[Balug-admin] [Balug-announce] October 18 2005 meeting, etc.

[Michael Hubbard]

Boy, that was a tedious email to get through.  I lost count with how 
many times you repeated yourself...

Just so that its very clear for you going forward, Dick and Larry aren't 
always up on email and list reading.  In fact, the best way of getting 
an important message to them is to send an email, then follow up with a 
phone call.

Regarding the reservations, the Four Seas has a reservation book that 
they log the meetings/events for the restaurant.  Usually before leaving 
one meeting, we would ensure they have the next one marked down.  That 
said, things can change at the restaurant and they have the right to 
take the room if they need.

Also, I can't remember her name right now (Dick and/or Larry would know 
it), but there's a woman who speaks perfect english, and she's the one 
we usually speak with about room reservations.

Knowing that the room isn't available for October, I would ask the 
speaker if they can reschedule for November, I'm sure they would 
understand.

--michael

On Tue, 18 Oct 2005 3:45, Michael Paoli wrote:
> Well, I'm rather certain I asked roughly week(s) or so ago on our 
> "admin"
> list <balug-admin-balug.org@lists.balug.org> if we'd gotten 
> confirmation
> on the "regular" meeting room, would have microphone, etc.
> I never got a response on that.  I'd give a URL(s) to that item in the
> archives, but at present lists.balug.org. isn't pingable and isn't 
> responding
> on TCP port 80.
>
> I called the restaurant this Monday afternoon asking if BALUG had the
> 3rd Floor Banquet Facility: "The China Room" available and reserved for
> our regular meeting.  Well, perhaps with some language issues and
> confusion, I seemed to get something that implied we had the room, but 
> perhaps
> they might've got confused and thought I was some other party
> trying to reserve the room, or who knows what, ... though I did clearly 
> and
> repeatedly mention and ask regarding BALUG, and regular monthly meeting 
> we
> usually have in the 3rd Floor Banquet Facility: "The China Room", etc.
>
> If we're sending relatively last minute stuff to the "announce" list 
> that
> we don't have the larger room, and may not have AV capabilities and
> microphone and such, ... we might (rightly or wrongly) be scaring 
> people
> off.  Of course if we show up with 40 or more people (not infeasible, 
> but 25
> to 30 is probably more probable), that could be a fair bit of an 
> "issue" if it
> is in fact the case that we don't have the
> 3rd Floor Banquet Facility: "The China Room" available (and AV hookup
> and microphone).
>
> Okay, ... now lists.balug.org is responding again, here's the URL where 
> I
> asked earlier:
> http://lists.balug.org/pipermail/balug-admin-balug.org/2005-September/000087.html
>
> This meeting's been fairly well publicized, so the turnout could be on 
> the
> largish side (presumably a topic a fair number of folks are interested 
> in,
> reasonable timing of earlier announcements to the BALUG announce lists,
> some mention on other lists, etc. ... I think I've also got at least
> 3 co-workers that I know of that are planning to attend too).
>
> So, ... what can we do to reduce these communication SNAFUs?, e.g.:
> Last month there was nothing on the web site or sent to the lists about
> speaker (well, except one item that went out less than 7 hours before 
> the
> meeting), so when I sent earlier "final" announcement out prior to the 
> Sept.
> meeting, it indicated we had no speaker - then we have speaker show up 
> at
> the meeting, indicating he'd confirmed apparently quite a while 
> earlier.
> At the Sept. meeting, that we had a speaker was apparently a complete 
> surprise
> to everyone (except the speaker himself)
> who showed up at the Sept. meeting.  At the Sept. meeting, apparently 
> no one -
> or at least no one that showed up at the meeting, was aware that the
> 3rd Floor Banquet Facility: "The China Room"
> wouldn't be available to us for that meeting (apparently they were 
> working
> on some remodeling up there).
> I asked weeks ago (2005-09-30) regarding Oct. meeting and if we'll have
> 3rd Floor Banquet Facility: "The China Room" (and microphone and AV 
> stuff).
> Until hours ago, I'd gotten no e-mail that addressed that.  Based on
> observations that, excepting once, we'd always had our meeting on the
> 3rd floor, and prior assurances that we'd not be without microphone
> availability again - and also what response I got when I called the
> restaurant this Monday afternoon, I was working on the presumption
> that we'd have the 3rd Floor Banquet Facility: "The China Room",
> microphone, etc., available to us.  Then less than 24 hours to the
> meeting, and we've got e-mail going out, including to the announce 
> list,
> stating that we don't have the 3rd Floor Banquet Facility: "The China 
> Room".
>
> references/excerpts:
> http://lists.balug.org/pipermail/balug-announce-balug.org/2005-September/000041.html
> http://lists.balug.org/pipermail/balug-announce-balug.org/2005-September/000046.html
> http://lists.balug.org/pipermail/balug-admin-balug.org/2005-September/000087.html
> http://lists.balug.org/pipermail/balug-announce-balug.org/2005-October/000049.html
> http://lists.balug.org/pipermail/balug-talk-balug.org/2005-October/003509.html
>
> Quoting Larry Platzek <larryp@inow.com>:
>
>>  Dick Verna recieved a call this evening saying our usuall meeting room
>>  will not be available for the October meeting. We can meet in the main
>>  dining area. I know may/will have impact on A/V use I hope will still 
>> work
>>  without the projector. I  think can still have a good meeting and see
>>  those who make it to the meeting!
>>
>>  We do have important change information, Will post after the meeting 
>> for
>>  those who do not make it to the meeting.
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