Caller School, Day 2

I was at the hotel again this morning at 8:30 AM or so. The first order of business was to set up the calling equipment in each of the classrooms and perform some sound checks. Once all was set, I unloaded my laser printer/fax/copier from the car, along with misc boxes of stationery, tools and envelopes. The day begins.

Nearly all of today was spent working on whipping the banquet & brunch issues into submission. After more discussions with the hotel management, I think I know how to package the dietary restriction list for easiest comprehension by the chef. I still need to swap out some banquet tickets, create registration packets for those who have registered since last Friday and print more brunch tickets to accommodate all those who have registered lately.

As a courtesy to the calling staff, I'll hand them their banquet tickets at their table rather than have them try to remember to bring them. It's one of those little tasks the busy people forget to do so I hope this among other little things will make their work with us easier.

More dancers are arriving hour by hour. The audio crew has arrived and will be installing their systems tomorrow. I will also have to move our office form Room 8226 to the main registration desk & office; Rich will probably need extra space too for the sorting of the club banners so they can be hung in some reasonable fashion. Kent has the vendor space mapped out so we should be ready for them to arrive.

The Harvest Festival Hoedown flyers have arrived, as have the copies of the photography schedule. The dance schedule is done and will be copied 900 times tomorrow morning; the GCA schedule needs some reformatting before it is complete. The official convention programs should be arriving around noon and we will then be able to finish stuffing the registratoin packets.

The major downer of the day was a RAM issue in a server at the data center. I left the hotel aorund 9:30 PM to head directly to the server to remove the offending memory. Sadly, the boot disk seems messed up too so more TLC will be required.

And I still have to pack and get my butt to the hotel before 9 AM again tomorrow. *sigh*

Caller School, Day 2

I was at the hotel again this morning at 8:30 AM or so. The first order of business was to set up the calling equipment in each of the classrooms and perform some sound checks. Once all was set, I unloaded my laser printer/fax/copier from the car, along with misc boxes of stationery, tools and envelopes. The day begins.

Nearly all of today was spent working on whipping the banquet & brunch issues into submission. After more discussions with the hotel management, I think I know how to package the dietary restriction list for easiest comprehension by the chef. I still need to swap out some banquet tickets, create registration packets for those who have registered since last Friday and print more brunch tickets to accommodate all those who have registered lately.

As a courtesy to the calling staff, I'll hand them their banquet tickets at their table rather than have them try to remember to bring them. It's one of those little tasks the busy people forget to do so I hope this among other little things will make their work with us easier.

More dancers are arriving hour by hour. The audio crew has arrived and will be installing their systems tomorrow. I will also have to move our office form Room 8226 to the main registration desk & office; Rich will probably need extra space too for the sorting of the club banners so they can be hung in some reasonable fashion. Kent has the vendor space mapped out so we should be ready for them to arrive.

The Harvest Festival Hoedown flyers have arrived, as have the copies of the photography schedule. The dance schedule is done and will be copied 900 times tomorrow morning; the GCA schedule needs some reformatting before it is complete. The official convention programs should be arriving around noon and we will then be able to finish stuffing the registratoin packets.

The major downer of the day was a RAM issue in a server at the data center. I left the hotel aorund 9:30 PM to head directly to the server to remove the offending memory. Sadly, the boot disk seems messed up too so more TLC will be required.

And I still have to pack and get my butt to the hotel before 9 AM again tomorrow. *sigh*

Caller School Day 3 / IAGSDC Convention, Day -1

I arrived at the hotel at 8 AM to set up for the caller school. Thanks to the late night visit to the data center for work and packing my luggage when I got home, I had only four hours of sleep last night so I'm running a little slow. Indeed, I'm back at the data center as I write this to finish up the server resurrection from last night.

The wireless broadband modem I rented online arrived yesterday and I spent some time in the evening getting it configured on my laptop. It works beautifully; indeed, I used it this morning to push out a code deployment for work. I'm a happy camper.

Banners were being organized when I left the hotel last night; this morning, they were being sorted and shuffled by our volunteers and the hotel staff for hanging; all should be in place by the end of today.

The registration desk & office were ready for us so I moved our office equipment & stationery, the registration packets, the t-shirts and polo shirts, the swag and other mic items from the locked storage room to the new office space. This happened just in time for the arriving sound systems to be placed in the locked room.

Flooring has arrived and is currently being installed in all dance spaces except the Washington rooms (still in use by the GCA) and the Marriott Ballroom where the banners are being hung.

The dance schedule was finalized and sent for photocopying. I still need to have the GCA calling schedule reformatted for printing. The convention programs should be at the hotel by the time I return. My intent is to finish off the pre-registration stuff tonight as quickly as possible, prepare written staffing instructions for my registration volunteers and ensure the office is ready for our impromptu staff coordination meetings and to handle the unexpected from the registrants. I also intend to get some sleep but haven't figured out when I can spare the time for that.

Caller School Day 3 / IAGSDC Convention, Day -1

I arrived at the hotel at 8 AM to set up for the caller school. Thanks to the late night visit to the data center for work and packing my luggage when I got home, I had only four hours of sleep last night so I'm running a little slow. Indeed, I'm back at the data center as I write this to finish up the server resurrection from last night.

The wireless broadband modem I rented online arrived yesterday and I spent some time in the evening getting it configured on my laptop. It works beautifully; indeed, I used it this morning to push out a code deployment for work. I'm a happy camper.

Banners were being organized when I left the hotel last night; this morning, they were being sorted and shuffled by our volunteers and the hotel staff for hanging; all should be in place by the end of today.

The registration desk & office were ready for us so I moved our office equipment & stationery, the registration packets, the t-shirts and polo shirts, the swag and other mic items from the locked storage room to the new office space. This happened just in time for the arriving sound systems to be placed in the locked room.

Flooring has arrived and is currently being installed in all dance spaces except the Washington rooms (still in use by the GCA) and the Marriott Ballroom where the banners are being hung.

The dance schedule was finalized and sent for photocopying. I still need to have the GCA calling schedule reformatted for printing. The convention programs should be at the hotel by the time I return. My intent is to finish off the pre-registration stuff tonight as quickly as possible, prepare written staffing instructions for my registration volunteers and ensure the office is ready for our impromptu staff coordination meetings and to handle the unexpected from the registrants. I also intend to get some sleep but haven't figured out when I can spare the time for that.