[Imc] General observations and comments from a newbie

[Travas Gunnell]

Hello all,
In the brief amount of time that I've been hanging
around the Urbana IMC (a little over a week), which
has included two Steering Committee meetings, one
Tech, and one Print meeting, I have some general
impressions and suggestions that may be of value.

Availability and Organization of Information:

     While there is certainly no lack of information
about the events, projects, and other happenings of
the IMC, it takes a while to figure out where one is
to find relevant information, or even to realize that
such information exists.  Bits of useful information
are spread around between various mailing lists,
pieces of paper on cluttered cork boards, individuals
brains, and who knows where else.  I think this is
confusing to new people who are trying to get a real
sense of how the IMC operates, what the IMC does, and
how to get involved.  It also seems to occasionally
confuse the core members, as has been pointed out by
Paul Riismandel in reference to the recent happenings
in the Print group.
     I think that a central, easy to find, easy to
read, easy to update, physically existing, well lit,
general information board would help to alleviate this
problem.  My suggestion would be a large marker-board,
using lots of pretty colors, located near the front
door of the IMC.  Taking into consideration the
present arrangement of the IMC and the work involved,
the area to the left of the bathroom, where the
out-of-date FTAA stuff is, seems like it would be a
good place.  I would envision this board containing:

 - A small section for each of the existing groups,
with each of these group sections containing a BRIEF
description of projects being worked on, who to
contact and how to contact them if you're interested
in said project, and any pointers to other places to
look for more information (i.e. corkboard, email list,
etc.).

 - Also, upcoming events; where to find the various
IMC policies regarding equipment use, food purchases,
space rental, etc.; any other pertinent issues.

     Furthermore, all members would take pains to
ensure that the board is kept up to date, and remains
pretty and easy to read.  A further suggestion would
be to have some post-it notes of different sizes
always available so people could leave small,
temporary, pertinent notes (though I could see this
potentially leading to a cluttered board).

     Also, this marker-board could be more-or-less
mirrored online, but then, of course, there's the
issue of who's going to maintain it.  Since the web
stuff is mostly done by a small, overworked, group of
people (one or two?), this probably isn't a terribly
viable option right now.

So anyway, that's my two cents.  I'm sure others will
have something to say on this subject...  so, what do
y'all think?

-Travas


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