What is MinneHack?

MinneHack is ACM UMN's annual hackathon (software development competition.) Most hackathons take place over a 24 hour period and include a number of teams of up to four students. Previous iterations of MinneHack (originally branded UHack) have attracted over 300 students from colleges and universities across the country, making Minnehack the largest hackathon in the Twin Cities. Competitors consist of highly motivated software engineers, many of whom are eligible for recruiting.

Community Ambassador Duties

Promoting the event

Add the event to the ACM calendar ([email protected]) and then add the event to the SESB calendar by inviting [email protected] to the event

Promoting via screens in Coffman Memorial Union: https://sua.umn.edu/groups/outreach/promotion/promotion-publicity/

Promoting via screens in Keller Hall: You can your advertisements to [email protected], the Communications Coordinator for the CS Department, and he will post them on the Keller Hall Display. Send as a PDF at a ratio of 16:9 with resolution of 1920x1080. Create a document that is 34.14 inches x 19.2 inches.

Printing glossy posters can be done by emailing designs to [email protected].

Radio adverts for free for student groups?

We also like to promote MinneHack via ACM UMN's FaceBook page, the MinneHack twitter account, our newsletter, and both ACM UMN's and MinneHack's websites.

It is also good to reach out to other student chapters about MinneHack, particularly where we'll be sending buses.

After the event, the primary sponsor contact, usually the CA, should send resumes out to sponsors in a follow-up email that says how the event went, includes photos and videos of the event, says thank you a whole bunch (because our sponsors are really vital and really do enable the event), and includes a survey about the sponsor experience.

Sponsorship

One of the most important jobs of the Community Ambassador is to obtain and communicate with sponsors for ACM's events. For MinneHack, a spreadsheet containing information about sponsor companies, sponsor contacts, and each's interest in the even should be upkept. In association with the President and Vice President, the Community Ambassador must network with sponsor contacts, communicate the purpose and benefits of sponsoring the event, and track funds as they are committed. The Events folder in the ACM google drive should have documents from past years that will be helpful in giving new officers an idea of what they need to do.

DevOpsDays

In previous years, two officers, usually the president or vice president and the community ambassador, have attended DevOpsDays Minneapolis (held in late July) to scout out and network with MinneHack sponsors. Though tickets are spendy, obtaining even one sponsor from this will negate those costs. Officers attending should dress professionally and prepare an outline of which attending companies they most want to target and why.

Treasurer Duties

The Treasurer should work closely with the Community Ambassador on sponsorship matters. The treasurer is responsible for organizing buses and ordering food, supplies, and prizes for MinneHack and keeping track of the event's budget. The treasurer must also ensure that travel reimbursements are payed for after the event.

Room reservations

The room for MinneHack should be reserved about 20-24 months in advance. In previous years, we've used the Coffman Great Hall for MinneHack, but the event could also be held in McNamara Alumni Center provided they have enough power (as of 2017 they don't). It might be worth talking to people at McNamara about this to see if they could accommodate the event in the future.

Reserve Coffman Memorial Union, the St. Paul Student Center, and Outdoor Spaces at: http://sua.umn.edu/reservations/

Pallet jack can be gotten from Keller 1-214

Permits

http://sua.umn.edu/reservations/policies/

SUA food permit: http://www.dehs.umn.edu/PDFs/foodpermit.pdf

For the permit, we need to specify that food that is NOT individually packaged (Qdoba, sandwich platters, pizza) must be served by servers wearing gloves. It also must be protected by a sneeze guard or other protection (separate table). Files are located in MH folder on GitHub.

Travel Reimbursement

We offer travel reimbursement up to $100 per participant. In the future, due to budget constraints, we will likely need to develop an application process for these reimbursements to ensure that we do not promise more than we can afford. To receive reimbursements, participants need to present their receipts and proof of attendance.

Membership Officer Duties

The Membership officer should advertise MinneHack to students, and contact related student groups and ACM chapters about advertising (https://www.acm.org/chapters/find-a-chapter). The Membership officer should also advertise ACM UMN at MinneHack. The Membership officer should organize or delegate the organization of volunteers for MinneHack and help train them in the day-of. The Membership officer should run check-in at the event.

Sys Admin Duties

The Systems Administrator is in charge of keeping the network up during the event. This includes making sure that we have enough switches and cables, solving issues when people unplug things or things break, and ensuring that the wifi can handle everyone. This should keep you busy for most of the event, especially the first half.

Webmaster Duties

The webmaster should ensure that the MinneHack website is up to date and that sponsor logos are added as they are acquired. The webmaster also manages our RSVP process. We typically send out emails requesting RSVPs from all registered students about a month before the event. We accept 30-50% more RSVPs than we hope to have attend the event; yes, the no-show rate is really this high. The webmaster is also responsible for managing day-of checkin at the event. This means making sure that cardreaders and corresponding code are up to snuff and that enough laptops and volunteers are available to manage checkin efficiently. The webmaster should also help the Sys Admin out with network stuff prior to and during the event.

See Also: https://github.com/minnehack/minnehack.github.io/wiki

Other Information

Email Templates

When responding, your tone should be professional, but also upbeat and passionate.

Q: Am I registered?

A: You're marked in our records as being registered (assuming you registered with the address FILL ME IN). We'll be sending out an RSVP email on New Year's to all registered participants.

Q: I'm a minor / highschooler. Can I still come?

A: MinneHack welcomes any students of the 2016-2017 school year, including high schoolers! If you'll be 18 by the time of the event, feel free to tell us you are over 18 for the purposes of MinneHack. As for your colleagues who aren't, just be sure they don't check that box so we'll have it on record. Closer to the event we'll be sending out a waiver to the email address they provided. In order to stay overnight they'll have to have a parent/legal guardian fill it out and sign it.

Besides that, your registration/attendance will act exactly the same as those in college/over 18. We're looking forward to seeing you at MinneHack 2017!

Happy Hacking!

Q: I don't have much coding experience. Is it worthwhile for me to come?

A: You must be a student to compete at MinneHack, but other than that, we have no technical requirements, so I'd encourage you to attend! Though you probably won't take home any prizes as a first-timer, attending is a great way to meet and learn from other people. MinneHack will help give you an idea of what working on a team under time pressure can be like, and it's also a good place to learn about job opportunities in software development if that interests you. You should definitely come to MinneHack if you're interested in any of these things - no matter what, you'll get some free food, swag, and new connections with other people interested in computer science.

I look forward to seeing you at MinneHack!

Q: Is there a bus from the airport to the venue?

A: No busses will be stopping at the MSP airport, but you can conveniently travel from the airport to our venue via light rail train. Simply board the Blue line train to Minneapolis from your terminal and travel to the US Bank Stadium station. There, transfer to the Green Line toward St. Paul, and exit the train at East Bank Station. The venue is only about two blocks from this station. You should also able to use any navigation app to find these name directions, but I hope that I've been helpful.

I look forward to seeing you at MinneHack 2018!

Q: Wait, how does travel reimbursement work?

A: I'm glad to hear that you're considering attending MinneHack this year. Thanks to our generous sponsors, we do guarantee up to $100 in travel reimbursement to all attendees. If you spent more than $100, only $100 will be covered. Just save your receipts, and have them ready at the event. Reimbursement is supplied in the form of checks mailed out immediately following the event.

I hope that that assuages any concerns you may have had, and I look forward to seeing you at MinneHack 2018!

Q: Will there be a theme, or can we do whatever we want?

A: Hi,

As in past years, there will be a prompt which competitors will have to respond to. Work submitted at MinneHack should be produced at the event, not prepared beforehand, so the prompt will be announced until the day of the competition.

Things we learned from MinneHack 2018.

Feedback Form Answers

• Explain Devpost - people want to view winning projects after the event.
• Help First Timers Know what to do - people are bad at asking for help.
• Better Teambuilding - I guess talk with MLH about this.
• Workshops or Entertainment during downtime/waits will help keep people happy.
• Food Restricted people should eat first to reduce contamination risk. Also actually order in accordance with accommodation requests.
• Order less food for Dinner 2 because people leave early.
• Coffman was way too cold - make sure that they don't act like the building has closed at night temperature-wise.
• Set Up electronic judging to keep on schedule and stuff.
• People don't like having to do sponsor-related prompts - make the prompt optional and/or have more sub-prompts/options.
• We should have ordered more pizza - enough for 2-3 pieces each.
• We should have been more organized and prepared by
• People want (constant) snacks.
• Speak up closing and (especially) opening ceremony

Setup

• Ask building manager to let us in early morning of the day, and make sure volunteers know to come early
• Shoot for setup concluded by 4:00 PM
• Need to inventory network switches before event
• Use label maker to give each piece of hardware an ID #
• Move maps/setup details from Google Drive to Github Wiki
• Adjust cable lengths between large switches and smaller switches (measure from center of table instead of edge)
• Reserve Sleeping Mats at the Rec Center Beforehand / Rent Mats from REI 1 Month beforehand
• Document HESTIA Configuration from 2018
• Set up two switches, two laptops over Winter Break in Coffman to make sure everything works

Check In / Registration

• Start check in earlier
• Segment RSVP and Waitlist time segments, if you do not check in during RSVP period you are moved to waitlist
• Automated Registration/RSVP System that integrates with Check-In
• Buy more card readers
• Will likely need some combination, as not everyone can be handled by card-readers
• Publicly display who is checked in / how many people have been checked in
• Have electronic “clipboard” sign in (basically a spreadsheet)
• Will specify we are checking student ID’s, so have "Name as it appears on Student ID" instead of "Legal Name"
• Sponsors need to know how many people are attending for goodie bags
• Registration/RSVP system had poor feedback to user, needs to email them with confirmation of registration (and RSVP)
• Need to send reminder to them that they are RSVP’d (about a week before event)
• 350 is the max number of participants we can admit

Food

• Make sure gluten-free food is actually allergy gluten-free
• If a specific dietary need is not large enough to be specially accommodated, message them and tell them we have freezer/fridge space for them to bring food
• Less Morning Fruit, More Evening Fruit
• Less Mountain Dew, more Water / Other Sodas
• Make sure we are following University Regulations for serving food at an event, as per the documents on the Wiki (we did this well in 2018, but the food permit application needs to have more specifics for 2019)

Discord

• Talk with mentors beforehand about Discord and how they will be able to answer questions
• Add basic moderation to discord channels
• Make sure announcements posted same time as over speakers

Sponsors

• Make sure dataset is easily accessible/usable by students (not a huge Excel Spreadsheet)
• Try to add more incentives to use datasets/API (participants saw little reason to use it in survey)
• Make sure emcee brings up Sponsors more

Coffman

• Make sure everyone knows not to leave the Great Hall after Coffman is closed

Schedule

• Make sure we keep to posted schedule
• Have final judging done by 4:30

Spaces

• Reach out to MacNamara, Mariucci, Williams Arena about spaces, power concerning Minnehack 2020