[wplug-plan] Draft script for hosts

[David Ostroske]

On 3/30/06, Vance Kochenderfer <vkochend at nyx.net> wrote:
> I threw together a script for WPLUG meeting hosts to use.  The idea
> is to make it easy for *anyone* to be a meeting host, even if they
> have no experience.  Thus enlarging the potential pool of hosts.

Vance, you did a great job. My comments are below.

[...]
> ==================================================================
> Script for WPLUG hosts
>
> INTRODUCE HOSTS
> Good [morning/afternoon/evening].  My name is [name] and I'll be the
> host for today's WPLUG [type of meeting].  Our co-host for the day is
> [name].  If you have any questions, please see one of us.



> GET PEOPLE TO SIGN IN
> We have a sign-in sheet for today's meeting.  If you have not yet
> signed in, please do so as the sheet is passed around.  We are guests
> of Carnegie Mellon University here, and we are asked to keep track of
> the people who attend.  [Optional: As a further incentive, we will be
> randomly awarding a prize later, and the only way to be eligible is
> to sign in.]  So please do it.

If we start producing pre-printed membership lists before the
meetings, we would adjust this language. I won't assume that we'll
always have such a list on paper at every meeting, so this will always
be useful.

[...]
> WELCOME NEW ATTENDEES
> Is anyone here visiting WPLUG for the first time?  [If so: Thank you
> for coming.  If you have any questions, please ask one of the hosts.
> If you are interested in becoming a member of WPLUG, please see
> {Secretary's name} after the presentation.  {Also offer CDs and/or
> business cards if available.}]

This might work best if the Secretary sat near the giveaways table. I
could handle membership duties and press CDs and cards into people's
palms at the same time. I could also hold the sign-in sheet after it
gets passed around, and urge latecomers to sign in.

The scripts work well on a verbal level. We might need to add some
seating arrangements or other actions to them, if such steps would
make sense.

> ANNOUNCE CELL PHONE POLICY
> If you have a cell phone, please take it out now and ensure that it
> is turned OFF.  If you are on call or otherwise have a particular
> need to keep your phone turned on, set it to a silent mode and take a
> seat over on the side of the room nearest the door.  This way if you
> do get a call, you can unobtrusively slip out of the room to answer
> it in the hallway.
>
> ANNOUNCE QUESTIONS POLICY

This presupposes that we ask the speaker about their preferences first.

> [Alternative 1: As our speaker has a lot of material to go through,
> we ask that you hold any questions until the end of the presentation.]
> [Alternative 2: Our speaker is willing to take questions during the
> presentation.]  Please respect the speaker's time and that of your
> fellow audience members by keeping any questions brief and to the
> point.  If you have an item of discussion you would like to bring up
> with the speaker, please do so privately after the presentation.

[...]
> [Optional: ANNOUNCE AVAILABILITY OF PIZZA
> {Vegetarians go first.}]

We could mention this while the pizza troll starts going around.
Perhaps we could extend this to other dietary restrictions, e.g.
kosher folks?

> [Optional: PRIZE DRAWING
> {Make sure lines on the sign-in sheet are numbered (1 to N) and
> everyone has signed in.  Generate a random number, and award prize
> to the winner.
> Quick-and-dirty randomness in bash: $ echo $(($RANDOM % N+1))
>                            in Python: >>> import random
>                                       >>> random.randrange(1,N,1)
> }]

My favorite randomizer is this one-liner that uses Perl. I'm paranoid
about older versions of bash not being random enough, and I don't know
how well Python works...
$ cat AttendeeList.txt | perl -lne 'printf "%0.5f %s\n", rand(), $_' | sort -n

--
David Ostroske <eksortso at gmail.com>