INSTRUCTIONS FOR BMRC SEMINAR COORDINATOR
Compiled by Beth Ebert, April 1998
Updated by Diana Greenslade in March 2001, and Matthew Wheeler in April 2003
BMRC runs a seminar series that contains both formal and informal talks on a range of topics of interest to the Bureau. Wednesday mornings at 10:00 a.m is the usual time, but they may be arranged for any time. The job of the BMRC Seminar Coordinator entails the following tasks:
· updating the seminar schedule
· arranging videotaping of seminars on request
· maintaining the seminar mailing list
· maintaining internal web page of seminar documents
This document describes these tasks, with notes from the experiences
from past coordinators. The time commitment is usually about an hour or
two each week, in addition to the time spent attending the seminar(s).
1. Organising seminar speakers
Most speakers are BMRC staff, although it is good to include other people within and outside the Bureau. When the schedule needs to be filled or augmented, recruit speakers by e-mail invitation and by personal contact. When another scientist visits the Bureau, the staff member being visited often arranges for the visitor to give a seminar. It's best if he/she arranges the seminar through the Coordinator so you know what's happening. These seminars are generally in addition to the usual Wednesday morning seminars, unless arranged far in advance or as a replacement for an informal seminar which has been cancelled. Try to avoid scheduling seminars back to back. If the speaker can provide you with an abstract of his/her talk, it tends to bring more people to the seminar.
Other branches in the Bureau whose members are frequently willing to give BMRC seminars (or who may have visitors wishing to give seminars) are NCC, NMC, BMTC, Services Policy, Hydrology, OEB, and COSB.
Don't schedule any informal speakers for the week of the BMRC Modeling
Workshop (usually during October), as there are many visitors who will
want to give seminars in BMRC.
The seminar schedule is maintained as an HTML document on gale:
Unix: /bm/gweb/external/basic/events/seminars_hp.htm
or PC: \\GALE\bmgweb\external\basic\events\seminars_hp.htm
This file can be edited using any editor. To edit this file you must
get write permission for this directory (see current sysadmin). If there
is an abstract to go with the seminar, include it in the HTML document.
It is important that this file be kept as up to date as possible. The seminar
co-ordinator should keep a backup copy of this schedule in their own diskspace
or on their PC. Also in the events directory are the seminar schedules
for all of the seminars that were given in past years (back to 2001). Do
not delete these files as they are an important record of what took place!
You should also keep a backup of these, and have the appropriate html cross-referencing
to them from the current schedule.
You should electronically advertise the seminars by sending e-mail messages to:
bmrc_seminars@bom.gov.au
Other e-mail aliases that may be used, depending on the seminar topic, are:
nmc_all@bom.gov.au
cosb_nmc_all@bom.gov.au
Most BMRC seminars take place in the BMRC Conference Room on the 13th floor. On the bookshelf in the administration area there is an appointment book for reserving the Conference Room. The secretaries know not to schedule any other bookings on Wednesday mornings at 10 a.m., but write the seminars into the book just to be safe. For other potential seminar times, check the book first before arranging the seminar. If the slot is clear then enter the seminar in the book.
Other venues to consider are the small and large conference rooms on
the 5th floor. One of the administrative staff can reserve the room for
you.
During the last few years we have videotaped seminars on request from people in Head Office or the Regional Offices who cannot attend the seminar. They hear about the seminar, usually via the e-mail announcements, and put in a request to the Coordinator that a particular seminar be videotaped. There are a few people in BMRC who now how to do it. BMRC has its own video camera, kept by the last person who made a video! The camera takes 8 mm (exabyte) tape, which we provide for our own use.
After the seminar has been filmed, the exabyte must be transcribed onto VHS tape to run on a normal VCR. When the transcription is completed, take the videotape and the original exabyte tape to the Library to be catalogued. Ask the librarians to send the tape to the people who requested it
Finally, indicate on the current and/or past seminar web-page that a
video exists by including the camera icon in the date column.
First thing in the morning (before 9am), or before leaving on the previous day...
Send an e-mail message to allbmrc and bmrc_seminars@bom.gov.au to remind people of the seminar.
30 minutes before...
If any equipment is required beyond just the overhead projector, set them up now, e.g. video-camera, data-projection system.
15 minutes before...
Check that the Conference Room is tidy, that the chairs are in place, and the overhead projector or data-projection system is set up, works properly, and is focussed on the screen.
5 minutes before...
Do the "town crier" -- go around all of BMRC and remind everyone of the seminar title and speaker. This is a signal for people to finish up what they're doing and get their coffee before the seminar starts.
Just before the seminar time...
While people are settling (usually during the first five minutes) get some biographical information from the speaker -- where he/she studied, when he/she joined the Bureau, what he/she has been working on lately, anything that might be of interest. If the seminar looks to be very popular and the room is likely to fill up, check that nobody is using the Board Room next door, then open the folding divider to make more space.
Start time (or just after)
Introduce the speaker. When the speaker puts on the first slide, turn off the lights in the front of the room (bottom light switch!). This is not necessary if the data-projection system is being used. BMRC informal seminars usually last 30 minutes, while visitors' seminars usually last one hour.
After the speaker has finished...
You should stand and moderate the questions (some speakers may prefer
to do this themselves). If there are no questions from the audience, you
should be prepared with one of your own (this means you have to pay attention
during the seminar!). After a reasonable time for questions, thank the
speaker and applaud. Return all equipment that has been borrowed. Close
the folding divider to the Board Room if necessary.
7. Maintaining the seminar mailing list
Anyone working in BMRC will automatically be put on the allbmrc@gale list, so you don't have to worry about that one.
The Seminar Coordinator is the administrator of the bmrc_seminars@bom.gov.au mailing list. This is done through the "majordomo" system. You can look at the list, add and subtract names by sending e-mail messages to majordomo@bom.gov.au. See the majordomo web page for instructions on how to use it:
http://web.bom.gov.au/srcs/majordomo/majordomo-index.html
Normally you won't have to do much except occasionally delete an address that can no longer be found. People wanting to get onto this mailing list should send an e-mail to majordomo@bom.gov.au and include in the body of the message
subscribe bmrc_seminars
It is easier for them to do this themselves than for you to put them on the list. To get off of the list, they send a message saying
unsubscribe bmrc_seminars
Sometimes people will ask you to remove them, or mail may be returned with "address unknown". In this case, send an e-mail to majordomo@bom.gov.au with the text:
approve "password" unsubscribe bmrc_seminars "address"
The password can be obtained from the previous seminar co-ordinator.
When transferring Seminar Coordinators, the authority over the mailing
list bmrc_seminars@bom.gov.au must be transferred to the new Coordinator
by someone in the Networking section of COSB (currently that person is
Lena Mayevsky x4573).
It is nice to keep other groups informed about BMRC seminars, and also to pass on information from them about seminars at their place. Some contacts are:
CSIRO Atmospheric Research (Current contact is simon.torok@csiro.au)
The CAR Colloquia are usually on Friday mornings at 11:00 a.m. The web page listing CAR Colloquia and abstracts can be found at
http://www.dar.csiro.au/res/Colloquia.htm
CAR often sends flyers about their seminars, which should be posted on the 13th floor bulletin board and broadcast via the usual e-mail channels.
Monash University Atmospheric Science group (Stewart Allen: stewart.allen@maths.monash.edu.au)
These are usually on Fridays at 1pm. The web page for these seminars is:
http://www.meteorology.monash.edu.au/research/seminar2.shtml
Monash Centre for Dynamical Meteorology and Oceanography (jointly with BMRC) puts out a weekly Broadsheet giving details of seminars at BMRC and Monash. Contact Denise Cove (denise.cove@sci.monash.edu.au) to get onto the list.
Melbourne University School of Earth Sciences -
We currently don't have any regular contact with them, but some possible people are Ian Simmonds (simmonds@unimelb.edu.au) and Kevin Walsh (kevin.walsh@unimelb.edu.au).
It would be nice for BMRC and CAR to share more information on who's
visiting who, as we often miss out on speaking to international visitors
simply because we don't know they're in town. Sometimes the only way to
find out about visitors is through seminar announcements, but there ought
to be a better way...
Overhead projector - There should be two in the Conference Room, but if not, check in the Board Room next door. One spare globe should be in the projector housing; additional globes can be obtained from Dave Pike, who knows how to change them.
Slide projector - The BMRC slide projector sits either in the Conference Room or in the Admin area. The carousel that comes with it does not take the fat slides that are produced in some European countries. Dave Pike will change the globe when necessary.
SVGA LCD (computer) projector - These projectors connect to PCs and laptop computers to project the image from the monitor to the large screen. There is one mounted on the ceiling in the 13th floor seminar room. Instructions are stuck on the wall next to the PC.
VCR - There is a VCR in the 13th floor conference room which expects PAL format, which is the standard in Europe and Australia. Videotapes from the USA are in a different format called NTSC. The Bureau has one VCR that can handle NTSC format, and it is part of the integrated audiovisual equipment for the large conference room on the 5th floor, so any seminar in which the speaker requires a VCR that can play American videotapes must be held on the 5th floor. Contact Michael Whitehead (x4202) to arrange seminars on the 5th floor.
Video camera - Peter Powers currently holds it.
10. Maintaining internal web page of seminar documents
These days, most seminars are conducted using some kind of computer
graphics software, such as powerpoint, displayed by the data projector.
It is important to ask the seminar speakers for a copy of their computer
files so that you can place them on the internal Bureau web. This web page
is at http://gale.ho.bom.gov.au/bm/internal/seminars/index.html. Through
gale, this html file is located in the directory /bm/gweb/internal/seminars.
The organisation of these directories and files is fairly obvious. You
perhaps should also occassionaly back-up these.