I haven't observed that many newcomers at the newcomer meet-and-greet.
They seem to be overwhelmed (numerically) by the ADs+chairs that go, which
is reinforced by ADs+chairs using it as a taking-care-of-business
opportunity as John observed.
So, also along the "much as I like free beer", maybe it should be just the
ADs, unless the number of newcomers that go increases.
-MSK
On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 4:07 PM, Michael Richardson
<mcr+ietf(_at_)sandelman(_dot_)ca>wrote:
"Ted" == Ted Lemon <Ted(_dot_)Lemon(_at_)nominum(_dot_)com> writes:
>> I personally believe that while strongly recommending to the WG
>> chairs to adopt the concept we should leave the implementation up
>> to each of them without much formalization and process
>> building. Let us not forget that we will have a variety of WGs
>> from large WGs meeting the first time with a lot of new
>> participants to small WGs at their 20th or 40th meeting with a
>> handful of new participants and anything in the middle.
Ted> They will need a mechanism for addressing newcomers, unless we
Ted> think that we can just rely on the working group mailing lists.
Let's assume for a moment that we do that.
First, WG chairs can receive a message when people subscribe.
They can also set some welcome text that go to new users.
If we leverage that part, then we can perhaps build a kind of
FAQ/Checklist for new people. Given that I also said that I wanted
additional semi-official hats that can be delegated out, the roles of:
1) list manager
2) newcomer greeter
come to mind.
As to the newcomer meet and greet... I actually think we got it a bit
backwards. I think that WG chairs should be uninvited. (as much as I
like free beer). Rather, I think that the newcomer meet and greet
(and free beer) should follow the newcomer orientation session.
Instead, I think that newcomers need to meet other newcomers. If they
are going to meet with a mentor/greeter person, then a slot just before
the reception would be good... I'd say just open the reception doors to
newcomers and the mentors 20 minutes early.
--
Michael Richardson
-on the road-