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2017-03 Remote Meetup Checklist

2017-03 Remote Meetup Checklist

Mar 30, 2017

(Note: don't check off the boxes on this page: make a copy for your own use when you run a particular meetup.)

Six weeks before

Picking a Date, Time & Topic

Pick a date and time

  • Date:  Remote meetups are typically on the fourth Thursday of the month.  Check the calendars of you and other members of the open source team, as well as the topic presenter's calendar (if you've got a presenter selected) in case there are any conflicts.  If there are conflicts, you can move the date.

  • Time:  Times for meetups alternate back and forth between 2-3pm Boston time and 10am-11am Boston time.  Check the last meetup's timing to determine the timing for the next one.

Pick a date and time for next meetup
As soon as you've settled on a date and time, book the room.  I strongly recommend starting 15 minutes before the scheduled meetup start time and going at least 15 if not 30 minutes past the meetup's scheduled end.  It can be difficult to get a room for 90-105 minutes across three hours (say, 9:45-11:15) so book ASAP.
Topics:  If you don't have a topic already picked out, you can ask the community for suggestions, look for inspiration from talks at the Open edX conference, or consult this list.  Topic presentations should run about 30 minutes, although a little more or less is fine.

Preparing for the Meetup

Create a new set of slides from this template.

    • Make the basic changes like the name of the month the meetup is taking place in.

    • There are three recurring sections:

      • Community Update: email oscm list asking for suggestions of what to cover, and add slides as needed.

      • Roadmap Update:  check the product roadmap update for the month on the portal, and create a brief summary slide, making sure to link back to the portal.

      • Community Spotlight: find one or two community members to highlight for the meetup.  Send them an email explaining what's involved and the questions to expect (Shauna has templates if you want to work from them) and make sure to remind them of the time constraints for this section.

Make sure you have manager access to the Open edX YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_34jgoNjHfro2S1V_-wyOw .  You may need to request access to this from IT if you don't have it already.
Make the hangout following these instructions: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7083786?hl=en and link to the slides in the summary/details for that hangout.  Note that the hangout should be under the 'Open edX Channel' YouTube account.  

One Week Before

Publicizing the Meetup

Send emails to General Open edX Discussion and Open edX Announcements groups.  Include a link to the hangout. 

Post a reminder in the #general Slack channel.
Tweet on @OpenEdX about the meetup, using a link to the forum post for more details.
Share reminders about the meetup internally at EdX via HipChat #edX group.

Coordinate with Presenters

Write to all presenters, double-checking that they are available, thanking them for participating, and explaining to them that they should join the hangout 15 minutes before the scheduled start time.

One Day Before

Publicizing the Meetup (Again)

Send emails to edx-code and openedx-announce.  Include a link to the hangout. 
Post a reminder in the #general Slack channel.
Tweet on @OpenEdX about the meetup, using a link to the forum post for more details.
Share reminders about the meetup internally at EdX via Hipchat.

Day of the meetup: 15 minutes before

Get to the room and open up the hangout.  Click the 'go live' button to start the hangout.  Do not click the 'start broadcast' button yet.
Make sure the presenters are in the hangout. Invite them to the hangout by adding them or by sharing the link, and check that they're able to join and that you can hear and see them.
Get someone else in the room to join the hangout "as the room" so they can display the #remotemeetup slack channel on the room monitor.  This person will also be in charge of reading the channel and bringing questions into the discussion as appropriate.  You can also display the hangout stream but remember it almost always lags a minute or two behind.
Set up the room microphone and have everyone inside the room mute their computer's microphones.
Post slides and Hangout URLs to Slack #remotemeetup channel.
Start the meetup when the time comes!

Day of the meetup: afterwards

If there were any technical difficulties or other problems, especially at the beginning or end of the meetup, you may want to cut that out of the final recording.  If you cut footage, Google typically takes at least a few hours hours to process it.
Add links to the YouTube video page:
Add a link to the beginning of the Slack conversation in the Slack archive (ex: https://openedx.slack.com/archives/remotemeetup/p1472148141000026)
Add a link to the slides too if they're not already there
Add links to the first slide in the deck
Add a link to the YouTube recording.
Add a link to the Slack conversation in the Slack archive.
Post a follow up email to edx-code and openedx-announce with a link to the recording, slides, and discussion, making sure to thank any presenters.
Update the #remotemeetup slack channel topic to point to the previous month's recording.
Transcriptions: send a link to the YouTube video to Clayton, who will pass it along to the transcription account manager.  They will send you back a transcription file in txt and srt format within the week.

Later (when the transcriptions come back)

Edit the YouTube recording to add the srt file, and check that the timing does seem to be working out.  (Dashboard → Videos → Edit dropdown → "Subtitles & CC")
Send a follow up email to the mailing list, and add a reminder ping on Slack, saying that the video has been updated with the transcription.