revised notes on being a Terminal Room helper

[Henry Spencer <http://www.zoo.toronto.edu/~henry>]

(In a sudden burst of enthusiasm, I expanded the helper notes slightly.
Here's the new version.  The added paragraphs are marked with ***.)

Subject: notes on being a Terminal Room helper

Thank you for volunteering to help with the Usenix Terminal Room.  For
those of you who haven't done this before, here are some notes on what
you'll be doing and what's important.

Your first and foremost obligation is to BE THERE for your scheduled
times.  Even if the Terminal Room is temporarily shut down because of
hardware problems, we may still need help.  We're counting on you to
show up when you've promised.  A copy of the schedule will be posted
in the Terminal Room, if you need to check it.

Your job is to keep an eye on the room, help people who need help, and
manage the line of waiting people when things get really busy.

Keeping an eye on the room usually isn't much work.  Mostly, you just need
to be there and visible.  We'll be arranging some sort of identification
badge or marker -- it varies from one conference to the next -- for the
on-duty helper(s).  You wear that where people can see it, and wander
around the room from time to time.  If you see someone doing something
odd, ESPECIALLY if they're moving equipment or rearranging cables, ask
what they're doing.  You're responsible for the safety of the room and
the equipment, so if you're not sure of something, investigate. 

As for helping people who need help, being there and visible is most
of what's needed for that too.  We'll have instructions posted, or
instruction sheets circulating, for most of the things people might want
to know.  Take a look at them and make sure you understand them, so you
can point confused people to them. 

When things get busy, especially at breaks in the conference, a line
starts to form.  That's when you have to be most alert and on the job.
We'll have a board with a pad of paper and some pens, set up near the
door.  The way we organize the line is to have people put their name
on the board, because it's usually impossible to maintain any sort of
orderly queue.  When a line starts, you need to spend most of your time
managing it.

To manage a line, you keep announcing "if you want a terminal, put your
name on the board".  You watch the room for people leaving; when you
see a free terminal, you call the next name on the board, point that
person to the free terminal, and cross their name off the board.  In
spare moments, you remind people loudly that there is a time limit on
terminals (usually 30 minutes for sit-down and 10 minutes for stand-up;
there will be signs) and that if they've been here longer than that,
they should give somebody else a chance.  (We run this on the honor
system -- it's not practical to actually keep track of how long someone
has been at a terminal -- but reminding people helps.)

At some very busy times, we've scheduled two helpers on duty.  Usually
the best way to work this is that one manages the line and the other
helps people who need help.

When things are VERY QUIET, which usually happens only early in the
morning or very late at night, you can sit down at a terminal yourself.
You still need to be alert to what's going on, and prepared to jump up
at a moment's notice.  (In particular, if a line starts to form, you
should leave your terminal at once.)  Put your on-duty badge up on top
of your terminal, so people can find you easily.  It's best to plan to
read your own mail (etc.) at a time when you're not on duty, because
you may be too busy to do it while you're on duty.

*** following paragraphs added

Mail to http://www.conference.usenix.org/~firstname_lastname gets printed out on the
Terminal Room printer, with suitable headers etc.  We fold these messages
so only the user name shows, and post them on the conference message
board.  When you're going off duty, if you're not in a rush, check whether
there are printed messages waiting to go to the board -- if so, please
take them there and post them.  To limit the inroads people can make on
our paper supply, the message-printing software quietly truncates messages
longer than 200 lines -- we don't advertise this, but it is not secret, so 
if someone asks about it, tell them.

We sometimes provide guest accounts to make it possible for someone to
send mail OUT from the conference systems; availability of this has
varied.  Note that such accounts cannot RECEIVE mail -- ALL mail received
by the conference systems goes to the printer. 

We try to discourage use of the Terminal Room printer for other purposes:
we aren't running a print shop.  Exceptions are sometimes made for the
conference organizers and speakers.  If someone urgently needs a printout
of a short piece of text, they can just mail it to themselves. 

If the printer runs out of paper, more can usually be found under the
printer table.  Our supply is limited, so please don't borrow from it
for other purposes.

*** end added paragraphs

As soon as you arrive at the conference, check in with the Terminal Room
Coordinator (Gretchen Phillips) so she knows you've arrived.  Don't wait
until your first on-duty time!  Also, if you're on duty first thing in the
morning or last thing at night, you need to talk to Gretchen in advance
about arrangements for opening or closing the room.

If you have any questions about any of this, or if problems come up, ask
Gretchen (the boss) or Henry Spencer (her assistant).

                                                           Henry Spencer
                                                       http://www.zoo.toronto.edu/~henry