Logistics

[mikeal]

Potential Venues

Event must be held in a space provided by one of the public parks. Preferably with an adjacent outdoor space that is pleasant to hang in.

• Mission Bay Pavilion (only available August and September, then it turns in to a cafe).
• Jackson Park/Clubhouse http://www.sfparksalliance.org/our-parks/parks/jackson-playground

Potential Recurring Dates

Let's list and try to avoid overlap with other recurring SF web related events.

• WaffleJS is Wednesday, August 5 at 7 PM

Equipment

We may need multiple microphones and we need to record the audio. Something portable is ideal, many venues will have a PA we can plug in to.

Organizing

I think that we should experiment with literally everything being organized on GitHub, including the planning and collaboration between the organizers. I've done CFP's that way before but usually the organizational part is done in a private repo we make public later.

Every event should have 2 people dedicated to specific roles:

• Host & Curator
  • For each event it's nice to have one voice who is the final say in content curation.
• Audio Technician
  • Makes sure the equipment will be there and sits there monitoring the audio the entire time to make sure it is of good enough quality to publish as a podcast

We should have people move in and out of these roles for each event to avoid burnout.

[mikeal]

@othiym23 what equipment would you suggest?

[mikeal]

@visnup are you planning on doing WaffleJS the first Wednesday of every month?

[mikeal]

Added an Organizing section.

[mikeal]

Added Jackson Park.

[visnup]

@mikeal yup, first Wednesday every month.

[visnup]

I like the idea of organizers moving in and out as time goes on.

[mikeal]

Maybe we should do the second Wednesday of the month, that way WaffleJS can mention us at their event and it's not too far away that people won't come, and we can do the same in turn for the next awesome event that starts up on the third Wednesday :)

[Trott]

Oooh, this opens possibilities for events in outer neighborhoods.

• Crocker-Amazon Playground Clubhouse: http://www.sfparksalliance.org/our-parks/parks/crocker-amazon-playground
• That building near Sharon Meadow in Golden Gate Park or any of a number of other buildings in Golden Gate Park
• Glen Park Rec Center: http://sfrecpark.org/destination/glen-park/glen-park-rec-center/

Putting aside weather concerns, there's probably good possibilities at Lake Merced and/or Fort Funston and/or Lincoln Park too.

[Trott]

Not sure if there's an implied public cattle call for volunteers for organizers or if you are instead sending out feelers privately on that, but totally interested.

[othiym23]

@mikeal

1. two lapel mics + a base station for hosts
2. 2+ Shure SM58s with foam covers for breezes for guests and audience questions
3. mixer
4. small, self-powered PA
5. (maybe) small generator (The Wirecutter has a couple recommendations in their disaster preparedness guide)
6. an adaptor to hook the mixer up to a laptop for recording / live mixdown
7. some kind of structure for shade / drizzle protection (even if you're "sheltered", having some kind of tenty thing with a lightweight frame increases flexibility)

I think you already have most of this. Nothing more than could be fit in, say, a Prius (and even then, the generator's going to be a bit of a stretch). Pack the whole thing up with all the necessary cabling, print out a manifest / checklist of everything that's included, and store it separately from the rest of the A/V gear so organizers can load it in and out quickly.

[mikeal]

two lapel mics + a base station for hosts

I have two shure bodypacks and an XLR base station. Are we sure the host needs a label mic tho? I prefer the big Elvis mic for hosting :)

I currently have the countryman mics, not label mics, is that fine?

2+ Shure SM58s with foam covers for breezes for guests and audience questions

Those don't look too expensive

mixer

Would my current mixer work?

small, self-powered PA

I think most of these venues will have a PA. If the weather gets more reliable and we try to do something outside we could use my small self powered PA.

(maybe) small generator (The Wirecutter has a couple recommendations in their disaster preparedness guide)

Again, I think most of the venues will have power, even the outdoor ones, unless we try to do something in one of the big regional parks :)

For the most part we're looking for covered buildings in parks, nothing fully outdoors, as the weather in SF just isn't reliable enough to do a monthly outdoor event.

an adaptor to hook the mixer up to a laptop for recording / live mixdown

Would it be better or more reliable to use one of the handheld recorders rather than trying to setup a full laptop? I think I already have a few of these recorders around.

[mikeal]

@Trott we'll certainly need staffing and promotional help per event. Just follow this repo and when we end up posting a new Issue for the first event put your hand up if you're available on that day :)

[othiym23]

I have two shure bodypacks and an XLR base station. Are we sure the host needs a label mic tho? I prefer the big Elvis mic for hosting :)

If you're hosting, you can do whatever the heck you want. ;) Lapel mics are unobtrusive and keep your hands free, is my thinking.

I currently have the countryman mics, not label mics, is that fine?

The only problem with countryman mics is that they're a pain to get on and off, particularly for people who haven't used them before.

Would my current mixer work?

Yeah. It's got phantom power for the mics, and (hopefully) enough channels for whatever inputs you might throw at it.

I think most of these venues will have a PA. If the weather gets more reliable and we try to do something outside we could use my small self powered PA.

Yeah, the Yamaha can handle this, no problem.

I think most of the venues will have power, even the outdoor ones, unless we try to do something in one of the big regional parks :)

My experience throwing parties in San Francisco parks is that the best location to have events isn't always the best location for power. I leave it to your discretion. We're talking a couple hundred bucks here, max.

Would it be better or more reliable to use one of the handheld recorders rather than trying to setup a full laptop? I think I already have a few of these recorders around.

Maybe, but:

• pretty much everybody has a laptop available already
• laptop + MyFi (or equivalent pairing device) = live streaming

Again, it's your call. This is just what I'd do for maximum flexibility. I do think that your current mixer's USB out is more than adequate for hooking up to a laptop; all you need is the right USB cable to hook it up (we've used that for DanceJS things in the past).