[committee] Meeting today

[David Adam]

Hi everyone,

I'm basically just sitting at my desk trying to look intelligent and
waiting for a Windows 98 install to finish, and watching the webcam to see
what happens with this Sun thingy, so I'll write what I should have
several weeks ago.

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004, Davyd Madeley wrote:
> O'day is at the end of February. The things that need to be handled
> before O'day (to my mind) are:
>  - Fresher's Guide (currently a work in progress)

OK, here comes my opinion, which can be taken as the official
ex-first-year's position (despite the fact that absolutely no consultation
has been engaged in, as the few peope I tried basically commented "Meh"):

The Freshers' Guide is a tome.

The 2004 Guide is huge. It has 12 pages. It has a *contents
page*. It's a 1 MB download, and it's in quite a small font (I can
remember having problems reading it, even with glasses on).

Now, looking back through past guides, I can see this is something of a
tradition. I still don't think it's a good thing. In this age of
hypertext, much of the information contained in this manual would be best
served by being placed on the website's Infobase. This has lots of
advantages (it can change, it can be more detailed, and it can be read
using lynx), although I can understand that it may require some work.

Instead of a twelve-page document, I think it should be more like four.
Ideally, we could get it down to just a double-sided sheet.

I belive that this is the absolute maximum required in the
Freshers' Guide:

---
* The Web address

* A ~short~ (like, two line) description of the UCC

* Dates and details for Fresher Welcome and the AGM

* How to set up an account (again, can be two lines. People don't need to
have "how to choose a username" written down, do they?)

* A short paragraph entitled "Get Involved". Focus on joining mailing
lists (we don't need a list, just a web address) and events/projects.

* List of the groups. Committee@, wheel@, door@, coke at . Explanation of
functions.

* A list of cool things to check out. Instead of the three pages this
currently occupies, something like this is better:
"<h1>UCC Cool Things</h1> - See how many you can find!
The Clubroom. The Tool Cupboard. Dispense. Remote SSH. Books. Snack
Machine. Wireless Access. Webspace. Planet UCC."

* IF AND ONLY IF WE HAVE THE SPACE: Brief rundown on the single most
important program here at UCC. Address of web interface to it.

* Anything else which could be considered a showstopper - i.e. will
prevent people from getting more involved. I can't think of anything that
hasn't been covered above, but you might be able to.

* Map to the clubroom
---

As for the Infobase, we can place all of the following into it (perhaps
with a new page, like "ucc-HOWTO.html", linking to all the really
important stuff):

---
* List of committee positions. It's in the constitution and fresher's
guide, but not the website. Let's move it. I would also like to see photos
of at least the committee, perhaps some of wheel@, door@ and coke at .
Particularly those who are in the clubroom during standard undergrad
hours.

* Dispense documentation

* Dispense-keypad documentation (which only exists on archives for ucc@)

* SSH instructions (they're pretty much unfindable if they're already
there, IMO)

* Machines (yes, I know there's already a list - it's old and it sucks)

* How to get your files (/home, /away) - including for the Windows
machines.

* Top 20 UNIX commands (which I think needs altering a bit)

* Anything else which isn't documented anywhere. Plenty of members of this
club have been around for a long, long time, and I'm willing to bet that
there are plenty of tricks and secrets that people like me won't find out
for five years.
---

I should apologise for not writing this earlier, particularly to Davyd and
anyone who has already started rewriting the Freshers' Guide.

Comments welcomed on my plan - obviously, it's a committee decision. I
would be happy to plagiarise/write the paper part of the above plan,
though someone in www@ will need to look at the Infobase stuff (I don't
have access privileges nor the time to understand how our website works).

=-=-=

I should probably start another reply for this, but I can't be bothered,
so here goes.

>  - O'day stall (I think this has been handled)

Do we need to start collecting volunteers? (I will break Rule 1 and
volunteer.)

>  - Membership cards and forms (I can update the form from last year,
>    who is going to do the new card? Can we make it full size this time
>    around?)

But they're nice and small...

>  - O'day preparation

Aside from leading a crusade to get the guild to change that irritating
abbreviation for orientation day, what else needs to be done? I can't
really remember this year's stall, the whole day was a bit of a blur
(mainly thanks to a dodgy sausage from the Med tent).

> There was also mention of a Cameron Hall reopening bash (which would be
> around the 6th of January). Where we would judge the T-shirt
> competition. So I guess T-Shirts should be appended to that list.

Despite my earlier vehemence, I have realised that I still can't draw.
Crap. And I had a really good idea for a t-shirt, too.

Also I probably won't be around for the reopening... I think that weekend
is the WAMSS Committee bonding camp. Oh good.

....

Wow, this took me a surprisingly long time to write.

Thanks for your attention if you made it this far.

Cheers,

David Adam
who's just finished running FORTRAN simulations designed in 1976
on a Windows 98 virtual machine
on top of a PIII
using datasets he doesn't understand
only to be told it probably wasn't worth it
and who loves his job.
zanchey@