.org/help/video.php and use the “Embed a single specific video file for item with 2+ video files” option. Make one embed per part.
  • Go to the meeting announcement page and edit it.
  • Set the “Vidcast link” to the page you have selected. You can select multiple entries if for some reason you have made multiple videos.

Website Maintenance

People who manage the website should be prompted to get Drupal upgrade notices.

  • Do website upgrades (when prompted?). In Drupal 8, we use composer and drush:
    • composer upgrade
    • drush updb

Public Relations

  • Configure the website so you get website feedback notifications.
  • Answer queries posted via the "Contact Us" form. We do not accept spam, requests for advertising, paid followers, or most other commercial requests. You can answer general requests for help yourself, or pass them onto kwlug-disc. Other feedback that is relevant to a wider audience can be sent to kwlug-disc.
  • Try and make sure that questions get answered on kwlug-disc.