For members of the broader NANOG community who may not have been able to see the community meeting that happened this morning, I jotted down some notes on what was discussed.  Much of the content was directly from the slide deck

https://storage.googleapis.com/site-media-prod/meetings/NANOG85/4478/20220608_Mcnair_Nanog_85_Community_v1.pdf

I attempted to also include the back-and-forth between the presenters and the audience
during the question and answer period as well.

Thanks!

Matt



2022.06.08 NANOG85 community meeting


NOTES:

Steve Meuse kicks things off at 0702 hours 

Pacific time.


Ed and Cat run the community meeting this 

morning.

Ed welcomes everyone to the third day of

NANOG.


First thing is the registration fee increase.


We're going to have to push our costs forward 

to get us moving towards the black again.

early bird fee will be $675 versus late fee of $875.


IETF early bird is $700, same for our non-member

price, but we feed you!

We think that's an important part of building 

community.


Development projects; big project we've been

working on, that's the appointment tool.


It's currently in beta test with a limited pool

of volunteers, the board and the program committee,

and was demoed on May 26th.

There is a dedicated slack channel for the beta

testers to give feedback.


public beta will be released when NANOG86

registration opens up.


Affinity groups:

in the opening presntation, Tina talked about

affinity groups.

To expand our community and help bind it together,

community.nanog.org has affinity groups;

so you can self-gather in areas of common interest;

running, coffee, LGBTQ+, women in tech, etc.

You can also suggest new areas of affinity.

This morning, a group went walking, organized

through the walking affinity groups.


when you land on community.nanog.org;

you need nanog account, it's free to sign up,

it uses Oauth2 for authentication.

We have a mirror of the mailing list there

as well; it's read only, lets you see how 

many replies there are, etc.

it grabs captions from websites for you.

off to the right, shows timeline of communication

that goes along the thread, and major contributors;

it shows what the mailing list has in graphical

form.

The affinity groups work the same way; you can 

communicate via email or directly through the

forum page.


NANOG college immersion program has been

restructured; more targeted to the most

qualified students; will be sponsor-based,

qualifications will be similar to the 

scholarship program, and graduate students 

can apply individually.  Undergrads need to

come with a professor who can bring up to 

five undergrad students.  The professor 

will chaperone and guide the students through

the program.

We had students from Howard attend this meeting.


NANOG84 ombuds report; we have third party 

ombuds that listen to issues and concerns 

people have, to ensure attendees feel welcome 

with our community.  Previously, issues came 

to Ed directly, which didn't work if you had 

an issue with Ed himself.  By having a third 

party fulfill the role, it eliminates that 

issue.


Look at resources, down at Ombudsman you can 

click the link for the full report.


Our most recent grade was 71/100, so we have

some work to do.


He spoke to the Howard NCI students; they 

commented they wish they had found it 

sooner, it would have had a big impact

on their college trajectory.


Annual report is almost done; was hoping

to have it ready, but things got busy;

will email out when it is done.


Program Committee updates.

congrats to them, they have done a 

stellar job with this program, starting 

from an effort several years ago to 

provide a better experience for our

community.


Cat Gurinsky takes over, chair of the

program commitee.


How we got here?  We've been doing a

rolling call for presentation; now you

can submit talks for several nanogs ahead.

we can accept sooner, so you can get business

travel arranged, visas, etc. and we can publish

the agenda much sooner.

Now, you can submit all the way through NANOG89.

We already have 4 talks accepted for N86 in 

hollywood; there are 12 talks pending acceptance.


life cycle;

shepherd guides you through the process of submission,

from submission to peer review and acceptance; they 

help give suggestions.

The Copy Reviewers ensures NANOG guidelines are 

met, cleans up issues, makes sure fonts are large 

enough to read from the back of the room.


we have rolling call for proposals, receive 

proposals, shepherd is assigned, draft slides 

are due, peer review begins, final slides are

due, agenda is published.


draft slides don't have to be fully fleshed out, 

but it needs to be good enough to vote on; 70% 

is about right.


start with rough outline; they'll tell you if 

it's good enough, and vote, and then help you

flesh it out.


your shepherd is your advocate, we want you 

to succeed!

With rolling submissions, waiting may mean you

miss out because the program is already filled 

up by the time the submission deadline arrives.


skipping the polls part.


Q&A?

Dinesh Babouta, you mentioned about submissions

of presentations: have you considered doing other 

types of content, like poster sessions?

Looking at who submits presentations, we 

often see people who are shy or who don't have

good presentation skills avoiding submitting;

but having posters they could stand next to 

could allow them to participate more.

Interesting idea; please put that in your

survey feedback!


In the future, we also hope to have a 

second track room in the coming years.


Ed notes that if you feel uncomfortable 

asking questions, you can use the virtual 

chat system.


Why isn't there a member discount for 

virtual attendees?

You already have a free option for virtual 

attendance, that's a pretty huge discount, 

notes Ed.

Even with that, we post the content on 

YouTube a week later; we try to make it 

as accessible as possible.


Community meeting wraps up at 0726 hours

Pacific time.