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Conference vmszoo::rc

Title:	Welcome To The Radio Control Conference
Notice:	dir's in 11, who's who in 4, sales in 6, auctions 19
Moderator:	VMSSG::FRIEDRICHS

Created:	Tue Jan 13 1987
Last Modified:	Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1706
Total number of notes:	27193

1164.0. "a different kind of contest" by ABACUS::RYDER (perpetually the bewildered beginner) Fri Jan 12 1990 07:10

    I propose a contest, and I'll furnish the prize.
    
    The prize is the October 1975 issue of Scale R/C Modeler featuring:
                             ^^^^
        Ryan Fireball --- article by de Vries plus plans 
        
        JU-52 --- article by Hegge on Al Pickup's model
        
        Cauldron 1911 Monoplane --- article by Reiners plus plans 
        
        part 3 of an article on making a ducted fan (from scratch)
        by Buck Rogers and Hal Bloom, two employees of Rockwell
        
        old ads --- great prices! If the ads are still valid, wow!
    
    The contest has to do with the Notes file, not models.  We need
    a process better than the one we have now for handling circulation
    lists.  Suggestions for a process/approach/method are the contest
    entries, and you can enter more than one idea.  The winner will be
    chosen by the moderators according to compliance with the following
    criteria:
        
      Objectives:
        
        Self/user maintained  (minimum of burden on any single person)
        
        Practical --- don't count on users following rules perfectly 
        
        Easy to use
        
            Easy to add your name to the list, to see who else is on
            it, to see who is next, who is before you, who has it now.
            
        Fair
        
        Does not clutter RC Notes
        
            No more than one topic per list in RC Notes 
            
            No more than a few replies extant per topic at any instant
            
            No more than a few screens of text per reply
        
      Resources available to a solution:

        An account on WEWAND with plenty of disk space but without
        significant privileges.  Proposals must consider the security
        paranoia in our current atmosphere.
        
        Possibly a companion notes conference for the whole set of lists.
        (probably for checking information, not for daily routine access) 
        
        Private conferences hosted by individuals, not by WEWAND management
    
    I think this list is complete, but I gotta reserve the right to
    correct horrible oversights.

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
1164.1	Howsaboutthisthenforanidea - gimmetheprize	ODIHAM::WARWICK_B		`Fri Jan 12 1990 08:03`	55
	Al, Any method/system for physically distributing something will always rely on the individuals on the distribution list passing on whatever it is being distributed in a timely manner -- regardless of how we try to manage the process remotely! If they put it on the shelf and selfishly refuse to let any know where it is or pass it on there is nothing you can do! That being said -- I do have a reasonable amount of success with the way I handle the non-US DECRCM video tape distribution -- so will outline the method here for your consideration though I am sure it could be refined/improved. I have a label which I can print -- this has a list of those who wish to see the video -- I print it and stick it to the video tape box -- I send the tape to the first person on the list -- he views it and then passes to the next on the list -- and so on until it comes back to me as I am the last on the list. Sounds simple so far but it does not answer all the problems -- such as where is a tape now? and changes to the list while the circulation is active. It does solve the problem of who do I send it to next. On the label is an invitation to mail me if you want to be added to the list or taken off or to have your mailstop changed. What I do is to change the list and post a new copy of it in the reply in this notesfile. If everybody on the distribution list prints this new reply then they can attach a copy of the label to every tape they receive in place of the one on it, if it has changed. This handles changes to the list and picking up these changes whilst a tape is in circulation -- it also handles the question of where do I send it next. So far we only have a reply in the notesfile for each change to the list. What about -- where is it now? I post a reply when I send a tape out to the first on the list ( an other reply for each tape ) -- if anyone wants to know why a tape has not got to them yet they only have to work backwards thru' the current distribution list phoning the guys ahead of them on the list to track down where it is and verbally beat the guy up if necessary. QED? Not perfect but it has some merit I think. Good luck Brian
1164.2	A refinement from the usage of the New England distribution	TEKTRM::REITH	Jim Reith DTN 235-8459 HANNAH::REITH	`Fri Jan 12 1990 09:03`	11
	We don't have the list with the tape but I try to send Email to the next person when I put it in the internal mail and I CC Dan Snow so he knows where the tape is. I typically get a reply back when it is recieved and I believe that has also been cc'd to Dan. Only the last person on the list really has to know who's been added and only the previous person needs to know your new mailstop. Saves notesfile space and Email notifications are pretty expendable. Putting the latest version of the list in the notesfile sounds reasonable but we really don't need to see all the intermediate edits. I think you still need one person to be the tape's guardian (for each distribution) that would fairly maintain their specific list. (this would become the person that gets cc'd in the transfer email)