UNC-CH Information Technology Services

ITS’ Buenviaje to guide presenters at 2008 ResNet Symposium

Jeremy Buenviaje, ResNET assistant program director, will serve as a Theme Guide for the 2008 national ResNet Symposium, to be held at the University of New Brunswick, Canada, June 21-25.

As a Theme Guide, Buenviaje uses a national listserv to encourage proposal submissions to the Symposium. Once submitted, Buenviaje reviews the proposals, assists presenters with the presentation format and ensures that all presenters are fully prepared for their session before and during the conference. At the symposium, he is a part of the Program Committee, serving as a resource for attendees.

“Theme Guides offer advice on which sessions to attend, have the answers to frequently asked questions and give people information on conference logistics, activities and schedules,” said Buenviaje. “We’re like conference staff; we help out where we’re needed.”

This is Buenviaje’s third year as a Theme Guide. For the 2008 Symposium, he is one of two guides for the “Cool Tools” portion of the conference, which covers homegrown or commercial software and hardware solutions that help ResNet staff implement and maintain ResNet services. But his work in past years will aid the 2008 conference as well - this year, Theme Guides can use the documentation that Buenviaje developed last year to help train new staff.

“Theme Guides all have full-time jobs, so it’s hard to find time to write up a how-to document for new guides,” Buenviaje explained. “But as I went through the process last year, I created step-by-step documentation, like an SOP. It includes most of what you need to know to be a Theme Guide - templates for e-mails, step-by-step procedures, a guide to evaluating project proposals and even an FAQ section.”

ResNet is a national organization dedicated to the advancement and research of residential networking technologies and living-learning environments within academic institutions.

In the summer of 2006, the former Residential Networking (ResNet) group within the ITS User Support and Engagement division changed its name to Residential Networking, Education & Technology (ResNET) to reflect the larger suite of services the group provides to UNC-Chapel Hill. Several schools, such as UNC-Greensboro, have already changed their names to ResNET after hearing about the program at Carolina, and more planned to follow suit after the group’s presentation at the 2007 national symposium. Despite the name change, the group is still affiliated with the national organization.

To learn more about ResNET at UNC-Chapel Hill, visit http://its.unc.edu/resnet/.