[LTER-asm2015committee] Updates

[John Vande Castle]

Committee:

So here at LNO, we have been swamped with last minute "requests" and
modifications, requiring some re-jiggering and executive
decision-making.  The ASM website has been updated as content arrives,
and wording needed to be changed after deadlines etc.
http://asm2015.lternet.edu/

We now have 19 judges (up from 11 after the last all-lter message) for
the student poster competition.  We currently have 126 posters.  Even if
we only have 3 reviews per poster, and have 19 judges review 126
posters, that means they have to review TWENTY posters.  I think the
limit is really 10, I would like to do only 5 - so we will have to see
how many volunteers we get, and decide if we can go through with this.

I have been monitoring the posters, removing duplicate entries, changing
ALL CAP titles to match the rest, moving "Site Description/Science"
theme posters that aren't such to other themes and such.  Nothing seems
horribly out of place.

Working Groups and other "activities" are a bit of a different animal.

First the Working Group subcommittee, or anybody who wants to should
review the working groups.
http://asm2015.lternet.edu/working-groups

I am actually amazed at how well people self-organized.  I did ask some
organizers to move things around, so there has been some sorting
already.  I also did limit the sessions to a MAXIMUM of 12/session (last
submissions were asked to move) and don't see any horrible conflicts.
I've also been busy trying to keep the working groups in the central
meeting rooms - We already released the "Wind River" rooms way up on the
hill, as well as all the "Rainbow" and "Fireside" rooms way to the east.
 We still have a few spare on most days in the Emerald Mountain Lodge.

NSF folks (Tim Kratz) wanted to have a discussion session for NEON and
Macrosystems, late on an afternoon, with "beverages".  We were able to
compartmentalize this in a separate building (the "Willome" where we had
the poster session back in 2006) to keep the YMCA folks happy.
http://asm2015.lternet.edu/working-groups/neon-science-and-nsf-macrosystems-program

There were complaints that the NCEAS "LNCO" discussion submitted as a
working group in a completely full session was going to conflict with
ALL the sessions at that time.

SO, we moved the movie screening (thanks again Hugh) to be the OPENING
activity for the Wednesday evening closing mixer.  This is perhaps a
good thing since we can have beer and POPCORN, which we couldn't do in
the Auditorium   - life doesn't get better than that.  The LNCO
discussion is now a sort of town-hall meeting in the auditorium,
replacing the original "screening" time slot on Monday.  I added an
extra "Ad-hoc 2a" time slot for this.  I love how the software selected
the wording for the entry:
http://asm2015.lternet.edu/working-groups/lter-national-communications-office-nceas-what-can-we-do-you

We asked for 15 pizzas, just like on Sunday, night to magically appear
as the movie ends, for "hor de vours"  (its a lot cheaper than buckets
of salsa and chips).

The NSF Town hall discussion is on, pretty much identical to the LNCO
discussion, in the same time slot on Tuesday.  People that don't want to
go to these can have a more leisurely dinner, go for a hike, and join
the mixer which will overlap, starting at 7:30PM.

We will probably need to send the program (agenda, working group and
poster titles etc) to the printer next week, maybe a week later, to have
it ready to go to CO.

Housing requests and registrations are still coming in (I am surprised
at how many people don't mind paying extra for "late"" registration -
even some of you folks...).  Best estimate is something north of 600 so
far, a little less than 2012, and we are surprised at how many people
are NOT leaving before Wednesday evening.

If you folks have any other thoughts or suggestions reply to this and it
will go to the group.  If you see anything odd, or out of place on the
website (with-in reason) please let me know.

 -jvc