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Seems a reasonable suggestion to me. The tricky bit will be how to decide who's contributed substantially as a volunteer. Or maybe I'm overthinking it. Otherwise, I like the blend of first-come-first-served, guaranteed slots for folks who put in the time, and a lottery system for those who don't register for code4lib like they're trying to get free METALLICA* tickets. -Mike * Wait, are they still even around? On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 10:26, Brett Bonfield <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Seems like a hybrid system might make sense. > > Reserve spots for presenters and scholarship winners, and decide on > both before registration opens. I'm sure it's difficult to coordinate > voting for presenters, and I know from having volunteered on the > scholarship committee that it would be difficult to complete that > process in time. But I think it would be worth it. > > I think it also makes sense to reserve spots for some number of > volunteers. I think this would help with continuity, help to preserve > the idea that everyone is a participant, reward people who put in > considerable time, and also encourage more people to volunteer for the > more time-consuming jobs. As with presenters, volunteers would have to > pay for registration and their reserved spots would be > non-transferable. Code4lib could vote on which volunteer positions > guarantee the option to attend the conference. > > I think the rest of the open spots could be divided between > first-come-first-served and a lottery system (50/50? 60/40?). The > people who are sitting at their computers the moment registration > opens would still get in, and the people who didn't know that was > required -- the newer folks whose participation is necessary for > code4lib to stay relevant -- would have a reasonable chance to see, in > person, what code4lib is all about. > > Brett > > Brett Bonfield > Director > Collingswood Public Library > > On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 9:50 AM, Edward M. Corrado <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >> I disagree about the random registration concept. As long as the time >> is announced in advance (which was done this year) people should plan >> accordingly. You didn't need to register the first minute this year. I >> registered an hour after registration opened and while I was initially >> on the waiting list, I eventually got a slot. If I ended up getting >> locked out it would've been my own fault. I could have done what >> others did and purposely avoided scheduling meetings around that time >> and rescheduled the one that was but I didn't. Yes, I have bazillions >> of other things to do and the registration time wasn't convenient for >> me, but everyone else has bazillions of things to do as well. It would >> not have been luck that got the people in who registered before me a >> slot - it would have been a combination of their good planning and my >> poor planning. Yes good people miss out when registration fills up and >> maybe the library world suffers, but a random process would still have >> good people miss out -- including those who would make the effort and >> adjust there schedules accordingly -- which I think would lead to the >> library world suffering more. >> >> Edward >> >> On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 8:00 PM, Karen Schneider <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >>> I was really hoping that our Associate Director for Library Technology >>> could attend Code4Lib. She did her best, but didn't make it. She was then >>> pushed hard, early on, to drop her hotel room, which she did not do (good >>> for her) though I'm guessing she has by now. We're a 5-person library and >>> it's amazing to have someone with her expertise (IT tried to steal her >>> before I arrived, but I took her back), and we wouldn't be what we were >>> without her. I felt I owed her Code4Lib, but busy with my own distractions >>> I hadn't been on this list for a long time, and didn't tune in to the fact >>> that registration for C4L has become so nutzo that either she or her proxy >>> needed to be sitting on the reg process the very minute it opened, not a >>> few minutes later. She was probably doing one of the 8 bazillion things she >>> does every long day that help keep us going and differentiate us from all >>> the other teeny-weeny uni libraries out there. >>> >>> The library world will be a little less than what it could be because she's >>> not at Code4Lib. >>> >>> My idea: registration should open for two weeks, close, and then assign >>> spots randomly (and if it's too hard to think how that might be done, I >>> have a few thousand old catalog cards you can toss in a bucket). >>> >>> FYI, I know what zoia is, and I even know WHO the real Zoia is, but >>> invoking that super-secret-stuff is just icky. Maybe she doesn't need your >>> super-secret decoder rings anyway. She does want to stretch herself beyond >>> what we can make possible. We'll keep looking. >>> >>> Karen G. Schneider >>> Director for Library Services >>> Holy Names University >>> http://library.hnu.edu