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Re: [PLUG] UG Meeting room: Recommendations for Finding One
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On Wed, 23 Jun 2004, Michael C. Toren wrote:
> Also of interest to you may be Rick Moen's "Recipe for a Successful
> Linux User Group" (<http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Linux_PR/newlug.html>).
> Even through you're speaking of a *BSD group, it contains a number of
> good ideas for user groups in general.
Some comments on Rick's ideas. Rick has mostly very good ideas here, but
I think he missed some things and others I disagree with completely. My
basis for this is my participation in TriLUG (http://trilug.org) as both a
member and previous co-chair.
* Point 21 - "You don't need to be in the Internet Service Provider
business." - I flat out disagree with Rick here. In the late 90's we
started getting various unsolicited hardware donations to fill up the rack
that was donated to us at the local CoLo facility. The steering committee
at that time was passively resistant to the idea of setting up shell
accounts and other quasi-ISP services. As you can see from my email
address, the greater populace prevailed and the quasi-ISP services
continue to be one of the better perks of membership. We don't do dial-in
lines but there are a number of other services provided. More recently
TriLUG has started providing sourceforge-like services to local area FOSS
developers.
* If you bring free pizza, they will come. TriLUG enjoys attendance
figures that continue to push the meeting facilities to its limits. If
you get there on-time, you're standing in the back of the room. While I'd
like to think that this is because of the great meeting content, I'm sure
a little bit of it has to do with the free pizza and time set aside for
socializing. Pizza is usually paid for by a sponsoring company who gets a
few minutes to pitch their product or services before the meeting. In
cases where there is no sponsor, pizza is paid for out of the TriLUG
general fund. A donation box is left in the front of the room and members
have been very fair about keeping the general fund in the black.
* Point 22 - "Don't go into any other business, either." - Or, more
specifically, "Along the same lines, remember that you are not a
convenience for job recruiters". Actually, recruiters are more than
welcome on the TriLUG mailing list. They are asked to make sure the jobs
are at least 50% Linux or other FOSS, and if they are unsure to run it
past the steering committee first. This has worked out well and the LUG
is probably one of the best ways for Linux geeks & employers to find one
another. This has never really gotten out of hand at all.
Additionally TriLUG meetings have always been free. TriLUG has been lucky
enough to have some good sponsors in the RTP area, with a centrally
located meeting place that is right off of two major highways. The
meeting place is a conference room at a local research lab, and is
sponsored by one of the directors of the lab. There are no membership
fees or other charges to participate in the LUG. No hard pitches for
donations. And it seems to be working very well. Average meeting
attendance is close to 75 people per meeting now from what I understand.
Mailing list membership is several times that.
Figure out who your "chronic volunteers" are, nurture them, recognize
them, but don't burn them out. Usually a core group of 5-10 people carry
the whole of the LUG on their backs. Burnout is always a problem.
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
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