[Air-l] Why not make Aoir 5.0 "Virtual conference"?

[Ulla Bunz]

Have you heard of the movie "Ocean's 11" ? In the movie, eleven thieves work
together to rob a Las Vegas casino, an act that was essentially considered
impossible before because it is just to huge and complex a task.
Well, I'm not saying that any of us are thieves or crooks, but I'd like to introduce
you to "Air's 13" : 11 people on the exec, the program chair, and the local person.
Essentially, it is the work of these 13 people (and whoever they can push into
volunteering) that makes our conferences happen. Think about that. That's really a
pretty remarkable accomplishment, and all of them are doing it on a volunteer basis,
with no compensation, and many of the 13 do it without even getting release time
from their employers/universities.
I've been around AoIR long enough (first as a student volunteer for the first
conference, then as an exec member) to realize that if the people in charge COULD
accommodate all the wonderful ideas that are raised on air-l and air-conf and
air-meet every year, they WOULD do it in a heartbeat. But it's just not possible
without help from you, the conference attendees and/or members. We've been able to
do some things (in addition to improving and growing our conferences). For example,
we have a video with conference scenes from the first conference, even streamed,
created by some of my students from back then as a student project. We had a CD-ROm
once with conference papers on it. Both of these were volunteer projects. So, if you
want AoIR to go virtual now *and in the future*, then someone has to step forward
and take on the responsibility of investigating that option and then we can decide
whether we'll try to implement it or not. Then we'll need a bunch more people who
help implement it. Similarly with access to the conference papers. Jeremy ends up
having to put all of them online himself, because despite his call for volunteers,
no one stepped forward. And Jeremy already spends several hours a week (if not day)
working for AoIR.
I'm feeling a little like I'm wagging my index finger in your faces saying, "You
bad, bad child." And I do want to make you feel a little guilty. I want to remind
you that our association and our conferences are operating at a level of
professionalism, scope, and quality that far exceeds what you would normally expect
if you knew that there are only 13 people behind it, Air's 13, and their (mostly
student) recruits.
Please continue to discuss ideas, as the exec learns from that. But if you want to
make sure that any of them get implemented, you need to pick up that keyboard and
start by writing to Nancy or any of the other execs and giving them a concrete idea
of what you *can* and *will* contribute.
For much of our work, it doesn't matter where you are, whether it's Budapest or
Cairo or a non-English speaking European country or Tokyo or the US.
Ulla