[GLLUG] Thanks for Your Help

[Chick Tower]

I want to thank all the volunteers who spent time this weekend making 
the computer lounge a worthy representation of our user group in 
addition to providing a popular service for all the Penguicon attendees. 
  Not only did everyone have free internet access, but we printed many 
pages, provided many installation CD-ROMs via the Burn Unit, helped 
install Linux on many PCs, and answered their general and specific Linux 
and open source questions.  Those of you who have not attended Penguicon 
wouldn't believe how many questions we fielded over the weekend.  I know 
I occasionally had more than one person at a time asking me for help 
with something they were doing or just asking for information.  About a 
half-hour into the installfest I felt like a traffic cop telling people 
what to do or where to set up their PCs, because there were so many who 
wanted to install Linux.  I'm not trying to brag; from conversations, I 
learned this was common for the volunteers.  I don't know if the 
Penguicon organizers know how much help we provided to so many people, 
but I hope they realize how much we did to promote FOSS.  It's probably 
more than the rest of Penguicon does, as the technical presentations are 
already "preaching to the choir."  However, if every GLLUG member who 
attended Penguicon hadn't been willing to help, the computer lounge 
would have suffered, and many people would have gone without the help, 
advice, and new Linux installations that they did receive.

I would also like to thank you for helping me sell Tux pins.  Last year 
I was surprised there was no FOSS merchandise on sale at Penguicon, so I 
thought we should be able to sell something to other attendees who 
wanted such things.  This year, after hearing that the Penguicon 
organizers had cleared it with the vendors who would be doing business 
at Penguicon, I ordered 100 2.25-inch Tux pins.  All the pins are gone 
now, and I sold only ten to twenty of them, so the volunteers sold the 
vast majority of the pins.  Thank you for your help.

Lastly, I would like to thank the convention suite for introducing me to 
Woodchuck Hard Cider.

                                Chick