[GLLUG] Re: Penguicon Work Schedule

[Charles Ulrich]

Hi Chick, hope you don't mind that I CC this reply to the list. I think 
it has a lot of info that might be of use to all.

Charles Tower wrote:
> I know you have a lot to do for Penguicon and the computer lounge.  I 
> think I could handle scheduling volunteers to man the lounge, even 
> though I'm out of town most of the time.  I should be able to do it via 
> e-mail.

Yes, you're more than welcome to handle the manning schedule. It would 
be helpful if you could attend as many Penguicon-related meetings as 
possible, especially as we get closer and closer to Penguicon. Even just 
swinging by for a half-hour now and again would work.

I was hoping to delay putting together the manning schedule until the
official program is released by the Penguicon folks, which will be at
least another month. That way, each person has a chance to pick out
panels and events that they would like to attend and possibly set up
their schedule so that it doesn't conflict with those. As soon as the 
official program is released, we'll have people send in their requests 
as to which times (in half-hour blocks) they would like to volunteer.
There will, of course, have to be some sacrifices, but we want everyone 
to have a chance to have some fun at the con.

That said, there's no reason we can't at least get a start on it now.

> I would need to know what hours it should be manned, when it will be set 
> up, and when we take it down.  

Given the kind of equipment that will be present, it has to be manned at 
all times. Ideally, we would like at least two volunteers in the room at 
any given time: one tech person and one security person. We may be able 
to get some security volunteers via the ops desk. I don't anticipate 
that we'll need a tech person there throughout the entire con, but we 
can't have a non-GLLUG-member manning the lounge alone unless they are 
someone we know we can trust. (For example, I'm coercing a couple of my 
non-geek friends to attend and help out.) We can hone the finer details 
of this at an upcoming meeting.

Last year's programming started on friday at 4PM. I think registration 
started at 2PM or so. Therefore, it would be nice to have the lounge 
mostly up and running by Noon so those who get to the con early have 
something to do before registration starts and the panels begin. This 
means we should probably start setting up at 9AM or 10AM depending on 
how our dry run at the Cafe goes.

The con starts to wind down at 3PM Sunday, so that's probably when we'll 
start dismantling everything, probably plan 2hrs for that.

 > I understand it will be open all hours of
> the day, and that extra help will be needed to install and test the 
> equipment and then to pack it up at the end of Penguicon.  Also, are 
> there any special requirements for the "tech support" person?

Initially plan for all volunteers to be helping out with setup and 
teardown. If it turns out that there's more people than work, then we 
can release those who have something else they want to check out or do.

No special requirements for techs beyond very basic Linux and networking 
skills. If something important breaks in the middle of the day and the 
tech doesn't know how to troubleshoot it, we'll have a couple people 
with cellphones or those tiny two-way radios standing by. Techs will 
have root access to our systems, so these people will all be GLLUG 
members unless another GLLUG member can vouch for their trustworthiness.

> I might be able to get all the mouse pads we would need.  I know that's 
> not much in the way of equipment, but I don't have many PCs.  The 
> company I used to work for in St. Louis used to have stacks of Dell 
> mouse pads sitting around, so maybe I could borrow twenty or so.  Please 
> let me know if you would like me to do this.  I could also check to see 
> if they have extra keyboards they would be willing to loan me.

If they're the light plasticky Dell mouse pads, I'm not sure... Often, 
those things are worse than nothing. :P But if they're fabric and made 
of the heavier foam, 20-25 mouse pads would be excellent. You're also 
welcome to bring a few keyboards and anything else listed on the wiki 
page: http://wiki.penguicon.org/ComputerLounge

Thanks!
-- 
Charles Ulrich
Ideal Solution, LLC -- http://www.idealso.com