I've had it

[Greg Kedrovsky]

On Sun, 1 Jun 2003 21:00:43 -0500 (CDT)
Dave Hull <dphull at insipid.com> wrote:

> I suppose it's not really my place to chime in here, seeing how I've
> never been to a meeting. However, I'm subscribed to a number of LUG
> lists and have been active in other VOLUNTEER organizations.
> 
> LUGs, like nearly every other VOLUNTEER org, is what we as members
> make of it. Sort of like Linux and open source in general. You got an
> itch? Scratch it.

If anyone would like my 2 pennies on this deal, here they are. And if
not, then you can delete it like many others...

I run a volunteer organization and I coordinate over a 100 volunteers
(or try to... or try to plant vision to... etc.) on a weekly basis. What
Dave says is true: the volunteers make the org what it is. But, it is
just as true that the org needs a visionary leader to chart the course. 
Now, I don't know who that is in kclug, and I guess for me it doesn't
matter. I have my own problems with my own local lug that sucks terribly
(only we don't get to go to Denny's; we go to some nasty smelling dive
called La Tortuguita... NASTY!). Anyway, here come my 2 pennies: 

Can you gear your meetings around meeting the needs of other Linux
users? I've traded e-mails with a lot of guys that have tried to get
help on kclug and have been put off because they're basically newbies
(or maybe "intermediate" users). 

I don't attend my local lug meetings for the exact same reasons stated
in this thread. They are irrelavent. And that's the problem for many
volunteer orgs. People say, "Why?" They don't meet a need. Many leaders,
in turn, try to coerce their volunteers into attending by "duty" (i.e.
make the feel guilty for NOT attending). 

But, let me tell you what kind of lug meeting I would NEVER miss, that I
would schedule my schedule around. 

1. A tutorial on routers (like what all goes into setting up one of
those one-floppy routers). 

2. A tutorial on TCP/IP - gateways,
addresses, packet transfer, etc. 

3. A tutorial on Samba.

4. A tutorial on writing BASH scripts. 

5. A tutorial on setting up a simple server.

6. (Or how about this...?) A several-month course on getting "Linux From
Scratch" up on a running on a machine. One of you super-geeks could take
the meeting each month, walk the rest of the guys through what needs to
be done for that stage of the install that month. Meet again the
following month to answer questions about problems encountered and teach
the next step. Wow! I'd attend something like that! 

When my people in my volunteer org get bored, or burned out, or turned
off, it's usually because the focus has turned on them (me! me! me!).
The cure for that is to put their attention on helping someone else.
That makes them feel useful (and they are!). It uses their talents in a
positive, productive way. And, it gives the other guys, with lesson
knowledge, a leg up, a mentor, a teacher, etc. 

I hover on this list because I'm orginally from kc and have some friends
there (even a couple on this list). From what I have gathered from
reading your mail, is that most of you guys work in IT or programming or
software development, etc. Most of your tech questions are complicated.
For the newbie or intermediate, it's out of our league. So, if the group
meetings aren't meeting your needs (because you guys can basically take
care of yourselves), why not do a poll and see what the little guys out
there could use. 

Dang. I gotta get some of these ideas out to my lug... 

There you have it. Two pennies from a former kc guy living down south.

Have a good Monday (if that is at all possible...).

-Greg

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