[GLLUG] Let the meetings commence!

[Charles Ulrich]

Greetings GLLUG members,

It looks like school is now back in full swing and after a brief hiatus, 
the Greater Lansing Linux User group will be having meetings again 
shortly.(1) We're looking for maximum participation this year, so a 
small group of us have sat down and tossed around a few ideas. But we 
need your help! Let us know which ideas you think are great and feel 
free to ridicule us for the crappy ones.

Item 1: Meeting Times
---------------------
For starters, we're looking at holding the meetings weekly. Yes, weekly. 
Holding the meetings monthly as before meant that if you had to miss a 
meeting, you'd have to wait two months before another one came along. If 
you had to miss two meetings in a row, then it would be 1/4 of a year 
before before you got to attend another! Holding them every two weeks 
was also an option, but confusion might arise as to whether the meetings 
were held literally every other week or the 2nd and 4th week of the 
month (for example). Weekly meetings means that you can basically pick 
and choose the meetings you wish to attend and better fit them into your 
schedule. This means we'll have more time for fun stuff, chit chat, and 
we'll likely see a much wider variety of people instead of just the 
hardcore few that attended most of the monthly meetings.

Item 2: Organization
--------------------
Most (all?) of the past meetings have typically been organized and run 
by two people: Jeff and Roger, with occasional help from others. They've 
done a terrific job but agree that weekly meetings would be too much for 
them to handle on their own. Thus, the consensus is that we'd like to 
build a little more organization into the group. We'd like to have at 
least the following positions:

- President
- Vice President
- Secretary
- Treasurer (Possibly, depending on what projects we do.)
- Publicity Director (Marketing the LUG, basically. In community 
newspapers, radio announcements, etc.)
- Presentation Director (In charge of soliciting / scheduling 
presentations.)

Each position should probably have an alternate and all positions will 
be filled on a volunteer basis. We likely won't go through the trouble 
of creating a whole voting process unless it's deemed absolutely 
necessary. More positions will be added as we need them. You can even 
volunteer yourself for a position that doesn't exist yet as long as you 
can demonstrate that it would serve the group in a practical way.

And, since the question will inevitably come up, there is no plan at 
this time to charge for dues or even solicit donations.(2)

Finally, there's been some question as to whether the group should 
become an official non-profit. We really don't know anything about the 
process and what the various pros and cons are. If anyone has experience 
in creating or managing a non-profit, we'd greatly appreciate your input.

Item 3: Presentations/Activities
--------------------------------
Well now that we've got 10 to 12 hours per month set aside, what shall 
we do with them? We've been tossing around ideas. Here are a few:

- Presentations on software or gadgets
- HOWTO presentations
- Linux beginner classes (Like the LPI classes earlier this year.)
- Installfests
- Show-and-tell (Expound upon the wondrous virtues of your favorite app. 
Sure to create some fun flame wars.)
- Trivia (Geek Jeopardy?)
- Pot-Lucks (Just food and chat.(3))

The beginner classes would likely be held about once a month. The rest 
is anything goes at this point. This is where we need the most help. 
We've months and months of meetings to fill! There are only two 
presentations so far on the docket, but no firm dates other than Real 
Soon Now, We Promise, Really We Do. More information on those will 
follow shortly.

For meeting ideas, the Kalamazoo LUG meeting history page would be a 
great place to start (http://www.kalamazoolinux.org/presentations/) or 
just browse the web and see what other LUGs are doing.

Item 4: Location, Location, Location
------------------------------------
Most of the meetings have traditionally been hosted by Roger at 
Atmosphere Annealing, Inc (AAI). It's a nice place and the people in 
charge there have been more than generous in allowing us to meet there, 
but if the meeting attendance ends up as large as we envision, we're 
probably going to have to find a new location. We'd like to have a 
backup plan ready and in-place for when or if that happens, so PLEASE if 
you have any ideas on where we could meet in the Greater Lansing area, 
we'd appreciate them. The ideal location would have the following 
features, but we would of course be flexible on some of them depending 
on the situation:

- Comfortably holds a capacity of at LEAST 40 to 50 people
- Located in or extremely close to Lansing or East Lansing
- Free or very cheap
- High-speed Internet access (we'll bring the firewall and network)
- Available most Thursday evenings
- Don't have to reserve the room months in advance

Item 5: Next Week's Meeting
---------------------------
The next GLLUG meeting will be held on Thursday, September 2 at 
Atmosphere Annealing. See the GLLUG web page for directions. If you want 
your say as to how we should continue to operate the LUG, THIS IS THE 
ONE MEETING TO ATTEND. We'll be discussing and making decisions on all 
of the topics I've covered in this message and no doubt many more. After 
this meeting, we'll want to head right into the presentations and 
activities so as to get the ball rolling as soon as possible.

So tell your friends, tell your family, tell your felines that the 
Greater Lansing Linux User Group is back and on the waddle.

Charles Ulrich,
Acting Secretary For The Time Being, Most Likely In The Future As Well

1. I guess Penguins hate the dog days of summer.

2. However, you will be recognized by your fellow geeks as a Enduring 
Symbol of National Heroism if you ever bring a few pizzas to a meeting.

3. Do not bring any food made out of penguins or daemons, please. Except 
Penguin Mints as those are not known to contain actual penguin. Or mint, 
really. Mostly just raw caffeine.
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