Re: AUGD: Meeting & Presentation Resources
Re: AUGD: Meeting & Presentation Resources
- Subject: Re: AUGD: Meeting & Presentation Resources
- From: Jim Foster <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 05:46:21 -0500
On 19-Mar-06, at 12:15 AM, Nicholas Pyers wrote:
Thanks to all those who replied (both on list and off) to my
previous query about Membership Fees & Services.
Now I have another series of questions relating to the resources
your group has for putting together presentations;
How often do you have meetings?
Regular meetings are held once a month; SIG or other special meetings
as demand may dictate.
Where do you hold your meetings (school; library; community/church
hall; local Apple dealer; other)?
We rent meeting room(s) at a new Public Library located very
centrally within the geographic area that we try to cover.
Do you have to pay for your meeting location? If so, how much?
We currently rent two adjoining rooms with a wall divider opened up.
That costs $165.00 Canadian for the evening, including rental of
Library's video projector and DSL access to the Internet. Cost would
be approximately half that much IF we thought we could get by with
just one of the two rooms, but our membership has been growing and
single room meetings seemed 'cramped'.
On average, how many people do you get to each meeting?
It has been growing, but is currently around 35 people. The overall
membership count is currently at 60.
How many are members and how many are visitors/guests?
On average, we have a couple of guests at each meeting, usually
replacing the similar number of guests who appeared at the prior
month's meeting but then became members.
Do you charge a fee to attend meetings?
No, our meetings are free and open to the public.
If so, how much?
n/a
What resources do you have at meetings;
Projector
Yes - it belongs to the Library but we use it for $10.00 per meeting
(included in the rental figure previously quoted)
Projection screen (or do you project straight on to a wall)
Yes, built-in. Belongs to the Library but they do not have a separate
charge for its use.
Computer to present from
We own our own Mac Mini and bring that to each meeting.
Sound System (Mic and speaker system)
We own our own and bring it to each meeting.
Ability to record video or audio (to make podcast, or stream)
We have not yet done this, but appear to have several members who own
the necessary equipment so we are planning to try this out at a
future meeting
Internet access (dialup, broadband, wireless)?
The Library gives us DSL high speed access for $5.00 per meeting
(included in the rental figure previously quoted)
Do you own the above equipment?
Already answered for each item above
Is it supplied by the venue?
Already answered for each item above
Does your presenter have to provide their own equipment?
Varies by speaker. Some bring and use their own laptop. Some install
software onto our Mac Mini. Some bring a Firewire HD which they use
with our Mac Mini. Most use their own laptop.
How many presenters do you get from external companies?
We have never counted them, but I would estimate only 1 or 2 per year.
How many of presenters are "club members"?
That would mean that the rest are "club members". We do not hold
regular meetings in July, August, or December, so I am saying we
would have 1 or 2 outside speakers out of the 9 meetings held
annually, as an average.
Do you rely on one or two individuals within the club to do "all"
the presentations?
We rely on one of two individuals within the club to do "many" or
even "most" of the presentations, but some other member of the club
presents about every other meeting.
Do you have "backup" presenters, in case the primary one falls
through?
Currently, we have enough presentations lined up that we would be
able to pull one forward if we found out a day or two before a
meeting that someone was going to be unable to do their scheduled
presentation. But it is not a formal arrangement. If I am scheduled
to do a presentation at the June meeting, for example, I am not also
advised that I am the "backup" presenter for the May meeting.
Do you have a "structured" presentation?
We try to use a KeyNote presentation as a backbone for our meetings.
It consists of a number of slides which are either identical each
month or the same format each month but worded specifically for that
month. For example, there are slides welcoming guests and slides
covering logistics such as location of washrooms and location of
emergency exits that are "boilerplate" each month, but there is also
a separate meeting agenda slide which obviously has content tailored
specifically to that month's meeting. Sometimes this Keynote
presentation will also contain the presentation slides for one or
more of the actual speakers, other times this Keynote presentation
just acts as the "core" with a slide that introduces each new
speaker, at which point that presentation is halted and the new
speaker takes over with their own computer.
Do you offer a Q&A session?
Obviously, we offer a Q&A period following all presentations,
relative that presentation. We try NOT to devote a specific portion
of each meeting agenda to technical Q&A because we find them
difficult to administer in a way that makes everyone happy. Instead,
we suggest to Members only (NOT to the general public in our meeting
ads) that they come as much as one hour early to the meeting, grab a
coffee or snack at the adjoining café, and spend that hour consulting
with other members on any technical issues on their minds. One of the
reasons we decided to rent two adjoining rooms rather than just the
single room was to allow for enough room for lots of these little
"chat groups" to spread out and converse prior to the main meeting
beginning, and so they would have lots of breathing space between them.
How do you select topics for your meetings?
Mostly by concensus of the Executive. This year, we have a Vice-
President who is specifically responsible for Meeting Programs,
something we have not had in the past, and he already has a lot of
his own ideas for presentations. So things are working very well at
the moment. In times where the Executive kind of "dry up" in terms of
generating quality meeting presentation ideas and follow-through, we
have taken part of a meeting to conduct a survey and voting exercise
with our Members to better understand what topics THEY would like to
see the Executive work on bringing to the meetings.
When do you decide on your topics (A few days before the meeting; a
couple of weeks before; a few months in advance; beginning of the
year; other)?
The ideal situation, we find, is to have a plan for each meeting's
"feature presentation" for at least three meetings out beyond
whatever Executive meeting we are discussing them. So, for example,
at our next Executive meeting in early April, we would hopefully have
a firmed up plan for these "feature presentations" for the April,
May, and June meetings. Decisions regarding supplementary
presentations or items of business that we want to cover at meetings
in addition to the "feature presentation" are sometimes made as late
as the Executive meeting just three weeks before that month's regular
meeting or in some cases right up to a day or two before the meeting.
Please respond to the list, as I believe others here will benefit
from the responses.
Hope this covers it.
Jim Foster
President - Macintosh Users East [MaUsE]
Whitby, Ontario, Canada
http://www.mause.ca
--
Nicholas Pyers, Macintosh User Group Resources
email: email@hidden
web: http://www.nicholaspyers.com/usergroups
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Augd mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Augd mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden