Guide to doing SIPB tours.  This is a guide for whomever is doing tours.

0.  Start 4-5 weeks before the actual tours.  This gives you enough
lead time to get demos, but short enough that people have a vague idea
of their schedule.

1.  Choose a date.  Consult the R/O calendar, and find a night which
does not contain a mandatory activity for freshmen.  (also avoid
non-mandatory but popular activities for freshmen.)  Week nights are
better for the media lab, but a Sunday might work.  

See if it's possible to get a flier given out with all the shit they
give freshmen when they check in at beginning of R/O, or maybe even to
get it listed in the R/o hitchiker's guide if you get your act
together quickly enough. (they list other tours there.) I didn't try
this last year.

2.  Contact SIPB members/friends in AI, LCS, Media-lab, and ECF.
Squeeze out of them research groups that are interesting and the name of
somebody in the group who is likely to want to give a demo.  In the
Media-lab, Pascal is a good contact.  Andre' or Debby (^kerr) in AI
can help.  They don't have to do anything -- just give you names.  Do
this over the phone or in person if possible (since you can discuss
what you're looking for with them).  For Athena, the propaganda
dominatrix (Janet Daly) is a good contact.

3.  Send out a message, addressed individually, to these people.  A
sample is in tour.ask and tour.again.  Change the group name in the message.
Individual messages avoid the "Somebody else's problem" effect.

	You probably want to tell people that this will involve giving
the same presentation 3 times over the evening, once as each of the
three tour groups rotates through.  Find out how many people they can
accomodate, and how long they want to talk for (it would be nice to
keep this short.)  You could wait until they say yes before asking
them about these detail, though.

4.  Wait for replies.  Be ready to answer questions about how the
tours operate.  Keep track of who has agreed to do tours. [tour.groups]

5.  Con SIPB members into doing a couple stops if necessary, such as
the chairman to explain what the SIPB is, and maybe another one for
Athena.  Ask in person.  Smile.

6.  Two to four weeks before, find a speaker.  Jeff Schiller, Ron
Hoffmann or Jon Rochlis are good possibilities.  Or maybe Richard
Stallman or Gerry Sussman.  A little variety may be good.  Ask them if
they would like to speak.

7.  Have somebody make up a poster for the tours.  Steal last year's
and modify it if necessary.  Make ~100 copies of the poster, and poster
the clusters a week before the tour.  Poster other places (Infinite
Corridor, etc) 4 days before.

8.  Send mail to *bboard@ai.mit.edu and usermsgs@athena.mit.edu
announcing the tour.

9.  Send out a message to SIPB asking for shepherds and sheep dogs for
the tour.  Get at least six people to commit.  Talk to people
personally if necessary.  Threaten bodily harm.

10.  Schedule stops.  Alan Bawden supposedly has a scheduling program
for this (see Penny's message in tour.mail file).  (I didn't find this
program last year.. -abbe) Generally, three groups rotating through
AI/LCS, Media-lab, and other seems to work.  If you feel up to it,
walk the tour to get an idea of times between stops.  You should pray
for timing to work out such that this isn't impossible, and also that
nobody wants a heinously small group which would mean you'd have to
split groups up even further.

-----This is tricky.  An ideal number is probably 3-4 stops each at
AI/LCS, media lab, and other places (e40, sipb office, etc.)  Hope for
aobut 3 groups of 15-25 people, who can go in different orders to each
of the locations and circle through the stops.

11.  Come up with a flyer for the tour guides.  This is a listing of
the stops, schedule, etc, and some subtle reminders for them to thank
the demoers, etc.  It should describe what you expect them to do once
they get to a site (knock on the door, phone, etc).  You may have to
give the tour guides a combination or two.  [tour.guide]

12.  Arrange for food.  At the meeting before the tour, ask for
funding of up to $75 for food.  Con a couple SIPB members with a car
to shop for food and bring it over.  If necessary, this can be done at
Laverde's.  Check SIPB supplies for cups and plates.  A listing of the
food that got eaten in 1992 is in tour.mail from 1992 (in terms of
what gets eaten).  The SIPB members should save the receipt so that
they can be reimbursed.

13.  Show up at the arranged time at the arranged place (usually Lobby
7, 6:45-7:00pm).  Introduce yourself, and explain how the tour is
going to be organized (# of tours, stops, every tour goes to the same
stop).  Some people may want to go to the media-lab first (so they can
punt the other stops).  If you feel generous, tell them.

14.  Let the tours go.  Lead a tour.  Have fun.  Eat afterwards, and
listen to the speaker.

15.  Send mail to the demo'ers, thanking them for showing their stuff
off.

16.  Update the tour files as neceesary.  Write out all correspondence
for future reference.  All the mail is archived in tour.mail, it's
kind of messy and out of date order though.