Hi folks,

Another brown bag is upon us tomorrow. We tried the new format as a science experiment last time (10/6), then took a straw poll at the end to decide whether to a) revert to old format b) keep new format but refine by killing the remix phase c) keep new format exactly

Plan B had the large majority, so we'll continue for a bit. So the major format change is that we no longer have the "remix", where everybody switches seats halfway through the chatting/eating stage.

Note that this format has the elegant property of having a built-in termination mechanism. If you don't like it, propose the topic of "BBag format change". If enough people vote for it, we'll then discuss how to change or kill it.

Four refinements I plan to implement this time as ringmaster, creeping my way along the learning curve:

1) Voting scheme clarification/adjustment: you may vote for up to three topics. You may change your vote(s) at any time up to 1pm, just erase your old tally mark and put it elsewhere. if you post a topic yourself, consider also voting for it! Posting and voting for what you posted are decoupled. That allows anybody, including the ringmaster, to post a topic by request from somebody not attending without causing that to be an implicit vote.

2) Load-balancing over time in voting: vote early (and possibly often)! Remember that you can change your votes as often as you want, for instance if somebody posts a new topic that's more compelling than what was up when you voted previously, or you are swayed by noticing the votes of others or when chatting. A good algorithm: if you glance over at the whiteboard and see that there are no or few people in front of it, please pop over and vote. If everybody waits until the last five minutes, there's a traffic jam in front of the whiteboards. But I'll still bring more whiteboard markers so that we're at least floorspace-bound instead of marker-bound in the unlikely event that you all don't follow directions perfectly :).

3) Single tables: We should spread out the tables so that people are sitting around a single table, rather than the two-table larger configuration we had last time. The noise level was high enough that you can only hear a small region around you anyway, this way the entire small table has a shot at conversing together.

4) Ringmaster positioning: Ringmaster will sit in the middle of the room rather than near the edge, so as to minimize the flying poker chip hazards to innocent bysitters.

Stage 0: Rearrange 12:30-12:35

- If you get there in the first few minutes, consider helping move tables/chairs so that we're spread out with chairs around single tables.

Stage 1: Eat/Propose/Vote/Local Chat 12:35-1:00,

- Eat your lunch while chatting with your neighbors. You can also spread out into the lounge where it's quieter. Don't sit next to the people you talk to a lot (same group, same commitees, etc) - sit next to somebody you haven't talk with in a while.

- At any time, propose topics by writing them on the whiteboard. If you or a group has done any kind of preparation that will make the discussion likely to be more productive, say so! If you've prepared enough that you want to provide written materials to read ahead of time, send the URL for those out to the faculty beforehand. Anybody can do this, not just official committee heads.

- At any time, vote by putting a tally mark next to a topic that you want to discuss. You have a total of three tally marks to use and you can move them whenever you want.

- The ringmaster will distribute two poker chips to each person.

Stage 2: Group Discussion 1:00-1:50

- At 1:00 the voting is over and ringmaster will call the folks in the lounge to come into the conference room and close the doors. Ringmaster will count up the tallies and write the vote counts as an integer by each topic. We'll start with the highest-ranked topic, possibly trying to fit in more than one.

- Silently wave your hand when you want to be added to the talking queue. kept by the ringmaster. The ringmaster will acknowledge you're on with eyecontact/nod. Ringmaster reserves the right to reorder the queue a bit to facilitate discussion, but FCFS worked well last time.

- Every time you get called on, toss a chip to the ringmaster. If you say "out of chips", there will be a few seconds in which somebody can choose pay for you by tossing the ringmaster one of their chips. Otherwise we'll move directly on to the next person in the queue. Even the ringmaster must pitch in a chip when discussing as opposed to ringmastering.

Stage 3: Put back tables. 1:50-1:55

- Volunteers welcome.

Stage 4: Scribe posts notes on wiki. After meeting is over.

- Thanks to David K for scribing last time. We're not transcribing the discussion. But we're recording the topics suggested and which ones were highly ranked, for some institutional memory. We're also documenting action items for committees or people results from the discussion. These are posted on the faculty wiki: https://bugs.cs.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/twiki/logon/Faculty/BrownBagLuncheons

Finally, in the spirit of minimizing spam, consider this mail informational and do not reply to the list. If you have suggestions or complaints or whatever, send directly to me.

Over and out, see you tomorrow in x736.

Tamara, Brown Bag Ringmaster

-- Main.tmm - 03 Nov 2005