Conference Committee Meeting -- Minutes

Siena College, Latham NY, September 8, 2012

Attendees

Darren Lim (DL) (Chair)
Mark Bailey (MB)
Lawrence D'Antonio
Lonnie Fairchild (LF)
Frank Ford (FF)
Michael Gousie (MG)
Nadine Hanebutle (NH)
Del Hart (DH)
David Hemmendinger (DH2)
Krista Hill (KH)
Mark Hoffman (MH)
Susan Inberman (SB)
Stoney Jackson (SJ)
Jim Teresco (JT)
Paul Tymann (PT)
Richard Wyatt (RW)

I. Introductory Remarks

II. Details of the Upcoming 2013 Conference

a. Hotel

• The primary hotel will be the Holiday Inn on Wolf Road; it is about five miles from campus. Our price is $104/$106. Some questions were raised as to whether the hotel was suitable.
• It was noted that the web site should list other hotels, including at least one cheaper one.
• RE: speaker: Ingrid is to be notified about the free room policy.

b. Dinner

• There will be two (and possibly three) options. Frank recommended the pork be avoided, and there was general agreement on this.
• It will be a buffet style meal.
• It will be in New Hall.
• It is possible that we might try for a gluten free option, though there was at best mild agreement on this.
• We need to give two weeks notice to the food service; that is, by March 29.
• There will be restrictions on alcohol.

c. Registration, Etc.

• It is "under control".
• There will be a person at the registration desk.
• There will be a person in charge of student volunteers.
• There will be persons available for the programming contest.
• The matter of multiple registration areas was raised: should we have two areas, one for general registration and one for the programming contest? It was agreed that we should have one area for general registration and a separate area for workshops and the programming contest.
• It was suggested that registration for the programming contest should be made as a single item, with three blanks for the actual student names (to be filled in later) and that we should have a single folder for the school. There was general agreement on this matter.

d. Workshops and Tutorials

• Do w/s rooms need machine? The consensus was they do not.
• For both w/s and tutorials, we need to know the number of slots available. We do have rooms, but not with machines. We should put in the CFPs the fact that attendees will need to bring a laptop.
• We will need power in the rooms for the laptops.
• The rooms have a capacity of 60-65.
• IT at Siena is to check the room capacities.
• Krista mentioned that the distinction between workshops and tutorials is still not sufficiently clear. One suggestion was to replace the them with long workshops and short workshops. But where, it as asked, would demos now fit in? After much discussion it was agreed that:
  • Tutorials are to be held during the conference, and never pre-conference. There will be no pre-registration for them and walk-ins are allowed.
  • Workshops are to be held only pre-conference. Pre-registration is required. Their duration can be either three hours or 1.25 hours. Space limits may be imposed (for example to 15 or so) as needed, given the rooms available. Any presentation involving scarce technical resources is to be held as a workshop. Workshop presenters are to be made aware of these policies, especially that on scarce technical resources.

e. Posters

• Can be held during receptions, but not in the location to be used for dinner.
• Faculty posters are to be first, then student posters.
• The submission date for undergraduate student posters is March 4. (The registration deadline is March 29.)
• The submission date for faculty is to be after the paper notification date. Lonnie opined that we need 17 days to review the Faculty Posters (last time we used Board members to do the Faculty Poster reviewing) and that therefore the current date of Jan 26 does not leave enough time.
• It was noted that John Meinke needs the material by February 10.

f. Parking

Parking will tight, but should be acceptable: some parking may well be on a lawn.

g. The CFPs

The CFPs is to be sent as soon as possible.

III. Campus Tour

Labs

• one room able to accommodate 18 teams.
• one room able to accommodate 6 teams.
• one room able to accommodate 8-9 teams.
• one room able to accommodate 8 teams.

Auditorium

• Seats 190, and so has enough room.
• Will be used for the Friday plenary session.

Maloney

• Posters.
• Receptions/breaks.
• Vendors.
• Saturday plenary session.
• Some sessions, when divided into two sections.