[Events] Boston Python Workshop 2 staff meeting

[Jessica McKellar]

Wednesday 4/13 meeting minutes:

Summary
========
- The workshop will run on May 13th and 14th.
- If you want to write modules for the workshop, have them done by April 30th.
- We need more staff! Spread the word.
===

1. Decide on how we want to get Python basics into the minds of our attendees:

Decision: we will write up a small self-directed learning document
that covers printing and manipulating numbers for Friday night. We'll
have a ~2 hour traditional lecture on Saturday morning.

2. Tweaks to the workshop structure:

- Leave some time for stragglers to arrive and get situated on
Saturday morning, something like: arrive at 9:45 to set up your
computer and review running Python, because we'll start promptly at
10.
- Reserve time at the beginning of the Saturday lecture for "situating Python".
- Reserve time at the end of Saturday (4 - 4:30) for a wrap up,
recommending additional resources, next-steps, etc.
- the Friday setup + self-directed learning are mandatory. We might
offer some staff time prior to Friday for people who can't make it,
but you have to go to one of the events that covers the Friday
material.

3. Workshop dates:

We decided on Friday, May 13th (some part of 5pm - 10pm) and Saturday,
14th (9:45am - 4:30pm). I've contacted HubSpot to confirm those dates
and times.

4. Modules:

We have time for 3 1-hour modules, from 1pm - 4pm. The deadline for
candidate modules is April 30th -- we'll only consider modules that
were drafted and announced for people to play with by then.

We felt that we couldn't decide if we wanted to choose the 3 modules
that get used, let people vote at the workshop, etc. without having a
better sense of our module options. At some point we'll have to
playtest and pick a plan.

If you have module ideas and want to implement them, awesome! If you
have module ideas but don't want to implement them, also awesome! Tell
the list and maybe someone will write them for you.

5. Staff:

We are losing some of our staff from the first run to end-of-term
hosage. If you know people who would like to and are available to
staff the workshop, please get them involved! (have them join this
mailing list and say hi, say hi on #openhatch on Freenode, or e-mail
me and Asheesh) Our goal is to have the committed staff we need by
*April 20th*.

Action items:
- Confirm dates with HubSpot [ Jessica - in progress ]
- Ask HubSpot about parking [ Jessica ]
- Ask HubSpot about their policy on kids hanging out [ Asheesh (maybe
Jessica should since she's already asking HubSpot about other things)
]
- Confirm a location and date for a hack day that will happen shortly
after the workshop [ Asheesh/Jessica ]

Other items in the wings include:
- updating the wiki
- setting up the Meetup event

- Jessica

On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 11:05 PM, Jessica McKellar
<jessica.mckellar at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for filling out the poll. The winning slot is this Wednesday,
> April 13th, noon-1pm. I propose meeting at:
>
> Dosa Factory
> 571 Massachusetts Avenue
> Cambridge, MA 02139
>
> Alternative proposals are welcome.
>
> I'll send a reminder on Tuesday to people who say they are coming.
>
> The agenda:
>
> 1. For getting Python basics into the minds of our attendees, do we want:
> - traditional lecture (like last time)
> - self-directed learning using Learn Python the Hard Way
> - some third option
>
> Please at least skim Learn Python the Hard Way (free pdf at
> http://learnpythonthehardway.org) before the meeting.
>
> 2. Decide on any tweaks we want to the workshop structure, for example:
> - N hours for lecture/self-directed learning instead of the 2 hours we
> had last time
> - Covering more than just setup on day 1
>
> 3. Pick dates for the workshop.
>
> 4. If we have time, anything else people want to talk about. I'll
> bring a copy of our wrap-up notes from the previous workshop to see if
> there's anything from them that we should be thinking about at this
> point in the process.
>
> -Jessica
>
> On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 10:46 PM, Asheesh Laroia <asheesh at asheesh.org> wrote:
>> On Sun, 10 Apr 2011, Jessica McKellar wrote:
>>
>>> I made a Doodle poll: http://doodle.com/e8s62hgvb9fn4hib It has time
>>> around lunch tomorrow, lunch and evening on Tuesday, and lunch and evening
>>> on Wednesday to talk about these things. Please let me know your
>>> availability on the poll, or just say your preferences here or ping me
>>> somewhere and let me know.
>>
>> Thumbs up; answered.
>>
>>> As an aside, tomorrow evening Asheesh and I will be at a Boston Python
>>> Meetup about Python, Education, and the Community!
>>> http://meetup.bostonpython.com/events/17083319/ Some really great people are
>>> lined up to talk about there experiences in this space, including the author
>>> of How to Think Like A Computer Scientist. You are all invited!
>>
>> FYI, this event will probably be lots of fun, and anyone in the Boston area
>> (and on this lit) can come should.
>>
>> -- Asheesh.
>>
>> --
>> You may worry about your hair-do today, but tomorrow much peanut butter will
>> be sold.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Events at lists.openhatch.org
>> http://lists.openhatch.org/mailman/listinfo/events
>>
>