Directions for Astronomy on Tap Captain

The Astronomy on Tap Captain is the MC and in charge of the event going off without a hitch.

General Responsibilities

• Emcee the event, including introducing the speakers, and give announcements
• Set up the A/V Equipment for the speakers
• Create astro quiz slides to be played in the intermission
• Answer attendee questions on astronomy, physics and science
• Close down the event at the end of the two hours
• Oversee the sale of Astro on Tap merchandise
• Positively represent the Institute, the department, and our profession

Week Prior to Event

• Contact the Speakers and Volunteers to remind them of their responsibilities: meet 45 minutes before start time, ready to Q&A, etc.
• Check the supply of handouts for the lecture (outreach schedules/skymaps). If running low (<50), make additional copies.
• Make astronomy quiz with ~10 questions involving astronomy-related news or astronomy, potentially even material covered in the talks.
• Using a Keynote or Powerpoint template (attached), make a slideshow where each slide is a question and it auto-cycles through the slides with 45 seconds per slide. You'll want to download the hurtmold fonts (attached) to make this render properly.

Day of AoT

• Get the Astro on Tap bin from Cameron's office. It should contain:
  • Quiz box w/ pencils
  • Quiz forms
  • Badges
  • Tally Counter
  • HDMI cable
  • Audio cable w/ 1/4" jack
  • HDMI mac dongle
  • HDMI mac dongle for USB-C
  • Wireless remote control for changing slides
• Get appropriate swag from Cameron's office (choose swag based on talk topic) ~100 items
• Get copies of outreach schedule (lecture schedule one side, Astro on tap schedule on the other)
• Get prizes for quiz and questions. Normally we have three prizes. I like these options:
  • one prize can be a signed book copy
  • one prize can be two Astro on Tap pint glasses
  • one prize can be an Astro on Tap bottle opener keychain
  • Maybe a few NASA stickers or Caltech pencils as backup prizes (but don't just give away the NASA stickers willy-nilly. We don't have a ton, and it degrades them as secondary prizes.
• If you are low on quiz forms, print more using attached PDF. Print two-sided and then use paper cutter to cut into fourths.
• Sharpen the pencils
• Get the Astronomy on Tap Merchandise bin and follow the AoTMerch directions. The merchandise bin should include:
  • Cash box with cash and merch inside
  • iPad
  • ~10 pint glasses
  • ~20 coasters

Arriving at AoT Venue

• The bar actually opens its doors at 4PM, but we'll plan to start by 7:30. Try to get there by 6:30-6:45. It'll give you a chance to order a beer too!
• Say hello to manager and bar staff. They're all super friendly, so keep up a good relationship with these people! Gabe, Delilah, Joey, Emily, etc.
• Get 6-8 tokens from manager for drinks: 2 for each speaker, 1 for yourself or 1 for each of the volunteers.
• Station one AoTVolunteer to count attendees. Use tally counter.
• Set up one volunteer to manage the merchandise booth near the door. Set up a table (find on stage or ask Gabe) in front of the staircase and place merch there. Follow instructions in AoTMerch page.
• Set up speakers on A/V equipment if manager has not yet already. (See below)
• Find out details about Lecturer for short introduction (1-2 sentences; where they're from, undergrad/grad institution, research focus)
• Give volunteers and speakers the flashing AoT badges. Make sure they know to give them back at end of night!
• Ask manager to turn on the lights on the stage. Usually white light is the best color for photos and visibility instead of some of the weird variations.
• Ask a volunteer (or you yourself) to take photos throughout the night. Get some photos of each speaker and maybe a couple of slides or interesting moments. Have fun!

AoT Start

• Announcements
  • Thank everyone for coming
  • Introduce yourself
  • Announce the schedule for the night: 2x15 minute talks with questions, intermission, quiz with prize, and panel Q&A.
  • Point out flyers, swag, handouts, and Q&A box
  • Announce how to identify volunteers with their badges
  • Remind people of all events
  • Happy hour pricing on menu!
  • Thank Der Wolfskopf and remember to tip servers!
  • Thanks to tax-funded NSF for making this possible!
• Introduce speaker
• Drink?
• While speaker is talking, snap a couple of photos of the event for the website or tweeting! #AstroOnTap

Immediately After Talk

• If needed, help facilitate Q&A for the speaker. Limit questions to 5 minutes. Stand up at front to signal the end of questions.
• Inform the audience that about the short intermission, then next speaker.
• Remind people about the quiz.
• Drink and mill about.

Quiz Prize

• During the second intermission, go through the quiz submissions and grade them.
• Then announce that you'll go through the quiz answers with everyone. Step through each slide and answer the questions.
• Give the prize to the quiz with the most correct answers; if a tie, pull at random from winners or give an additional question like what is the exact distance to the Sun in miles. Closest gets the prize. Or just give out 1-3 prizes.

End

• Thank everyone for coming!
• Reminder of future events.
• Remind people to tip bartenders and thank NSF for making this happen.
• Remember to get back the Astronomer Badges from the astronomers present--these do not grow on trees!
• Pack everything up CLEANLY in the plastic bin, and return it to Cameron's office. No one wants to find a mess.
• Go through the quiz forms and read the surveys to see if there were good suggestions. Put these in an envelope in Cameron's lower right desk drawer labeled by the date.

The Day after the Event (IMPORTANT TO FOLLOW UP ON THIS)

• Let Cameron know how many people attended the event and if there were any highlights. Send him quiz questions/answers for wiki record.
• Return all stuff, quiz box, quiz sheets (with surveys on back), merchandise, cables, etc to Cameron.
• Send Cameron any photographs you took of the event for the Photo Page.

How to use the AV system

• Bring computers to booth up the stairs above entrance way to mixing booth.
• Plug our own HDMI cable into computer and into port 7 (only open port) on side of mixing board. May need to use flashlight to illuminate the only open HDMI port since it's in the lower crevice in the middle of the booth.
• For each computer to be plugged into the AV system, turn computer resolution down to a low resolution setting like 1080i or 1080p. High resolution might cause blinking on the TVs as it passes through the mixer. With macs, you can do this by going to system preferences and then display after you've plugged in to the video port on the computer.
• Have speakers change laptop settings to turn off Flux (makes screens red) and disable any screen-saver passwords.
• Use remote to make all televisions point to input 7. Point remote at mixing board, press a letter, then #7. TVs are A, B, C (for the TVs above the bar), D, and E, F (the two TVs by the stage) in clockwise order, so hit: A, 7, B, 7, C, 7, while pointing at the mixing board. Consider only doing some of the TVs if there is a big sports event going on still during AoT. Talk to bar staff about this.
• Get microphone and cord from on stage or in cabinet up stairs above entrance. Plug microphone into the matrix box on stage into port 9 or 10. On sound board up stairs above entrance, unmute your desired channel (9 or 10) and turn up the volume on that channel. Do not go above level 0. Do not play with the various knobs--they are all preset. If this fails, then plug microphone directly into speaker on stage. Move speaker to front of stage. Turn on and turn up to do a mic check. If not working, make sure volume is up, push the mute button, test with other microphones or other microphone cables. Usually the problem is the microphone cable so try to get another if possible. Ask for help from bar staff (namely Joey), and in a last resort, you and speakers may have to shout (but we've only had to do this once).
• If you desire laptop sound going to the house speakers, plug 1/8" cable into laptop and plug the other end into a 1/4" adaptor into the "Line In" port at the top of channel 10 (or other) on the mixing board in the upstairs sound booth. Bring the sound level up to level 0 on the mixer, and click the button to unmute it. Test this out before actually using it live. Be careful not to go too loud, as the house speakers can get really loud! Joey can help with this if there are problems.

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