BALUG Speaker Coordination

Speaker Coordination - for coordinating speakers/presenters for BALUG meetings

If you are or know of a potential speaker(s)/presenter(s), please e-mail the BALUG speaker coordinators: balug-speaker-coordinators@balug.org. See also the main BALUG web page.

Although this wiki page is "publicly" accessible, it is primarily intended for use by the BALUG speaker coordinators: balug-speaker-coordinators@balug.org.

For speakers/presenters and even potential speakers/presenters, it may be quite useful to refer them to this wiki page: Speaker-Presenter Information and Resources
which may be rather to quite useful and informative for speakers/presenters or potential speakers/presenters (e.g. things to consider, information (for web site, emailings and other publicity) we'd want in advance, how typical BALUG meetings go & typical BALUG "audience", what facilities/equipment we do/don't have available and/or may be available with advance notice/planning/coordination, etc.).

(breaking) race conditions, and deadlocks: "tie goes to the runner"
Who is/isn't confirmed to speak when, or who was confirmed (or confirmed first?). It's fairly simple - this wiki page is (normally) the definitive authoritative reference. When a meeting's column in the table shows R (Reconfirmed) or C (Confirmed) (as also defined in more detail further below), then that speaker/presenter is the one for that meeting, and there should be no other(s) for that meeting (should only be one R or C in any such meeting column in the table at any given time). Generally one should closely coordinate updating wiki table with confirmation with speaker - e.g. update table to C or R as one makes the confirmation with the speaker/presenter (e.g. via phone or email). It's also then quite advisable to also email balug-speaker-coordinators@balug.org as noted further below. But, "tie goes to the runner" - in potential race conditions, etc., this wiki page is the authoritative reference, so it can be used to determine status, etc. (and since it also has edit history, it's possible to figure out "what happened", and fix things if inappropriate or conflicting updates ever get made). "normally" - there are some relatively rare exceptions - like when this wiki page isn't available for some extended time. In such cases, balug-speaker-coordinators@balug.org is typically used for coordination in the interim (and it's announced on that alias), and this wiki page subsequently updated as soon as feasible. But this wiki page should generally be quite available … e.g. as of my currently writing this, last system downtime and thus downtime for this wiki page lasted less than 50 seconds.

Much of the "speaker coordination" is handled among the "speaker coordinators" "off-list", much of it via the balug-speaker-coordinators@balug.org alias (and not sent/CCed/BCCed to BALUG-Admin list, as that list is publicly archived for various desirable reasons), but may also be done or partly done via individual/private emails. To coordinate arranging for speakers (e.g. so we don't double-book, etc.), for the "off-list" communications, it is strongly recommended that we at least Cc: balug-speaker-coordinators@balug.org and anyone else involved in coordinating speakers or that may be involved in attempting to coordinate such … not necessarily for every e-mail, but at least the more key/critical stuff (most notably confirmations and speaker or speaker representative contact details), and of course also update this wiki page at least when speaker is Reconfirmed or Confirmed, as noted above and below. Also, it should be the case that all the "speaker coordinators" are also on the BALUG-Admin list, so that those items suitable for public exposure and/or also notifying folks on the BALUG-Admin list, can simply be sent to the balug-admin list. Note also that emails To/Cced/BCCed to balug-speaker-coordinators@balug.org should generally be presumed to be confidential, as they may contain, e.g. speaker personal contact details, discussion of speaking/presentation and "negotiation" thereof, etc., that may not be suitable for public disclosure.

BALUG meeting dates: "BALUG generally meets the third Tuesday of the Month" (see also notes*), so, that's on a Tuesday, between the 15th and 21st, or, to list some upcoming dates:
2020-02-18 2020-03-17 2020-04-21 2020-05-19 2020-06-16 2020-07-21 2020-08-18 2020-09-15 2020-10-20 2020-11-17 2020-12-15?*
2021-01-19 2021-02-16 2021-03-16 2021-04-20 2021-05-18 2021-06-15 2021-07-20 2021-08-17 2021-09-21 2021-10-19 2021-11-16 2021-12-21?*
…

Key:

• R - Reconfirmed (or confirmed) less than 2 weeks before the meeting
• C - Confirmed (more than 2 weeks before the meeting)
• T - Tentative - will probably confirm, to be finalized
• P - Possibly can make (not confirmed)
• H - Hopefully can make this date (or one of the shown dates) (date(s) BALUG does or may prefer, but not yet known from speaker(s) if possible)
• W - Wishful thinking - nobody/nothing yet confirmed (if communication on it even started yet)
• U - Unknown if available or not for that date (blank will also be presumed to be approximately the same as U)
• N - Not able to make/present/speak for that date
• ? - ? there may not be a BALUG meeting that month
• X - eXcluded: no BALUG meeting that month

Notes on meeting dates:
*We commonly skip December due to proximity to certain major holidays

Speaker Coordinators (current list):

• Michael Paoli
• Scott DuBois
• Simon Poulton
• Grant Bowman
• Elizabeth K. Joseph
• Jim Stockford
• Mike Higashi
• Andrew Fife
• Jesse Zbikowski
• Dick Verna
• John Mark Walker
• Larry Platzek