Site Nomination Process for the Evergreen International Conference
Established by members of the 2010 Site Nomination Committee, updated by the 2012, 2014, 2016, 2019 and 2020 committees
1. The Conference
The Evergreen International Conference takes place annually, usually during the month of April. Expected attendance is between 175 and 225 attendees, representing Evergreen users, advocates, vendors, and others interested in Evergreen or open source. A varied 3-track program is offered, attempting to cover many aspects of Evergreen and appeal to developers, system administrators, consortium leaders, managers, and front-end staff.
An attempt will be made to hold the conference in different regions of the United States to enable the wide-spread Evergreen community a chance to attend. Nominations from outside of the United States are encouraged but the location should appeal to a wide number of Evergreen users and supporters.
Past and Present Conference Websites: EG 2009 EG 2013 EG 2014 EG 2015 EG 2016 EG 2017 EG 2018 EG 2019
Hosting a conference
Hosting a conference can be fun and very rewarding, but is also a lot of hard work. There are a number of crucial time-sensitive tasks, such as setting the conference dates and securing a venue, sponsorship recruitment, selecting speakers, and reviewing programs, and the final 90 days prior to the conference will be very busy for the site committee. A conference is also a fiscal commitment that involves building and staying within a very tight budget that allows registration costs to stay reasonable while providing an excellent conference experience for attendees, vendors, and other participants.
The call to host a conference usually goes out approximately 18 months in advance. The criteria and information (outlined below) are requested of all nominations and can be submitted in PDF, Open Office, or any other human-readable format, though we prefer open source formats.
2. The Site Selection Committee
The Site Selection Committee is comprised of volunteers from the Evergreen community who will hold one- or two- year terms. Two spots will be reserved for Evergreen vendors.
The Committee work begins by sending out requests for Conference hosting proposals. The call goes out on the evergreen-ils mailing lists, the primary communication mechanism of the Evergreen community. The Site Selection Committee gathers the proposals and ranks them based on:
Site selection committee members receive and review all submissions individually and then confer to make a final decision. The Committee then awards the conference to the most suitable proposal, usually within 3 weeks of the close date for nominations. Once the host has been determined, the Site Selection Committee works with the local arrangement committee on a smooth hand-off of responsibilities. The local arrangement committee is responsible for providing regular updates to the Evergreen Oversight Board.
3. The Proposal (NB: Please be as imaginative as you like in your proposal, the site selection committee is willing to consider variations on the following requirements as long as reasons for variations are made clear in your proposal)
Contact Information Required from all Potential Host Sites:
Requirements to be addressed in all Proposals
These should be outlined in as much detail as possible; including contact information for conference centers and hotels etc. to allow the Site Selection Committee to investigate and confirm information provided. Proposals should include all likely sites.
Additional Desirable Qualities for Conference Sites
Responsibilities of the Hosting Site
Proposals will include comments on the proposed host's ability to do the following:
Please submit proposals to eg-sites@list.evergreen-ils.org by Friday, March 1, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. ET to qualify.
Typical/Example Conference Schedule
The conference should follow a schedule similar to the one outlined below.
Social Activities have included the following:
Expectations of the Local Arrangements Committee
The local arrangement committee is responsible for managing the program and events planning process. Local planners from the host site will work in conjunction with the conference planning committee, which is made up of community volunteers available to advise the host site and assist with planning details.
The local arrangements committee should have a minimum of three people who are willing to be responsible for leading such subcommittees as programming, sponsorships, venue and entertainment, and registration. The local committee shall appoint one representative to be the lead and that person shall be responsible for proactive and timely communication with both the EOB and the Evergreen community.
A representative from the local arrangements committee is expected to provide regular conference updates at the monthly meetings of the Evergreen Oversight Board, currently scheduled for 2 p.m. Eastern on the third Thursday of the month.
The local arrangements committee should strive to stick to the following timeline. This timeline is based on an April conference date and should be adjusted accordingly if the conference is scheduled for a different month.
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Evergreen is open source software, freely licensed under GNU GPLv2 or later.
The Evergreen Project is a member of Software Freedom Conservancy.