Re: [PLUG] LINUX meetings at the Exton Library

["Michael Leone" <turgon@mike-leone.com>]

> The Exton PC Council http://www.extonPCcouncil.org which meets at
> the Exton Library (which is next to the Exton Mall and shares
> parking with the Mall http://www.ccls.org) can offer meeting space
> to PLUG, but we have some constraints imposed on us by the library,
> since we are guests of the library.
>
> The EPCC Board discussed helping PLUG at our meeting Thursday night
> and we can help with a couple of venues.  EPCC is composed mostly of
> home users, with a main meeting & presentation the first monday of
> each month, with smaller Special Interest Groups (SIGs) meeting
> various other nights throughout the month, Mon to Thurs, handling
> smaller groups and individual Q&A. In the past 15 months, we have
> had meetings reviewing Corel LINUX and StarOffice, so we are familiar
> with the open source movement and LINUX.
>
> Our nights are assigned several months in advance by the library,
> and we try to plan our meeting content so that we can get the word out to
the
> local papers and our membership.
>
> So here is what I want to ask the PLUG listserv... Do you think PLUG
> could work within the bounds of EPCC and the Exton library?
>
> Our meeting room can hold up to 100 people, and we can provide it
> at no cost.  We currently have a Special Interest Group for LINUX, but
only
> 3 people consistently attend it.
>
> One drawback for you is our distance from downtown Philly, and public
> transportation to the library is a train and a public shuttle bus.  I
> don't know how many of your membership are interested in coming this
> far, nor how many need public transportation.  How many members of
> PLUG live in the Western suburbs?  One option we have is that
> on the assigned nights, a couple of our members could meet the train
> with their cars and shuttle attendees.  I can provide a Caravan.

Can you provide a bit more info on the public transportation? I'd say right
now that at least 10 (probably more) people take public transportation to
each meeting (since 40 seems to have become a standard number of
participants, that's 25%+).

You mention a shuttle bus from the train to the library; what route would
that be? Then we can estimate approximately how long would that take, and
when the shuttle to the station would stop running (which gives us our
"deadline time to be outta there" window. :-).

As an example ... the last meeting was held in Conshohocken. For me, coming
from Center City, that was about 35 minutes or so travel time. Any idea how
much travel time from CC to your library would be?

> So we would like to suggest that . . . .
>
> We plan a joint meeting, where our LINUX SIG host you on Monday
> August 20th.  Our LINUX SIG could also host you on Weds September
> 19th.  And we would be excited to have a LINUX presentation of some
> sort on LINUX Desktop Apps for our general membership on Monday
> October 1st. Do you think these dates are a possibility?  (We do not have
the
> first Weds available at all from now till the end of the year.)
>
> We can try this joint venture and if your attendence drops
> off, then you can move PLUG back into the city.  What do the others
> in the listserv think?

I'd be willing to at least try it once and see. I guess mostly it depends on
the travel time and costs (PT fares or gas).
Sure, why not?

I'm not sure that any of our upcoming meetings deal with Desktop Apps, per
se, tho. Perhaps the PostgreSQL v MySQL databse comparison.
Anybody wanna do something like "Replacing MS Office with Star Office"? Or
perhaps "How Mozilla stacks up against MS IE and/or Opera"?
That would be a Desktop Apps presentation, I think.

(and NO, I don't wanna do those myself :-)



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