[nflug] Meetings - A Brief History of NFLUG and its Future

[Cyber Source]

OK, another approach to resurrect the meetings, that's a good thing, 
nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Having been one of the past hosts for this group, I'd like to chime in 
here and point out something that I feel was and will become a reason 
for the meetings to fail. I did not see anyone else elude to this in 
reply but from my 10 years or so of experience with this group, not only 
has the lack of organization been a problem but moreover the lack of 
MEETING PRESENTERS. Put simply, this group, as most who attend a 
meeting, want to be educated and at the very least, entertained. Hell, 
even free pizza and soft drinks couldn't keep people coming back for 
bplug meetings. Please remember, I appreciated everyones (including 
myself) effort and this new effort. I really would like to see it work 
this time. After all, I'd put our email list of some seriously bright 
and educated users against anyones and I'm proud to be a part of it.
So, now that I've got that off my chest, here's my .02 on the main thing 
to focus on for meeting success.
1. A meeting presenter! No meeting should be held without a meeting 
presenter and topic. Without this, the meetings just turn into circle 
jerks with people pairing off into little groups and shooting the shit. 
There's nothing wrong with that, I enjoy it myself, but if that's all 
the meetings turn into, people won't be coming back. That fact has been 
proven over and over.
1a. This "presenter", could be the same person, it really doesn't 
matter. As long as we have a topic and someone to present it. that 
should work. Then, guest "presenters" could schedule whenever and with 
whatever they like.

Enterprise or Noob, it doesnt matter. Without a meeting topic and 
someone to present it, they will undoubtedly fail as they have in the past.

Good luck to all, thanks to Brian and Mark and anyone else who's gonna 
head this up and let me know when the next meeting is and what, if any, 
we need to do about the email list.
Peter

Mark Musone wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> Sorry for not responding sooner ( I guess 3 months is enough time to 
> keep silent)..
>
> This email is going to be long, but just bear with me and try to read 
> it to the end, because I have an important reason for finally 
> responding now.
>
> (and please forgive me if some of my memory is fuzzy..)
>
> PAST:
>
> Back in 1994, when I was a grad student at UB, I created the Buffalo 
> Linux Users Group. This primarily consisted of UB students (gotta love 
> UB being an island to itself), and we held monthly meetings in UB 
> classrooms. Fast forward to 1998, I was working downtown and simply 
> became too busy with work to continue leading the user group. I handed 
> the reins to James Simmons who headed it up until he decided to move 
> out of the area. Right about that time, we received an email from Bob 
> Meyer who was running the Niagara Linux Users Group. Bob proposed that 
> both user groups join together in order to create a more active and 
> larger group. This made sense at the time not only to allow for a 
> larger usergroup base, but to satisfy James’ need to leave. So at that 
> time, the two user groups merged together to become the Niagara 
> Frontier Linux Users Group (NFLUG). Bob courageously headed up the 
> NFLUG for a number years and did a wonderful job. I then pretty much 
> hid in my corner until 2004, when around the same time Bob’s personal 
> responsibilities needed him to take a more passive role in NFLUG. 
> Peter from Cybersource volunteered to host and organize the meetings. 
> This lasted about a year, and then around 2005, Richard Hubbard 
> volunteered ITT tech to host the meetings, and himself to help 
> organize them. In 2005, I also saw the need for a more advanced Linux 
> Users Group. The NFLUG to date seemed to primarily focus on new linux 
> users and helping them out. In 2005, I started the Buffalo 
> Professional Linux Users Group (BPLUG) which focused on using Linux in 
> an Enterprise environment, basically having presentations about more 
> advanced topics. At around 2006, Richard had to leave ITT Tech and 
> subsequently also needed to take a more passive role in the user 
> group. Since then, the user group has pretty much been free-wheeling 
> with little leadership.To my knowledge, there are no organizing 
> documents for NFLUG or BPLUG.
>
> PRESENT:
>
> In my experience being involved in a number of user groups, community 
> organizations, volunteer efforts, etc.. There is one central component 
> that members of any group needs. This core requirement is LEADERSHIP; 
> without it, any group will be guaranteed to fail.
>
> I believe the present NFLUG situation exemplifies this. There has not 
> been an NFLUG or BPLUG meeting in many many months (years?). To my 
> knowledge, there is no leader of the user group and there is no 
> “Official” leadership position. There are no organizing documents. 
> Currently, the primary use of the usergroup is this mailing list. 
> Whenever I bump into a member of NFLUG, one of the first things they 
> ask me is “When is there going to be a NFLUG meeting”. I get requests 
> from people almost begging for there to be a meeting. This is really a 
> shame because so many people want to have a meeting and want to gain 
> knowledge and experience, and it does not happen due to lack of 
> leadership.
>
> Please understand that I am not saying this to berate or chastise 
> anyone or their efforts. I fully understand and am an example myself 
> of how busy people can get and how other responsibilities must 
> supersede these type of activities. I wish that even I could give more 
> time for this organization, but the reality is that I (and others) 
> cannot. I am also very thankful for the people that in the past have 
> stepped up and did what they could. Leading a usergroup like this 
> really is a decent amount of work.
>
> So the present situation of NFLUG and BPLUG is glum at best and is 
> destined to be more of the same; providing little value to most and a 
> lot of frustration to some.
>
> FUTURE:
>
> I was lucky to have recently been present for the first meeting of a 
> new Linux user group..WNYLUG (www.wnylug.org), started by Brian 
> Powell. I must honestly say that I have not been this excited about 
> such a group for years. The meeting was truly inspiring. Brian has a 
> significant amount of experience being involved in a Linux user group 
> in the past and is an official Ambassador of the Fedora project. Brian 
> knows how to run a usergroup, and he has the excitement, knowledge, 
> initiative, and vision to grow it to where I believe it needs to grow 
> to. In the first meeting he already had a mission and charter. I 
> believe this will be an invaluable service to the area and everyone on 
> this list and am thankful for his tremendous efforts already.
>
> With all of that said, there are a number of decisions that need to be 
> made in which everyone here should have input. Understandably, while 
> there is a big initiative for WNYLUG, one must figure out what do to 
> with NFLUG, BPLUG, and the corresponding mailing lists.
>
> In simple terms, we have somebody that is willing to step up and lead 
> whatever Linux usergroup is available. As far as what the name is, 
> does it really matter if there are consistent, current, and valuable 
> meetings? For me, my main concern is that there be a viable and active 
> Linux user group.
>
> My $.02 and suggestion is as follows:
>
> I personally like the name WNYLUG. I think it best describes the 
> geographical membership better than BPLUG or NFLUG. Upon speaking to 
> Brian, he also like the idea of having a more “Enterprise” level 
> usergroup, and is willing to lead that one also (it might simply be a 
> sub-group of WNYLUG). So, if it was up to me, I would merge NFLUG and 
> BPLUG into WNYLUG and adopt the WNYLUG charter and mission statement 
> for the time being. The next WNYLUG meeting is December 10^th . At 
> that time, there will be voting for the leadership and acceptance of 
> the mission statement and charter (note, even though Brian is founding 
> this and taking on the initial leadership, actual voting for all 
> officers will be done). Anybody is welcome to come and not only vote, 
> but put themselves up for election.
>
> Once this is done, the next item that needs to be cleaned up is the 
> mailing lists. I would suggest that the only mailing list that remains 
> be WNYLUG. People can either manually sign up for wnylug, and at date 
> certain, the nflug mailing list be shut down. I strongly discourage 
> having multiple Linux mailing lists be active at one time, It only 
> encourages division of our local community.
>
> Thanks for listening and for your input,
>
> Mark
>
> *From:* nflug-bounces at nflug.org [mailto:nflug-bounces at nflug.org] *On 
> Behalf Of *Tom Reid
> *Sent:* Monday, August 18, 2008 11:29 AM
> *To:* nflug at nflug.org
> *Subject:* Re: [nflug] Meetings
>
> Hi Joe and all,
>
> I am still at ITT Tech and can make space/resources available. 
> Although I couldn't make the meeting(s) there, we apparently also have 
> Trocaire available (thanks to whoever set that up). Our need seems to 
> be less about space available and more about 
> commitment--people(volunteers!) to keep things moving month to month. 
> If we have events and subjects planned further in advance, we will 
> probably have better turnout and more involvement. For the near 
> future, I am willing to help with meetings (with the incentive that 
> ITT "encourages" its instructors to do this kind of thing for 
> 'professional development' and 'community involvement' !). However, I 
> won't (can't, don't have that much free time) do it by myself.
>
> But first a request for some background. Mark (Bob?) and any other of 
> the original or past organizers/leaders, can you give us some history, 
> specifically whether NFLUG has any organizing documents (charter? 
> founding statement?), whether there were ever formal officers, 
> elections, etc? Or did you just do what you could in your spare time? 
> Having several (committed/Elected!) people share the load is better 
> than one or two, and having ongoing recognition for those currently 
> carrying the load can help until the next "election" when maybe some 
> others volunteer to take the lead for a while...
>
> Maybe some disagree about the need for structure - comments?
>
> Thanks, Tom
>
> On 8/18/08, *Joe* <josephj at main.nc.us <mailto:josephj at main.nc.us>> wrote:
>
> I haven't been to an nflug meeting in a long time.
>
> Are there regular meetings now or just once in a while when someone has
> the gumption to organize one?
>
> Do we have a meeting location that is generally available - like that
> great space we had at ITT?
>
> Most of the interest I have seen is for relatively advanced topics.
>
> Are there any other end-user types (like me) around who would appreciate
> things like presentations on desktop applications or some meeting time
> devoted to ironing out small problems in people's systems - especially
> if they are notebook systems that are easy to bring in and set up?
> There used to be install fests, but I guess the newer distros are
> generally so good at figuring things out for themselves that the fests
> aren't needed any more.
>
> I know that sometimes I have problems that I can't seem to get resolved
> on the list or find in Google that I'm pretty sure someone more
> technical than I am could resolve in a couple of minutes if they had the
> system in front of them and could see what was happening.
>
> Joe
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