Introduction / Offer for help

ME dugan at passwall.com
Thu May 23 15:04:08 PDT 2002


On Mon, 20 May 2002, augie wrote:
> On Mon, 20 May 2002, nbs wrote:
> # For example, our Installfests happen once a month, on the 3rd Sunday, and
> # none of the officers even needs to THINK about it anymore, thanks to
> # our appointed IF coordinator, Rusty Minden (who volunteered, of course :^) )
> 
> i'd like to see nblug be more like this, with respect to installfests. it
> seems that if we had more installfests, we would have more users, and more
> users means more activity, and (possibly) more candidate's to be speakers.
> 
> what's holding us back from having more installfests? and what can we do
> to help?

Though I agree you can get more uers with more installfests, we only
average about a 50% conversion rate for installfest attendees to new
members (not counting people who were members before the installfest in
the 100% group.)

Getting great topics and speakers seems to drive people to attend more
meetings. Also better advertising can drive more meetings.

I was thinking of offering some support with PR, but I cannot do the pres
thing as I may not be in this area much longer and being a president
requires time and commitment.

If someone else would prefer that job, here are some ideas:
Target placed with technically skilled employees.
 We have members from Agilent, SSU, and other local techie-based
  companies. If members from each of these business could get okays
  to post fliers on bulletin boards, it increases awareness.
  Simple flyers that say, "Attend NBLUG" are insufficient as they
  get stale. Notice of the next three upcoming talks would be good,
  and a rotation for new fliers once every other month, or every
  quarter keeps things lively.
  (Many people wont want to attend a meeting unless there is an
  event that they could enjoy at the meeting.)

While we are on the topic of fliers, do we have any artists in the
group? Well, design some fliers that state the purpose of the gropup, when
we meet, and make the fliers enticing. Provide space to include
description of the upcoming meetings, the topics and speakers.

When you increase your base of technically skilled people, you increase
the diversity of ideas for topics to bring into the open. Perhaps through
networking more people will know of other projects they think are cool and
want to bring them into the mix.

Target local newspapers. The Press Democrat, Argus (Are they still
around?) etc.:
 Most newspapers have "upcoming events" or "on the calendar" sections.
 Yes! People actually read these old-fashioned paper media!

>From here you can target two other groups:
 Managers who are less "in the know" technically, and new users who may
  have read about Linux but have no idea what it is like.

This creates a problem (encountered by LUGOD) where you have people on two
extremes who want to do Linux:
 People who are kernel/process/service/programming hackers
 People who are new to the show and just want to know some basics

LUGOD resolves this by having two meetings each month and tries to make
one meeting more technical and the other less technical. 
They also have two lists for user discussion:
vox
vox-tech
(and a third, non-user list "announce")

Next, it is the summer. Who "owns" the web server? Who can grant new
accounts?  I dont like doing much in the way of web coding, and do my work
with vi/emacs, and dont use php, but am instead still stuck on perl, cgi,
and servcer side includes.

Give me web access so I can play around with some ideas. smbfs would be
fine, but an ssh based shell would be better. Warning - I like tables and
do my best to make them work with LYNX, but I hate frames. I wont change
the present content, but instead work on a new design and store is in
another location for review.

Here is a second offer:
Someone provide a list of meetings and topics for the next 6 months and I
will work to get notices placed on the SSU campus about the user group.

I can invest some energy into this so long as there are others to do some
of the work too. As more time passes, and we get more attendees, we can
partition off more tasks to more people.

Somsone should take responsibility of list admin. If you choose to become
list admin you *should not* take part in arguements. You do not need to be
technically qualified, just fair and honest. Multiple list admins would be
good. I do not want to be an admin. As you have seen before, I am ready
and willing to discuss, and sometimes argue :-/ and should not be given
that control.

Multiple DNS contacts would also be good. I would offer my name, but
again, I may not be in this area much longer and you need someone who can
be commited.

The secretary should provide an electronic copy summarizing the previous
meetings and installfests as appropriate. (Of course multiple secretaries
are fine - one for install fests , one for general meetings etc.)

The electronic copy could then be placed on the web (in a pre-stated
location) by the secretary saving the person doing the web work from,
dealing with that part of it.

If we are not a Non-Profit/Not-For-Profit/etc organization, why should
there be a treasurer? (I am not cricizing, just asking for reasons.)

I have other ideas, but we need warm bodies to implement them. Most of the
things we need require close to ZERO technical ability, just time and
organization skills.

Last, I wont commit my time to these unless we have others willing to
commit their time too.

-ME

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