Code4Lib 2017 Lessons Learned

Change the website committee to the communications committee with web and email subcommittees. The email subcommittee should be responsible for communicating with various committees that need announcements to go out at various times. Ideally the first year would create a script for which messages to send when, and who to consult with. e.g. (Call for volunteers, Call for keynote, Keynote voting opens, Keynote voting final reminder, Call for submissions, Call for submissions reminder, Submission voting, Before you come to the conference, Welcome to the conference, Post conference survey, etc.)

The keynote voting period was WAY too short. A week does not give people enough time to read up and do research on nominees they might want to vote for. In past years voting was up for much longer. I understand that the organizers are short on time, but any deviation from the norm should be emphasized and there should at least be a reminder announcement as we approach the deadline. I am somewhat involved with the website committee, so I imagine others that are less involved probably were also disappointed.

We need a communications committee, perhaps with a website subcommittee and an emails/social-media subcommittee. Draft email templates for each announcement (and reminder emails for each), specify stakeholders, and suggested send dates/windows. No more communication fails.