[foss4g2014] Status Update 2013-08-27

[Darrell Fuhriman]

There's a lot in here, but your attention in reading all of it is greatly appreciated.

Next meeting will be September 9th, 17:30 at Renewable Funding: http://calagator.org/events/1250464774

At our last meeting we came up with a rough calendar (I've also added a couple of things).

ASAP   - Hire PCO and book venues
Sep 1  - Choose designer for logo
Sep 15 - Finalize Logo (soft deadline, but would like it for Nottingham)
Oct 1  - Finalize sponsorship packages
Dec 15 - Have site ready to accept proposals
Dec 31 - Early bird sponsorship deadline
Jan 1  - Send Call for Papers/Presentations
Feb 1  - Academic paper deadline
Mar 31 - Call for Workshops
Apr 15 - Regular Track presentation deadline
Apr 16 - Open community comments
May 1  - Close community comments
Jun 1  - Send out first invitations for Invited Talks
Jun 15 - End of Early Bird Registration Discount

We also came up with some subcommittees, which Percy and I added to, but I can't remember the full list now, and Percy isn't on IM for me to find out.

We could really use people who are willing to focus on some specific topics. 

Notes and TODOs on the subcommittees

General
  - we are looking to hire a PCO
    - Percy and Darrell met with John Kirkland to fill this role.
    - However, recent discussions on the board and conferences lists makes it seem that hiring a company is a better idea, so they can handle signing of contracts, etc. Darrell has contacted two commercial companies so far, and is waiting for replies.
    - Tanya, Neil, and Darrell visited OCC to check out the space we have reserved.
  - Discussions with other organizers have put the fear of god into us about overcommitting on hotel rooms.
  - We will probably wait to sign contracts for hotels and with the OCC until we have hired a PCO.
    - we have gotten preliminary contracts from the DoubleTree and Marriott downtown
  - PSU offers conference registration services for a minimal fee
    - Percy is going to look into whether this can be used by us, or if it's only applicable for 
  - There is a foss4g-private list for discussing things that should not be in the public archives. 
    - However, please feel free to subscribe: http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/foss4g2014-private
    - Subscriptions do require approval

Sponsorship
  - no head yet (volunteers?)
  - Darrell will contact previous committees for sponsor contact list
  - It has been decided not to hire a person to solicit sponsorships at this time
  - We will (tentatively?) offer an early-bird discount of 10% to sponsors who pay before a certain date (see above)
    - this may not be necessary if we find that we don't need to get the money in the bank quickly

Design, website, etc.
  - no head yet (volunteers?)
  - Darrell sent out RFQ. We're still accepting submissions. There are three so far. 
  - If you haven't seen the RFQ, it's on the website: http://2014.foss4g.org/posts/2013/08/rfq-foss4g-2014-design-services/
    - Please distribute it to your networks!
  - A website is up and running at http://2014.foss4g.org/. This is a github hosted page, using Jekyll, so anyone can contribute.
    - if you have time to devote to the website, that would be awesome!

Academic Track
  - headed by Percy
  - will focus on getting academics involved

Program Track
  - no head yet (volunteers?)
  - As this is one of the more challenging jobs, it has been suggested that an honorarium of some amount would be appropriate to whoever tackles it.
    - suggestions? $1k, $2k? Keg of beer?
  - There needs to be a discussion of how to accept and review paper proposals
    - one option is to modify the code used by OS Bridge (https://github.com/osbridge/openconferenceware)
    - we should also look at the software used in previous years

Invited Talks
  - No head yet (volunteers?)
  - The schedule has nine slots for invited talks, plus 3(?) slots for plenaries.
  - We are tentatively planning to cover some (all?) of the invitees expenses. 
    - This may be contingent on getting complimentary rooms as part of our hotel block.
  - Suggestions for interesting speakers welcome at any time.
    - There are a few "go to" names that should be obvious, but I'd like to see if we can find ones that might be popular, but not necessarily obvious.

Workshops
  - no head yet (volunteers?)
  - Six of the computer labs at PSU are booked. We're working on the other two.
  - We will probably need BYO Laptop rooms, but those can be gotten at a later date

Entertainment (Gala, Field Trips, etc)
  - no head yet (volunteers?)
  - Darrell got info on reserving a section at a Timbers game, though this obviously can't be done until the schedule is out.
  - Looking for more Gala location suggestions beyond OMSI, which is all Darrell can think of.

Hackathon
  - no head yet (volunteers?)
  - Reid of Stumptown Syndicate wants to coordinate WhereCampPDX for the final saturday of the conference.
  - We are thinking that holding the hack-a-thon at the same time, in the same venue, would be a good idea.
    - Metro may not be big enough, especially for break out hack rooms, so the Eliot Center has been suggested. (Where OS Bridge is held.)
    - Reid, I believe you were going to look into venue pricing, yes?


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/foss4g2014/attachments/20130827/d0401ae0/attachment.html>