[CLUE-Adm] Speaker Guidelines

[Dave Hahn]

Document looks great, well written, needed and very 'jucy'.  :-) 
However, while we are on the topic...

One other thing that seems to happen, but, having been up front a few
times, I'm not sure there's a good way to handle it without alienating
the audience, is the way and type of questions that are asked *during* a
presentation.  Afterward is a different can of worms.

It is difficult to be presenting and have someone in the audience decide
to give 5 minute statement about how the presenter is:

    - Not addressing the topic the way they fell it should be addressed.
    (Depth of expertise, introduction)
    - Not covering what they feel needs to be covered.  (I.e. 'I know
    that we are discussing HTML and how to build a web page, but I want
    to know how to get my PHP script to properly read the session
    variables as determined by the value of the cookie I set during the
    last session using perl?')
    - 'I do it this way and so should you.'

I think we lose sight, sometimes, of the fact that the people presenting
are not generally paid thousands of dollars to be experts in the area in
which they are presenting.  They are club attendees that have found
something interesting and they want to share.  They are not the the guys
from SGI talking about the inner-depths of XFS.

Although this is not a 'speaker topic' per se, I think it is a speaker
concern.  We may have more people willing to present if this issue is
handled; the whole thing is less daunting when the spectre of
embarrassment is removed.

I think the only solution may be to have the group leaders, I'm assuming
those of us on the Clue-Admin list, be willing to speak up when this
happens.  It is difficult in the position of the speaker to say 'That's
nice, but not relevant.  Please ask your question as a later time.'
(I.e. During an installation KISS session an audience member asked two
questions about installing BSD.  The speaker was left to flounder and
claim ignorence.  Which, although accurate, is embarrassing.  Completely
kills one's train of thought.)  To quote Grant, 'So, are there any more
*good* questions?'.

Just something to think about, feel free to tell me to find a frigid
lake to go jump in, pound sand, or ask if there are any 'good
questions'. 

-D

P.S. Grant - I thought the whole thing was wonderful.  Really, I did. 
It was great.  

On Sun, 2002-02-17 at 10:37, Jeffery Cann wrote:

    This is not yet linked to the web site, but please review and post comments 
    to the list:
    
    http://clue.denver.co.us/speakerGuide.html
    
    Thanks
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