And So It Begins

Today was our final planning meeting for the upcoming IAGSDC convention. Just about everything is done except for some final fine-tuning.

All of the items required for the caller school were taken to the hotel and stored in a room allocated to us. In a few hours, I'll be there bright & early to ensure the hotel staff have set up our caller school rooms appropriately and to set up the audio systems in each room.

I've ordered a wireless broadband modem on the Verizon network from a company based in New York City. It galls me that I couldn't find a place in DC which would rent them: I'd rather avoid the shipping costs and delays. It should be arriving Wednesday, god willing. BTW, those looking for free wireless should check out the "Taste of India" restaurant or the Open City Pub adjacent to the hotel on Connecticut Ave NW.

Club banners are still trickling in. Per usual, some of the people who were crying so loudly that we asked them to be sent in March are now begging us to accept them as they arrive Thursday morning. Don't think so, kiddies. Anything not here by end-of-business Monday risks not being displayed at all.

There were some minor issues with some hotel reservations earlier this afternoon. Marriott's reservation system flagged six people as no-shows but fortunately our account rep checked with us before taking any action. I was able to correct five out of six very quickly: the sixth is for a person who isn't in my registration records so I have no idea how to contact him.

I've scribbled up a perl script to generate labels for the personalized #10 envelopes which will contain the appropriate banquet & brunch tickets, t-shirt/polo shirt tickets, swag tickets, tour tickets and such. The labels are printed and will go to the hotel with me tomorrow so I can label & stuff envelopes if I'm not needed for the caller school.

There are still four pieces I need to complete the generic registration packets, those with the stuff common to all folks. These items include the final dance schedule, the GCA caller slot schedule, the photography schedule and the official convention program booklet. I'll get these midday on Wednesday to finish up those.

Signs are printed for each work area as well as to direct people to some more obscure corners of the wing where we're dancing. A handful more will be printed at the hotel's Kinkos franchise in the next couple of days on 11"x17" paper for better visibility.

I meet with the hotel events manager tomorrow to give him the samples of our meal tickets so he can instruct his serving staff appropriately. I also expect to give him our numbers for each banquet entree and the list of special orders (such as we can reasonably accommodate, anyway).

The minivan is packed solid with swag, shirts and misc other bits. There's still piles of crap in the basement but we made a large dent in it.

If only I could sleep I'll be in great shape for this.

And So It Begins

Today was our final planning meeting for the upcoming IAGSDC convention. Just about everything is done except for some final fine-tuning.

All of the items required for the caller school were taken to the hotel and stored in a room allocated to us. In a few hours, I'll be there bright & early to ensure the hotel staff have set up our caller school rooms appropriately and to set up the audio systems in each room.

I've ordered a wireless broadband modem on the Verizon network from a company based in New York City. It galls me that I couldn't find a place in DC which would rent them: I'd rather avoid the shipping costs and delays. It should be arriving Wednesday, god willing. BTW, those looking for free wireless should check out the "Taste of India" restaurant or the Open City Pub adjacent to the hotel on Connecticut Ave NW.

Club banners are still trickling in. Per usual, some of the people who were crying so loudly that we asked them to be sent in March are now begging us to accept them as they arrive Thursday morning. Don't think so, kiddies. Anything not here by end-of-business Monday risks not being displayed at all.

There were some minor issues with some hotel reservations earlier this afternoon. Marriott's reservation system flagged six people as no-shows but fortunately our account rep checked with us before taking any action. I was able to correct five out of six very quickly: the sixth is for a person who isn't in my registration records so I have no idea how to contact him.

I've scribbled up a perl script to generate labels for the personalized #10 envelopes which will contain the appropriate banquet & brunch tickets, t-shirt/polo shirt tickets, swag tickets, tour tickets and such. The labels are printed and will go to the hotel with me tomorrow so I can label & stuff envelopes if I'm not needed for the caller school.

There are still four pieces I need to complete the generic registration packets, those with the stuff common to all folks. These items include the final dance schedule, the GCA caller slot schedule, the photography schedule and the official convention program booklet. I'll get these midday on Wednesday to finish up those.

Signs are printed for each work area as well as to direct people to some more obscure corners of the wing where we're dancing. A handful more will be printed at the hotel's Kinkos franchise in the next couple of days on 11"x17" paper for better visibility.

I meet with the hotel events manager tomorrow to give him the samples of our meal tickets so he can instruct his serving staff appropriately. I also expect to give him our numbers for each banquet entree and the list of special orders (such as we can reasonably accommodate, anyway).

The minivan is packed solid with swag, shirts and misc other bits. There's still piles of crap in the basement but we made a large dent in it.

If only I could sleep I'll be in great shape for this.

Caller School, Day 1

So far, so good.

It's a small crop of new callers this year, only a class of about a dozen. Some are moderately experienced while others are complete newbies. Once we got the classrooms equipped with electricity for the laptops and did some general introductions, my attention was required elsewhere to deal with other convention stuff.

We now have an on-site locked storage room for our convention crap. kent4str and I unloaded the shirts and some of the swag before taking a break... we need to get back to the rest relatively soon.

I had a brief meeting with our hotel events coordinator about the banquet next Saturday. I have revised totals for the beef, chicken and vegetarian entrees --there are still only seven takers for the kosher meals despite the initial hue & cry months ago about how horrible it was that kosher on the menu. After looking over our list of special meal orders, our coordinator suggested we simply give the list to the chef and let him figure it out: he knows better than we do what ingredients he's using and how to jump through the required dietary hoops.

I've had to tackle a couple of minor issues with our hotel reservations people but that's largely done now. kent4str went to our DCDC mailbox earlier: I've just finished entering another dozen registrations (and updating the meal numbers).

I'm still on duty for my Dear Employer today. So far, I've been on two conference calls, tackled a bunch of email issues & updates and initiated one code deployment. Thankfully, I can lock onto an open wifi network from our locked storage room so I'm getting some things (like this) done without having to spend money or worry about interruptions.

The code deployment has just finished so I'm going to out see what other problems I can fix before I get really busy.

Caller School, Day 1

So far, so good.

It's a small crop of new callers this year, only a class of about a dozen. Some are moderately experienced while others are complete newbies. Once we got the classrooms equipped with electricity for the laptops and did some general introductions, my attention was required elsewhere to deal with other convention stuff.

We now have an on-site locked storage room for our convention crap. kent4str and I unloaded the shirts and some of the swag before taking a break... we need to get back to the rest relatively soon.

I had a brief meeting with our hotel events coordinator about the banquet next Saturday. I have revised totals for the beef, chicken and vegetarian entrees --there are still only seven takers for the kosher meals despite the initial hue & cry months ago about how horrible it was that kosher on the menu. After looking over our list of special meal orders, our coordinator suggested we simply give the list to the chef and let him figure it out: he knows better than we do what ingredients he's using and how to jump through the required dietary hoops.

I've had to tackle a couple of minor issues with our hotel reservations people but that's largely done now. kent4str went to our DCDC mailbox earlier: I've just finished entering another dozen registrations (and updating the meal numbers).

I'm still on duty for my Dear Employer today. So far, I've been on two conference calls, tackled a bunch of email issues & updates and initiated one code deployment. Thankfully, I can lock onto an open wifi network from our locked storage room so I'm getting some things (like this) done without having to spend money or worry about interruptions.

The code deployment has just finished so I'm going to out see what other problems I can fix before I get really busy.