On Mon, 6 Mar 2006, Clayton Fandre wrote:

> First of all, I would like to apologize to those who had a bad 
> experience at the installfest. I take responsibility for the lack of 
> organization and coordination. It was something that popped up on Monday 
> and wasn't really official until mid-week. I didn't have enough time to 
> get involved to share my knowledge or experience. In the past I have 
> asked for volunteers to help out but again the limited time didn't allow 
> this to happen.
>
> To top it off, I forgot to post the announcement to the general list 
> until Friday night which also didn't help. But for a last-minute thing, 
> it sounds like it wasn't too bad.

Definitely -- there were still a lot of people there at 2:00 and they were 
very busy working on their computers.  This kind of turnout with a 
last-minute plan implies that a little more advance planning will make for 
a really important event.


> I do want to thank Keven for setting it up. Like some of the other guys 
> said, an installfest is not a simple thing to schedule/coordinate/run.
>
> I am working on getting another installfest organized in the next couple 
> of months. I will use this thread to make sure we address the things 
> that were missed from this last one. If anyone has space or is willing 
> to help coordinate, let me know.

I'm repeating what I wrote earlier in case it was missed:

--begin repeated section---
Well, I don't know what other people have done but I just did offer to 
help with the next installfest.  I will now offer to do even more.  I have 
a faculty appointment at the U and I'm sure that will help me to secure 
some space there.  June would be a good time for me to do it.  Does that 
seem like it would work for others?  If so, write back to me or call 
612-387-8150, especially if you have experience with organizing 
installfests at the U.  In the meantime, I'll learn more about what I have 
to do to secure space.  If any of you have ideas about which rooms at the 
U would be best to have, let me know.  Maybe we can also try to organize 
some meetings and lectures.
--end repeated section---

I will have a grant due on June 1, so I prefer to wait until June, but if 
you want to do it earlier, and you can use my help to get a room, and 
maybe other support, I can work with you, but not as well as I could in 
June.

I really appreciate your hard work planning these things and I want to do 
something to help out.

Mike