Experts Night Coordinator

Number of People: 1

Budget: $0

The person in charge of Experts' Night selects and schedules several conferees who would like to speak on their area of expertise, from computers and antique cars to handiwork, fine wine/spirits, history, medicine, music, art, and science. Recent topics are listed at the bottom of this page.

Each expert is assigned a room or a meeting place, depending upon the size of the estimated audience, subject matter, need for a viewing screen, etc. All the experts present their talks at the same time (to be determined each year, but usually Monday or Tuesday, starting around 8:00). Try to choose experts from different fields. Ask them to speak for about an hour, leaving time for questions. Expert's Night differs from "Talks on the Rocks" in that it offers several speakers at the same time, and they talk indoors and have greater opportunity to show pictures or write on a board.

Get a preliminary conferee list from the Chairs, as well as a list of conferees that volunteered to be an expert on the last Conference Evaluation Form, although this list may not be too helpful. Contact your experts before they get to the island, so that they will be prepared and can bring materials with them. You can contact them by phone or email. Be sure that they confirm. It's helpful to the Chairs if you provide them with a tentative list of Experts prior to the week on Star.

Ask Conference Services for help with audio-visual needs. Projection is usually available in Elliot, Lawrence, and Newton. It is also possible to get one set up in the Pink Parlor or Sandpiper for example. You may need blackboards in certain rooms.

There is usually not enough room on the Starboard to write the entire list of speakers, so your best bet is to write out the speakers, topics, and locations on a piece of paper and tape it to the side of the chalkboard on the day of the talks. (Make it big and easy to read!)

It helps to make an announcement on the porch right after the bell is rung for the start of Experts Night to motivate people to attend. Discourage them from wandering from one talk to another.

Recent Topics

2023: Photos and Stories from Chernobyl, Mike Forster Rothbart, speaker (20 people attended); Owning a Business through the Pandemic and What it Took to Support my Community, Liz Hanna (14); Risk and Rewards of Exploring the Deep Ocean with Human-occupied Submersibles, Erik Cordes (60). Note: with only three topics, all were well attended.

2022: Prison Education (Katy Weeks), Wine Tasting (Jeff Escobar), Renewable Energy (Tom Blum), Life on the Farm (Peter Erickson), Climate Change / Population Connection (Roger Kellman). Note: The wine tasting talk drew roughly as many people as the other talks combined. This talk should probably be scheduled separately.

Last updated by Roger Kellman (Ben Cordes, ed.), July 2023