Meetings' Structure was: How is ITEC going?

[Mark Hutchings]

I've personally never been to a meeting yet.  But I would have to agree
with everyone from what I am hearing.  4 meetings a month.  We could
have 4 catagories for each meeting. Desktop/Server/etc/etc.  Have one
where, for instance, the next meeting is announced that RH 8.0 desktop
to be installed and played with (desktop side).  Load KDE or Gnome, make
sure everyone gets it loaded (which Im sure people will have problems,
then the fun begins.)  Next meeting, RH 8.0 as a server, no GUI.  Load
up apache, bind, etc etc etc. Next meeting try several misc packages out
on the system that people build in the previous weeks.  Im sure a lot of
people know of some neat little tools out there, that they can bring up
in the meeting and show to everyone.  

Next month, Mandrake's newest.  Same concept.  Whenever Slackware has
their new distro, that one would be it.  Announce on the site what the
future meets will hold and so on.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net
[mailto:owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net] On Behalf Of Seth Dimbert
Sent: Saturday, October 12, 2002 8:38 PM
To: JimH at ItDepends.com; kclug at kclug.org
Subject: Re: Meetings' Structure was: How is ITEC going?

First of all, thank you to Steve Elling for bringing this issue up. I
didn't want to mention it, but it's been on my mind since my first
meeting.

For the sake of the issue, here's "One New LUGNut's Story:"

I'm the tech-geek at work. I shot off my mouth at a meeting and said
that we needed an internal web server and that we could recycle an old
machine with Linux for free. Everyone looked at me for a moment and
dared me to put my money where my mouth was.

So, after trying (unsuccessfully) to download iso's, I broke down and
bought a copy of RedHat 7.2 and installed it (sans GUI) on an unused
Win95 box. When I registered it, I found a website about Local LUGs and
followed the KC link and found this illustrious group.

My first impression? Someone has already said it: "I think we need to
look less like a bunch of guys setting around and talking." I described
to someone at my office in this way: "Imagine a group of very, very
knowledgeable people getting together to have a meeting about an arcane
form of sorcery. Now subtract organization and agenda. That's it."

No offense, but - from an outsider's perspective - the meetings are not
very valuable.

I've been to two. During my first, I sat and waited until someone pitied
me and explained that, "This is all that we do. We sit and talk." I sat
for a few more minutes chatting with someone (I never did get his name)
then left. Early. 

I returned for an install-fest with an old PC in tow. Hal spent about 90
minutes trying to help me and we finally gave up. Some of you may
remember me - I'm the Jewish guy in the skullcap.

The point of all of this narration is to - in short - support the motion
for more organization at meetings. While I don't think that the group
requires a board, I do think that some forethought and organization
would allow us to capitalize on the increased numbers we're sure to see
at the next meeting or two, thanks to ITEC. (Of course, if we don't take
action, those new members will, like me, probably stop coming to
meetings.)

As a suggestion, I look to MacCore, a local Macintosh UG whose meetings
I periodically attend.

1) Each meeting begins with a "Meeting Before the Meeting" for newbies.
They call it their New Member SIG (Special Interest Group). Newbies are
welcomed and someone tasked with that function helps to make them feel
comfortable, answer FAQ's, collect questions they want answered, etc.

2) Each meeting features a speaker with a specific topic.

3) Each meeting features a demonstration of some piece of software (not
necessarily connected to the speaker).

4) Four times a year, the group gives away a CD-ROM full of software
demos and, at the meeting at which they're distributed, someone demo's
the software on the CD.

In my mind, instead of a 3-hour shmooze, a meeting could look like this:

6:30 - 7:00 Newbie SIG
7:00 - 7:20 Welcome, Linux News, Group News, etc
7:20 - 8:00 Featured Speaker
8:00 - 8:30 Software Demo
8:30 - ??? Organized Q&A followed by Informal Discussion

Whew. Sorry about the length of the post.

I'm done.

-SD

On 10/12/02 2:24 PM, "Jim Herrmann" <JimH at ItDepends.com> wrote:

> On Saturday 12 October 2002 02:14 pm, Robert Kennedy wrote:
>>> growing enough that more structure is warranted.  I
>>> think the "Installfest" and "Demoday" concepts are
>>> out dated.
>> 
>> Don't know about that. More newbies means more people wanting to 
>> install duel boot machines and/or get Linux to run on unusual 
>> hardware.
> 
> Good point.  I'm just saying that the original concept of an 
> Installfest, where you have lots of people coming to install is out 
> dated.  I would never suggest that if someone brings in a machine that

> we fail to assist that person.  That just doesn't need to be the whole

> group.
> 
> Thanks for the input.  Let's keep it going.  :-)
> 
> Peace,
> Jim Herrmann
> 
> 
> 
> majordomo at kclug.org Enter without the quotes in body of message 
> 
>