RE: Meeting Agendas and Organization

["Burke, Jason" <JBurke@lrs.com>]

I've stayed away from UIS and Lincoln Land because they are
a bit out of town and kind of a pain to get to, but aside from the
museum I agree with you that this is probably our best bet (now
it's just a matter of contacting the right person). At one time we
were hopeful that Springfield High School would be willing to 
host it, but the few dealings that I have had with the high school 
have lead me to believe that they aren't interested in assisting us.

Now, don't get me wrong Jeff, I also think that having _some_
talk about current events is good, but I feel that there has been
too much time donated to what should have been a 20 minute 
topic. As far as scheduling goes I can agree that we don't have
to be too strict about it, but my main issue is that I think we 
should have two topics at each meeting one for the beginners
during the first half of the meeting and then presenting a more
advanced topic for the second half with a break in-between to
allow the beginners to escape before they have to suffer through
our highly technical geek-speak. I also think that the free stuff
should be given away at the half-way point, again to make sure
the beginners can get away before the advanced topic starts.
This will allow us to help out both beginning and advanced users 
without alienating either group. 

Your idea for the hands on tutorial is a great idea. Also, on the
plus side is that any presentation materials from this can go
on the web site for future reference (assuming the presenter
creates readable materials =). 

Anyway, I've decided that if I keep babbling about this sooner
or later everyone is going to put in their two cents =). It's just
a matter of time now. Well, I gotta run,

Jason



> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Jeff Licquia [SMTP:jeff@luci.org]
> Sent:	Tuesday, October 26, 1999 3:07 PM
> To:	luci-discuss@luci.org
> Subject:	Re: Meeting Agendas and Organization
> 
> 
> On Tue, Oct 26, 1999 at 01:07:24PM -0500, Burke, Jason wrote:
> > 
> > I've been wanting to do an installfest since earlier this year,
> > but I just can't find anywhere suitable to have it at. With the
> > research and collections building getting back in order it 
> > may be a possibility to have it there, but we'll have to speak
> > with Erich about it first. I've come to the conclusion that 
> > the museum is our only ally for getting things done since
> > no other entity seems interested (I've tried to get LRS to 
> > host LinuxMentors, and the Installfest, but I haven't gotten
> > any positive response back about it). 
> 
> At the last Perl Mongers meeting (my debut for PM, that was so poorly
> attended, snif snif :-), Erich showed off the new layout for the
> room.  We were thinking that it's even better suited now for install
> fests, as it allows one group to be in the middle of installs while
> another has a speaker, tutorials, etc., without them bothering each
> other. 
> 
> I will agree that the museum deserves mega kudos for their helpfulness 
> (and Erich, too, for coordinating).  I wonder, however, if there
> aren't other Linux-friendly organizations out there that would jump in 
> if they were aware.  I certainly haven't done much footwork to places
> like UIS or LincolnLand (doesn't one of them have an all-Linux
> computer lab?)  Perhaps others have not been as lazy as I...?
> 
> > However, I don't think that the installfest is the only (or best) 
> > way to help out our new members. Your idea for doing a quick
> > presentation on the different commands is great, and this is
> > exactly what I'm talking about: thinking outside the box and
> > coming up with creative solutions to our issues. Now if we
> > could only get the older, and more experienced members to
> > join in this talk I'm sure we could get some really good ideas.
> 
> Challenge seen and well met. (I hope. :-)
> 
> > In any event, one of the biggest problems we have is how to
> > accommodate varying levels of skill while keeping it interesting
> > for everyone, and maintaining some type of group direction
> > overall. At this point the group has been very reactionary by
> > having meetings based on what's going on in the industry,
> > but I think we'll be better served by trying to be more 
> > informative about the system rather than current events. 
> 
> It is tempting, though, especially for us long-timers.  Just two years 
> ago, remember, an off-the-cuff wisecrack from people like John Dvorak
> would have been considered "major media exposure".  It's heady as heck 
> to have lived through the lean years and see all your predictions come 
> true.
> 
> All the same, I don't think that it's necessarily bad to have some
> "current events" at each meeting, even if we do cut it back a bit.
> 
> I would be inclined to agree that a bit more structure might be nice;
> OTOH, I wouldn't go so far as to have published schedules.  There's
> nothing so stifling as a "schedule" attitude, where important topics
> can't be given the treatment they deserve.  But certainly an informal
> outline would be nice: about 15 minutes of mingling, followed by a
> call to order, then a few minutes of "current events", some Q&A, some
> group business, followed by a speaker or two, with optional breaks
> where appropriate.
> 
> I'm sure there will be more discussion about this tonight, but here
> are some ideas I've got:
> 
>  - Speaker rotation.  This is in no way a slight to Steve, who has
> done a great job of things so far (and who has, I should say, been the
> one person to stand up and do the gritty work of leading the meetings,
> as well as other things).  However, having different faces up at the
> podium gives off the impression better that we encourage active
> participation.  Perhaps if we had a cadre of "permanent speaker
> volunteers" in a rotation, with the understanding that anyone else
> with a topic could insert themselves on a one-time basis or decide to
> join the rotation?  If this were considered a good idea, I wouldn't
> mind joining the rotation.  Anyone else?
> 
>  - Perhaps some of the topics could be hands-on tutorials.  If the
> Museum is willing, we could use some of that lab equipment they're
> getting (and already have) for this.  Even if people had to share,
> they would likely take more away from this than a standard tutorial. 
> 
>  - We could likely use the Web site more than we do for managing
> stuff.  As with most things, this falls into the area of "problems
> waiting for time to implement a solution."
> 
> I will agree with one thing Kara said, however.  Participation is
> key.  Hopefully, no one is afraid to take the bull by the horns and
> say, "Hey, I'd like to speak at next meeting on fooing bars with
> bazes, is that OK?"  Or even "I've got some cool info, can I put it up 
> on the Web site?"  Or whatever.
> 
> In the interest of practicing what I preach, I volunteer to lead the
> meeting next time.  (Not tonight; I'm sure Steve is just bubbling with 
> fun news from ALS. :-)  Who will join me?
> 
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