Epilogue/Postscript

Despite all of our efforts, we were unable to finish the radiosity project. Yet I would hesitate to call the project a failure. This being the first time that the group has been run, we've learnt quite a bit about how the group should be run, and we've made a good start on the project. Hopefully, the project can be completed during the summer or fall term.

Many changes to the group are planned for next time:

• The second month of the term is filled with midterms while the last half of the third month of the term is filled with finals; therefore, it is imperative that the group start as soon as possible in the term.
• The single giant group project is too large and unwieldy. It is difficult to coordinate people and people don't get a sense of involvement. The moderator may also have been micro-managing too much.
• Taking on projects of any size and saying that "it doesn't matter if you don't understand the topic--someone else here probably does and can give a talk on it" weren't good ideas.
• Many other projects--some much more complex with others much simpler--which other people may have been interested in working on could not be tackled with the larger group.
• Next time, we'll try the opposite approach--we'll first have a short meeting to work out plans for the term. Then we'll have a big general meeting where students can stand up and give proposals ideas that they have. People can then volunteer to head up one of these projects and then others can then join the projects they're interested in. From then on, each individual team will probably run autonomously though there may be occasional group meetings where people can give progress presentations and people can make comments and stuff.
• Maintaining the web page will be delegated to the individual teams.
• Involvement & learning are good ideals, but next time we'll focus more on getting results and on maybe completing some more high profile projects. We can try to figure out ways to incorporate more involvement etc. once we have a club that "works."
• More advertising will bring more involvement, but advertising for the group can be greatly enhanced if the University of Waterloo Poster Policy is changed.
• A proper plan for how the Student Software Development Group should be run during the other stream should be devised / worked out with the CSC.

As a side note, Ming will be working more on the Radiosity 101 document so that if the project is picked up again later on, then all the needed information about radiosity will be in one spot. In retrospect, Ming actually decides that this isn't a good idea and actually won't be working on the Radiosity 101 documents.

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