And some actual Group topic ideas...

[Dennis J. Eberl]

James Simmons wrote:

> I still think the idea of contact at nflug.org is teh best idea.

Now you're talking. We need a contact, be it someone's name or
something like webmaster or contact or info. I personally like
info at nflug.org, but don't care as long as it's not nflug at nflug.org
with no individual delegated responsible to answer our mail.

> It just has
> to forward mail to the person(s) currently handling this matter.

Exactly, that's what the vast majority of the LUGs do.

> > If no one else will speak up on this matter, we have a group
> > that is going to hell in a handcart. Remember what happened to BLUG97.
> > Why do you think it failed, James?
>
> For one Mark Musone was in charge of the group. In time he became
> occupied with his job and no one stepped up to try to take over. Well I
> did in the fall of 99. The major problem was poor adversting. The group
> was composed of UB students which often get swapped with school work. This
> included myself.

Ok, that's legit. It is very hard for students to find time to do a lot of club
activities. My point, which I could have made more clearly I think, is that
some one or some small group of people are always the ones who get things
done in a group. I think we need to form a small elected, term-limited  steering
committee. In addition to planning meetings, the first steering committee should
also develop a mission statement, code of conduct, and whatever else the
MINIMUM governance of a group like ours needs.

> This time around we have a core of several people that
> have the passion to keep this orginzation going as where I was the only
> one. The big thing is to advertise which we have.

I'm sorry, but NO the big thing is not to advertise (we've added 3 or 4 new member
over the last few days totally unsolicited via the membership form). We need to
organize. There may be a better idea than my steering committee above. Fine. Let's
here it; let's do it. You are right. We've got the steam to do it this time, but it
is being
sputtered away and wasted. We cannot remain just a social group.

> I contacted VA Linux and
> a few other places to make them aware of our existance.

Let me be clear about this. Your efforts are welcome, but please post everything you

think relevant in the open to the list as I attempt to do. That way the left hands
know
what the right hands are doing. It's a kludge, but, hey . . .

> Plus every now and
> then posting to linux newsgroups about us helps.
>
> > please POST-on and don't be surprised by the number of people who have figured
> > out how to send dje at pcom to /dev/null (ever wonder why the number of responses
> > to your posts seems so small?)
>
> Yes I know a few people that use procmail to filter dennis.

If you expect me to be upset about this, don't hold your breath. Have any of these
people
made a positive contribution to NFLUG? Do they show up at meetings? Have they put
forth in any form their ideas about our LUG? Please encourage them to do so.

> > maybe even one day learn about the "lost transparent background".
>
> Oui what is the name of that window manager that minics Max OS X. It has
> transpecent windows as well :)
>
> > We would each have to have a copy of "Running
> > Linux", then set up a schedule of how many chapters to read and discuss between
> > meetings.  As we run into snags while reading we could check up on each other
> > via the list.  Anyone interested?
>
> Thats a pretty good idea. I had something as well planned after the
> firewall talk. People should be broken up in groups with one strong person
> in linux and they work on a particular problem or discuss together what
> question they have and what the answers are.
>
> "Look it's a text editor, no it's a OS, no it's Emacs"
> James Simmons                                           ____/|
> fbdev/gfx developer                                     \ o.O|
> http://www.linux-fbdev.org                               =(_)=
> http://linuxgfx.sourceforge.net                            U

Wait a minute. "People should be broken up in groups with one strong person in
linux and they work on a particular problem or discuss together what question
they have and what the answers are." That may be true. It also might not be.

What I think is we all as a group should discuss it. Who desides what group
discusses what?
I say ask the people who will be in the group? Radical thought. Obviously my
attempts
to do that -- the /dev/nullers quite aside -- have fallen on deaf ears. This is not
the
kind of think that seems to work on an e-mail list. We need to discuss it in person.

Thank for your input, James.

Respectfully,

Dennis Eberl