Hi all, At the last Faculty Brown Bag Lunch Tamara and I were charged with preparing a proposal, along the lines we agreed to, for a new format for the BB Lunch. Here it is. We should be able to bring it in at the BB next Thursday (Oct. 6). This is an experiment - one way to suggest changes to the format is to propose it as a discussion item at the BB. It'll be rough and ad hoc initially. Start preparing your application for the prestigious and influential position of Brown Bag Prince(ss). That'll look good on your resume. - Alan & Tamara

The Experimental Brown Bag Schema

Preamble:

Faculty Brown Bag lunches have four main purposes:

A - To promote social cohesion (esprit de corps).

B - To provide a forum for discussion of big picture strategic issues (both for the field and for the department).

C - To provide a means to raise any other (potentially cross-cutting) issues that may well be dispatched to standing committee(s).

D - To provide an informal mechanism not attached to the formal CS admin structures so that subversive ideas can be mooted.

No one mechanism can satisfy all four purposes. There seems to be widespread opinion that the current mechanism satisfies none of them well. And that the current format is not sacred but the motivation behind it is important. At the Brown Bag on Sept. 15, 2005 we discussed this and there was a consensus that we should experiment with a new (but still lightweight, no agenda) format that embodied two mechanisms. We were asked to elaborate the format we discussed there.

Proposal: The proposal is to have a three phase meeting.

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Phase 0: The Whiteboard:

Anyone can write topics proposed for discussion on the whiteboards. Any standing cttee or any ad hoc ctte can also throw up items for discussion. Topics may be added or amended at any time before Phase two.

Each person has up to 3 check marks they may use at any time up to Phase 2 (and they may revise) to check topics they want discussed (approval voting).

Phase 1: The Mixer (aka Breakout)

We sit in small groups of about 6 at separate tables and eat our lunch and/or drink our beverage brought in a regulation BROWN bag. Any and all topics are allowed - no one is in charge. There's one constraint: you cannot sit at a table with people you see frequently (e.g. as members of the same research group - possibly partially waived for very large groups - keep the overlap minimal.) A table may converge on a topic that may be of general interest - it can be posted to the whiteboard.

Phase 1.5: The Mixer Remixed

Halfway through Phase 1, everybody randomly moves to another table - subject to the no familiarity constraint. (Someone may want to automate this permutation.)

Phase 2: The Agora (aka Plenary)

The facilitator of the Agora calls us to order and proposes topics for discussion based on the votes topics received. The proponents of a topic speak first and then responders. Everyone gets 3 talk tokens per meeting. When they are exhausted they may beg/borrow from others. (There may well be a market for tokens.) The facilitator keeps track of the speakers list but it won't be strictly FIFO to allow for good arguments to develop. People will refrain from repeating points. (Hah!) The scribe briefly records the topics and the action items on the faculty-only Wiki.

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The whole process is nominally overseen by the Faculty Affairs Committee. The BB process is coordinated by the Brown Bag Prince(ss) (not to be confused with the Paper Bag Princess). http://www.robertmunsch.com/books.cfm?bookid=27

The facilitator and scribe are chosen in sequence (or at random) from the faculty list.

The timing of each phase will be determined by experiment. We have 90 minutes. Phase 1 could be 45 minutes and Phase 2 also 45 minutes, initially. We might decide to skip Phase 1.5. The expectation is that all faculty will participate in Brown Bags if they are available (and they should endeavour to be available).

-- Main.tmm - 03 Nov 2005