[NBLUG/talk] NBLUG participants

[Derek B. Noonburg]

I think of NBLUG as having three overlapping functions: social,
technical, and advocacy.  (Rick's HOWTO phrases things a little
differently, but I think we're close enough.)  We've been doing pretty
much 100% social since we started meeting again at Flagship.

On the technical side, we used to have some sort of talk at almost every
meeting.  I'd really like to get back to doing that, even if it's
something like every second or third meeting to start.  But we need to
find a venue before that can happen.

As for advocacy, I know NBLUG used to do installfests, but I don't
think there's much demand for that anymore.  I'm open to suggestions
here.

I don't see us trying to collect dues or actively soliciting donations.
I think that would add a layer of bureaucracy that no one really wants
to deal with.

From my point of view, the priority right now should be to find an
alternate meeting location -- one that allows us to do presentations.
(It would also be nice to have an indoor venue before winter).

- Derek


On Sun, 17 Jul 2022 08:07:49 -0700
Brad Morrison <bradmorrison at sonic.net> wrote:

> Hey Frank,
> 
> Thanks for providing the exact numbers! I didn't realize that there
> are so many people on the talk (236) and announce (454) email lists -
> that's a lot!
> 
> For comparison to the North Bay Electric Auto Association (NBEAA - 
> https://nbeaa.org/), NBEAA only has about 151 people on their largest 
> Google Group email list, but they regularly get about double the
> number of participants at their monthly Zoom meetings (about 14-16)
> compared to the number of people that we can get to show up to Spring
> Thai/Flagship Taproom's outdoor tables in Cotati (about 6-8). Just
> for comparison's sake, the NBEAA has about $6280 in their bank
> account (mostly dues reimbursements from their "parent" nonprofit
> organization the Electric Vehicle Association -
> https://www.myeva.org/) vs. NBLUG's about $140 in the cash box.
> 
> If anyone has any suggestions or feedback about how we could get more 
> people involved in NBLUG or more people on the email list that want
> to show up to the monthly meetings or even just more sharing via the
> IRC channel or this talk email list, feel free to let us/me know. My
> main priority for NBLUG/the larger Linux & open source ecosystem is
> to get more people involved (whether they are users or developers or
> whatever). That springs from my hunch that more users equates to more 
> interest/activity which leads to more donations/funds to pay more 
> developers to grow the capabilities of open source software in the 
> eternal competition with closed/proprietary/corporate software &
> systems.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Brad
> 
> On 7/14/22 12:00, talk-request at nblug.org wrote:
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> >     1. Re: Linux Mint's "popularity, " package management, and
> >        features + NBLUG 7/12 meeting recap (E Frank Ball)
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 1
> > Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2022 23:02:09 -0700
> > From: E Frank Ball<frankb at frankb.us>
> > To: "General NBLUG chatter about anything Linux, answers to
> > questions, etc."<talk at nblug.org>
> > Subject: Re: [NBLUG/talk] Linux Mint's "popularity, " package
> > 	management, and features + NBLUG 7/12 meeting recap
> > Message-ID:<20220714060209.GF2464941 at kamajii.efball.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> >
> > On Wed, Jul 13, 2022 at 10:35:27PM -0700, Brad Morrison wrote:  
> >   >
> >   >    - we aren't exactly sure how many people are currently on
> >   > the talk and announce mailing lists  
> >
> > talk:  236
> > announce:  454
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> >     E. Frank Ball III
> >     Scribe, North Bay Linux Users Group
> >     Frank at NBLUG.org
> >     I'd tell you my UDP joke but I'm not sure you'd get it
> >
> >
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> > End of talk Digest, Vol 199, Issue 8
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> >