From: jtidwell@Athena.MIT.EDU
Message-Id: <9308242059.AA00872@primavera>
To: abbe@Athena.MIT.EDU
Cc: marthag@Athena.MIT.EDU, jtidwell@Athena.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: sipb tour scheduling 
In-Reply-To: Your message of Tue, 17 Aug 93 14:24:23 -0400.
             <9308171824.AA14778@milquetoast.MIT.EDU> 
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 93 16:59:28 EDT

Sorry it took me so long to get to this, but I've been on vacation for
about ten days... 

Having taken a look at the scheduling info, I can see a few potential
problems.  (Nothing that can't be worked around, though, hopefully.)
First, there will be a *lot* of walking -- the tours go to four
buildings, two of which (LCS and E40) are rather far apart.  So a lot
of time will be spend between buildings.  We might need to punt one of
the stops.

What exactly is Janet Daly doing in E40?  Is she giving an
intro-to-Athena type demo?  If so, it won't go over well, since you
will most likely have far more upperclassmen than frosh.  (This
happened a couple of years ago.)  Can she demo stuff that would
interest upperclassmen?

By the same reasoning, the 6.001 lab tour may not be what
upperclassmen want to see. :-)  Will anything be shown that would also
interest people who have already taken 6.001?  And is it worth 10-15
minutes of walking time (there and back) for a 10-minute demo?
(That's not such a big deal, since 34-501 is on the way from E15 to
LCS anyway...)

50 minutes for the CM5 stuff is clearly too long.  15-20 minutes or so
would be OK, esp. since they can only fit 20 at a time.... we'd have
to rotate groups *within* LCS, as well as between buildings!  Could be
interesting.  Maybe we want group leaders to carry ham radios.  :-)

(Come to think of it, we may want to rotate groups within the Media
Lab as well; smaller groups have always worked better than large
ones.)

OK, here's a rough breakdown of one way we've done it in the past:

	100-150 people total  ---->  3 groups of 30-40
	3 major stops (E40, E15, LCS)  ---->  approx. 1 hr per stop
						(incl. walking time!)
	Everyone regroups at the room with Schiller Story Hour
	Each tour group has a leader, with schedule; plus at least
	   two "shepherds" to talk and keep group together
	Within LCS and E15, it is good to have people who stay there
	   and can chaperone the tour groups between demos; they 
	   should have keys and combos so no one gets stuck anywhere!

It looks like we may be able to sort of keep this three-group,
three-hour, three-stop schedule, with modifications; the 6.001 lab is
short enough to be included in whichever "major stop" is shorter (prob
E15, given your scheduling info).  Also, as I mentioned before, it may
be a good idea to split into two or three smaller groups within E15
and LCS, since the demos want smaller groups.

One thing you want to avoid:  splitting the crowd into more tour groups
than was planned.  The timing gets really unmanageable, and you may
end up with a tour group reaching, say, the Media Lab at the right
time, and no one with an elevator combo (or a clue) is there to meet
them.  In past tours, we've had groups stranded for 10 to 15 minutes
like this!  It's better to have too-big tour groups than too many.

(whew)  More on request.  I could go on for hours.  :-)  Hope this
helps, anyway.

					- Jenifer