[TheForge] ABANA conference program problems

[Bruce Freeman]

I realize these conferences are organized largely by the local section,
but REALLY it's about time these organizational problems were fixed.  It
really should be up to ABANA to evaluate and log these problems, and to
come up with better ways of doing things.

 I attended the 1998 conference, and missed SO MUCH because the
available information was so poorly presented that I found it difficult
to get to the demos most interesting to me.  

Since then I've attended as many of the local conferences and demos as
I've been able to, and find they provide much more bang for the buck
(counting ALL the bucks - travel, lodging, conference fees, food).

 I have not been tempted to go to another ABANA conference.  I'll go to
the New Paltz one (2008?) because it's so close by, but maybe my
contribution (time permitting) will be to present the program in a
manner to allow people to actually attend the demos they most want to
see, instead of spending megahours figuring out what will be where, then
finding the schedule was changed anyway.

Bruce
NJ

>>> mpaietta at iglide.net 7/13/2006 1:20:31 AM >>>
<snip>
I really enjoyed the classes, but it was not organized well. They had
four different lists that seamed hidden on the website. The demo list
with
times, locations, and demonstrator did not say what they were
demonstrating,
that was on another list. The list changed and was not updated very
well. My
friend wanted to go on the UW metal lab tour the people who were
volunteering their time were not informed of the different tours. There
had
been an issue long before with the local chapter and the person in
charge of
the conference.  <snip>

Regards
Martin