Re: Interest in SIG?

[Erich Schroeder <erich@museum.state.il.us>]

On Mon, 15 Nov 1999, Kara Pritchard wrote:

> 
> 
> After dousing a few fires (and igniting a few more) I've decided to
> propose an idea to the group...

Seems as though my job is mostly stomping out fires...
 
> Obviously, with the growth of Linux use, and the increasing range of types
> of Linux Users, LUG meetings are ever becoming more overwhelming, and
> harder to manage and maintain. [or should I say contain?] ;) This is
> because there are more topics and more users than there are
> meetings and minutes of the day.
> 
> Our group in Carbondale used to meeting twice a month, which is difficult
> on group leaders, who were expected to come up with everything to say for
> meetings every other week. So, I don't think meeting more often for the
> LUG would be a good idea. BUT, I would be interested in putting together a
> LUG Special Interest Group, say, Newbie Night.

So...two Linux nights per month, one for "Newbie Night" and t'other for
the standard LUCI type meeting?

> With topics much more 'down to earth' [sorry steven], and opportunities
> for new linux users to possibly even bring in their troubled systems, the
> Newbie SIG would be much more adapt to providing what's needed to our new
> Linux Users without boring them, or overwhelming them with too much
> information, thus discouraging them from using Linux.

I think that there would have to be some method for scheduling if folks
are going to bring in systems. It would be dissapointing for someone to
lug in a desktop only to find that 10 others also did so that there wasn't
enough time. 

Still, this would be a good service (probably).

> "Newbie Night" wouldn't split our current group, only enhance what it
> offers. All the spiffy free stuff will still only be available at LUG
> meetings, and general LUG events will still be handled by LUCI meetings
> too. However, providing "Newbie Night" perhaps will help catch up our new
> members to not feel too out of place, while letting our more advanced
> members continue to participate.
> 
> So, what do we need to do? Well, I'd like to know who's interested in
> coming, and if there are specific topics you'd like to hear! (woo-hoo!
> topics even *I* can handle!) We'll also need to make meeting arrangements.
> I'm not going to assume that Erich is going to give up yet another
> evening! However, I'd just about bet money that Newbie Night attendees
> wouldn't conflict with the Springfield Perl Mongers attendees! So maybe
> there's another room we could use Erich on the PM nights?
> 

The "big echoey room" is being split into two rooms, so the two meetings
could be concurrent in these two rooms right off of the RCC entrance.
Having meetings in the nice room back in the building is more difficult as
we don't like to have that hallway door unlocked. There is another small
conference room off of the entrance that only a select few of the PM
people have seen. Normally this is not used for public meetings, but I can
look into it.

The potential conflict between PM and NN (Newbie Night) is that some of
the "guru-like" people for NN might be the "newbies" in PM. Still, you are
right in assuming that I might not give up another night. What with cub
scouts, dog training classes, and soccer, the three Schroeders are
surprisingly busy. So combining nights is a good option for me.

Erich

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Erich Schroeder                    Phone: (217)785-0033
Curator, Information Technologies  FAX:   (217)785-2857
Illinois State Museum GIS Lab      Internet: erich@museum.state.il.us
http://www.museum.state.il.us/ismdepts/anthro/staff/erich/erich.html
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