NFLUG MISSION STATEMENT

[Dennis J. Eberl]

Bob,

ROTFLOL (Rolling On The Floor Laughing Out Loud) . . .

And here I was with my feeling hurt. Your advice about doing
a double take on anything that seems like reality -- especially
before pulling the trigger -- was well made in our conversation.

Now, see below


Robert Meyer wrote:

> --- "Dennis J. Eberl" <dje at pcom.net> wrote:
> > Bob,
> >
> > Thanks. You are the only member conscientious enough to reply.
> > See below.
> >
> >
> > Robert Meyer wrote:
> >
> > > Dennis, in the Mission statement, could you spell out what "SOHO
> > > businesses" are?  Now I didn't just fall off the turnip truck but
> > when
> > > I got to that part, I just sat there and blinked for a few seconds.
> >  My
> > > processor went into an exception loop and I had to reboot my
> > thought
> > > process with debugging enabled.
> >
> > I'm not sure what you are getting at. SOHO = Small Office or Home
> > Office.
> > My thought was that members with small businesses have legitimate
> > needs
> > that can be addressed by Linux.
> >
> > The good news is at least you didn't go into HALT.
> >
> > Are you objecting to including "SOHO members" or just not familiar
> > with the acronym?
>
> Actually, I was concerned with the fact that I didn't know that 'SOHO'
> stood for "Small Office/Home Office".  The resulting unresolved
> reference nearly caused a kernel panic. Maybe spelling it out as 'Small
> Office/Home Office', rather than 'SOHO' may be in order.

Ok, sure. It used to mystify me until I saw it in enough contexts that made
its meaning finally dawn on me. I just figured those who'd care would know,
but you are right acronyms should be spelled out and I will do so. Right now
in fact. Back soon. (Talk about synapse lapse; this is what works for me!)

Done and gone. Fixed "indeed" as well.

<---------- snip ---------->

> > >
> > > Bob
> >
> > Thanks again. We need a Meeting Planning Committee of something
> > to get our nflug list straightened out and coordinate our efforts on
> > what
> > is to presented, when, and by whom. Since no one listens to me -- I
> > can't
> > believe people are afraid to speak up, because they think I might
> > flame
> > them, but I'll take your word for it -- it would be helpful if you or
> > John
> > Neff raised the issue. Some thought ought to be given to who should
> > be
> > on the committee. For example, I was pleased as punch to see how Ron
> > Maggio was asking questions at this past meeting. He and David
> > Raczyk (from Computers for Children) and Kevin McCarthy (if he
> > is interested) might well be considered to represent newbie's
> > interests.
>
> This probably should be discussed in a different thread.  I have some
> ideas that we should kick around as a group regarding the amount of
> 'structured' vs. 'unstructured' time that we have at the meetings...

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees . . . ?

> >
> > Anyway, it's just a suggestion. To be honest with you, having worked
> > very hard to keep this group together and growing, I was frankly
> > insulted by not being invited to the meeting you, James, and John
> > had. I didn't stay on Darin's neck making sure we got the projector
> > and screen only for your benefit. I had been posting regularly to the
> > list about the need to walk newbies through command line stuff,
> > which is something I had planned to do, but gave up on the minute
> > I walked into the meeting. I loved the presentation, but I am sure
> > it left most newbies up a creek as far as learning how to run Linux.
> > To expect them to object and speak up is to expect the dead to walk.
> > Their interests need to be protected and their needs addressed by
> > and group that purports to be a LUG.
>
> No slight intended, Dennis.  The way we got together was fairly
> impropmtu.  James and I were tasked with doing a presentation on
> firewalls so we arranged to get together to try to come up with a set
> of things that we were going to talk about.  I know John from work and
> was chatting with him during lunch when I mentioned that I had to leave
> to get in touch with James so that we could arrange to meet.  John
> mentioned that he'd like to help because he'd already built a router
> similar to what we were talking about.  Since I hadn't been able to get
> the parts together to even start testing, I thought it was a good idea
> so we met at my place to try to get one of these things working "the
> hard way" so we had the whole process figured out.
>
> I honestly didn't realize that you were interested in being part of the
> presentation or helping figure the thing out at that point.  My
> schedule's been really crazy lately and my brain doesn't always fire
> the correct synapses at times.  Had I known, I would have invited you.
> I also didn't know about the work to get a projector and, in fact, was
> planning on trying to do it on a 17" display.  I also wasn't expecting
> to have the entire place watching that demo, I thought only the people
> that were interested in firewalls was going to be involved with our
> presentation and that someone else was going to be doing a parallel
> effort with the folks new to linux.  Thinking about it to myself here
> ('cuz there's noone else here to talk to at the moment :-) maybe that's
> the way we should do things... Have more than one thing going at a time
> so that folks can choose what they want.  I fully expected folks to be
> doing installs while I nattered on about firewall setups.
>
> Well, so much for addressing the issue in another thread... Now where
> did I hide that soap box?  I was thinking that the meetings need more
> "unstructured" time for people to actually 'socialize'.  We are
> claiming to be a 'social' club, so a bit more "face time" with each
> other, rather than just presentations might be a good idea.  I used to
> be a member of a Magician's group but every meeting brought another
> travelling magician/lecturer to present to the group and virtually no
> time was available for the folks to talk to each other.  There were
> some very experienced magicians in the group that would have been very
> happy to work with some of the younger folks 1 on 1 to teach/coach them
> but no time was allotted for that.  I dropped out of the group in
> disappointment because they claimed that they were a 'social' group
> when in fact, it was a lecture club.
>
> We should poll the folks in the club and find out what they want.
>
> I'm tired and am going home now...
>
> Cheers!
>
> =====
> Bob Meyer
> Knightwing Communications
> 36 Cayuga Blvd
> Depew, NY 14043
> Phone: 716-308-8931 or 716-681-0076
> Meyer_RM at Yahoo.com
>
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Cheers Yourself, you made my day. Let's get a thread started. Certainly
one of the mistakes I make is forgetting that most of you have more
important things to do than read list mail.

I left your full remarks in, because I thought they were really worthwhile.

Organization is like the Federal and State governments. We ought to
have just as much of it as we need -- hint, very little -- and not a bit
more. Almost any kind of truly representative small committee would work
and we ought to make it mandatory that people on it get off it in favor of
someone new so the committee doesn't become a loathsome dragon.

Ok, don't all speak at once. How should we create a committee to plan our
meetings. How do we assure more hands on and one-to-one -- although
I must say I thought the presentation was just great and thoroughly
enjoyed it. (I think we are in no danger of becoming a "lecture" group
any time soon.)

I have one suggestion. We could tighten up the presentations by setting
a time limit (this bothers me a bit though: we were all having fun) and
-- this is more important -- providing members who may want to
wander off with a printed handout containing main points, references,
links, etc.

The one thing I don't want to lose is the wonderful sense of fun and
camaraderie I think we have going. When the laughter stops, that's
when we'll be in trouble as a group.

Blinky sez it's Ok for you udder guys to tawk now.

Regards,

Dennis