Meetings' Structure was: How is ITEC going?

[Dustin Decker]

On Sun, 13 Oct 2002, Steven Elling wrote:

> This is probably what most newbes will think and they will eventually not 
> bother with the KCLUG meeting.  They might also relate this impression with 
> Linux and not bother, which we don't want.

I'll try to avoid being pedantic here, but thought I might aught to 
throw my opinion in on this thread as well.

As some of you may know, I've spent considerable time with another LUG
out in the Lawrence area - KULUA.  In the early days of my discovery
(more than five years ago now) they were still relatively organized
having been born of an affiliation with KU.  (In their original
incarnation, they were the KU Linux User Association... this required
elected officials, a constitution, etc.)

Over the years, KULUA moved away from their involvement with KU.  Many
changes took place - namely that of changing terminology to call our
gatherings "socials" vice "meetings" to further indicate that they were
not meant to be organized in nature, but more of a social gathering of
geeks with common interests etc.

KULUA has been involved in a number of evangelistic efforts in the past, 
such as giving away thousands of Linux CD's of various distros outside 
Bartle Hall while Microsoft was kicking off their big Windows 2000 
release with a party inside.  It was quite successful in the giving away 
sense, and we realized a spike in membership on our mailing lists and 
such shortly thereafter.

Questions have been raised within the KULUA core membership from time to 
time related to the very issues which this thread addresses, and the 
fallout has been interesting.  It all comes down to a question of 
commitment I think - as there are some of us who aren't committed at all, 
those of us who want to be but are too busy and/or lazy to be so, and 
those who jump on opportunities to "further the cause" so to speak.  In 
general, the consensus with KULUA has been that we're mostly a social 
group, and wish to remain as such.  In recent months (nearly a year?) 
we've not had a social at all - no gathering to speak of.  This has led 
some to think we're imploding to some degree - but I think it's more of 
an ebb and flow sort of thing.  We get active for a while, take a break 
for a while, and get active again later.

I think the most significant question the KCLUG membership need to ask 
themselves at this junction is what they want to stand for.  

Organization is a great thing, particularly if increased membership in 
an effort to support and further evangelize Linux is the ultimate goal 
of the group.  This will require significant commitment from everyone if 
it is the ultimate goal, and as with any organization will require 
greater degrees of commitment from an inner core of membership than from 
the group as a whole.  It's not an easy task, particularly if you're as 
lazy as I tend to be.  <grin>

As a suggestion, it might not be a bad idea to in a sense "fork" the 
group a little bit.  What I mean by that is to perhaps have as I saw 
earlier suggested a "meeting before the meeting" that is a bit more 
structured to satisfy the needs (and as I see it currently, demands) of 
those folks who _need_ structure and some hand holding.  We could maybe 
consider this to be the "newbie SIG" or something similar.  Obviously, 
both groups should remain open to the public - but those folks who need 
someone to mentor them to some degree need something more than we 
presently offer them.  Had I not been blessed with this type of support 
by the good folks of KULUA so many years ago, I wouldn't know any more 
about Linux than what the trade rags report - and we all know they 
aren't always accurate.  I don't suggest that this mimic folks like the 
Masons or some such - you can obviously come along and go straight into 
the social group and skip the newbie group all together... you can take 
what you want and skip what you don't.  We all know that some great 
friendships have developed from within our current structure, and I'd 
like to see that continue.

One more thought as I bring this long post to a close (and to give my 
frozen fingers in a cold office a rest) would be the need to take stock 
of our current situation, determine what direction we desire to move in, 
and above all, count the cost.  If/When we decide to implement 
additional structure, a much larger commitment will be required of a 
number of folks.  Newbie meetings, if they become a reality, will most 
likely need to offer much more of a "something for nothing" environment 
that competes with other such offerings from that other OS.  Meetings 
where someone gives a bona-fide presentation on a topic with an overhead, 
handouts, and even a question and answer session.  (Who knows, maybe 
donuts too!)  Doing this once or twice is easy - doing it with great 
regularity can be too, but this sort of thing doesn't blossom overnight.

Another word on counting the cost... anyone who knows me is aware of my 
tragic tendency toward overcommitment.  I'm a yes sort of guy.  If the 
structured stuff is to come to pass, folks like me might want to count 
the cost more than once.  Do you have the time to commit?  If you 
commit, can you keep your commitment?  Blah, Blah, Blah.

I'm on a plane to Washington D.C. tomorrow as the sun comes up, and 
won't be back until the 26th.  I'll try to keep up with this thread 
while I'm gone... I've said yes again when I should have counted the 
cost so SANS will have me very busy...  if wireless doesn't reach the 
classrooms, I may have to catch up with this later.

Cheers,
Dustin

-- 
*-----------------------------------*
| Dustin Decker                     |
| dustind at moon-lite.com       *-----------------------------------------*
| http://www.dustindecker.com |                                         |
| Moon-Lite Computing         | No sense being pessimistic.             |
| 913.579.7117                | It wouldn't work anyway.                |
*-----------------------------|                                         |
                              *-----------------------------------------*