For a meeting of ten to forty people, in a room, online, or both. Cross out what does not apply to yours. The parts marked (online) or (in person) are for that kind of meeting only.
Four weeks before
- [ ] Pick the date and time. If the group meets regularly, keep to its usual slot (the second Tuesday of the month, 18:30). Check it does not fall on a public holiday, or on the day of a conference most of your people will be at.
- [ ] Find the place. (in person) A room with a screen or a projector, power for laptops, and Wi-Fi that guests can use. Companies that use Lisp, universities, hackerspaces and libraries often lend a room for free. Ask about access out of hours, and what time you must be out.
- [ ] Set up the room online. (online) On
meet.common-lisp.net, a room of
your own takes an account: ask for one at
https://common-lisp.net/registration/#request. See
5-online-and-hybrid.md. - [ ] Find the talk. One talk of 20 to 40 minutes, or three or four lightning talks of 5 minutes. Ask early; people say yes to a date a month away much more readily than to next week. A talk need not be polished: "what I built this month and what went wrong" is often the best talk of the evening.
- [ ] Decide the format. The standard agenda (
2-agenda.md), a hack night, or a reading group. - [ ] Post it on the calendar at https://common-lisp.net/meetings/,
and wherever your group already gathers.
3-announcements.mdhas the words.
One week before
- [ ] Remind people. A short post on the same channels as the announcement; say what the talk is.
- [ ] Confirm with the speaker: the time they have, how they will show their screen, and whether they mind being recorded.
- [ ] Confirm the room (in person): who opens the door, who has the key, the Wi-Fi password, where people should wait if they are early.
- [ ] Name a host for newcomers. One person whose job is to greet
people they do not know, help them get a REPL running
(
6-newcomers.md), and introduce them to someone. - [ ] Print the sign-in sheet, the lightning-talk sheet and the door
sign (
printables.html). (in person) - [ ] Edit the welcome slides (
welcome-slides.html): the date, the speaker, the Wi-Fi, the contact for the code of conduct.
On the day
- [ ] Arrive thirty minutes early. Put up the door sign, test the projector with the speaker's laptop, check the Wi-Fi, set out the sign-in sheet.
- [ ] Open the online room fifteen minutes early (online), so the first people to arrive find someone there.
- [ ] Start on time, even if the room is half full. People who are late learn that the meeting starts on time; people who were on time are not kept waiting.
- [ ] Welcome everyone and say the code of conduct in a sentence or two, and who to talk to if something is wrong.
- [ ] Ask before recording, and say aloud when the recording starts and stops.
- [ ] Keep time for the speakers, kindly: a card or a message at five minutes and at one minute.
- [ ] Announce the next meeting before people leave, while they are all in the room.
- [ ] Leave the room as you found it. (in person)
After
- [ ] Thank the speaker and the host of the room, in public if they would like it.
- [ ] Write a short recap within a few days: what was shown, links
to the slides and code, the date of the next meeting. The recap
template is in
3-announcements.md. - [ ] Send the common-lisp.net admins a link to the recap if you would like it in the site's news: https://common-lisp.net/registration/#request.
- [ ] Post the next meeting on the calendar, if it repeats on a different pattern than the one you posted.
- [ ] Keep the sign-in sheet only as long as you need it, and only for what people agreed to when they signed it.
- [ ] Ask one or two people what could be better, and change one thing next time.