[CALUG] Next Meeting

[Jim Sansing]

The Oct. 11, 2006 CALUG meeting produced some interesting discussion
about the future of the group.  The main topic was getting volunteers
to organize monthly meetings and to maintain the web site and mailing
list.  But some other activities that the group could do were also
discussed.

Chuck Fullerton has volunteered to organize the monthly meetings,
and several people said they would help him.  He will be sending an
email describing next month's meetings and ideas for future meetings.

The discussion about meeting presentations showed that there is an
interest in both more and less advanced topics.  There are those who
are new to Linux looking for help with the basics, and there are also
'old-timers' who would like to have very detailed discussions of
specific applications in Linux and FOSS.  Chuck et al. certainly have
their work cut out for them.

Bernard Karmilowicz and I will be picking up the web site and mailing
list support.  Right now, the web site/mailing list/dns is hosted by
David Goodrich who currently lives in Ames, Iowa.  We decided that
it would be better to have the site administered by local members,
so I will be coordinating with David and Bernard will be setting up
a new server.

A big thank you to David for helping us out!

I also found out from David Cafaro (another big thanks to his
3 years+ of volunteer work for CALUG!) that while there used to be
another group that had registered the calug.org domain, it seems
to be available now.  So we will try to register it as part of
the move.

The discussion of other possible activities for CALUG to get
involved in included:

- Organize field trips
- Get togethers outside of meetings, such as a picnic
- Help CALUG members who want to organize a task group for
  advocacy, training, or other Linux and FOSS related
  programs

There was some discussion about CALUG getting a corporate sponsor
and getting more involved in advocacy.  However, the consensus
seemed to be that the purpose of CALUG itself is to provide an
organization where people interested Linux and FOSS can meet
like-minded people.  Then if some want to reach out to the wider
community, they can ask for help from other CALUG members.

Bernard said that the new web site will include forums.  That will
be a way of helping members organize other activities.  So watch
for the announcement of the new web site and check it out.

In the meantime, think about what you would like to see CALUG
doing and what you can do to make it happen.

Later . . .   Jim



Chuck Fullerton wrote:
>Howdy,
>
>Any news on the next meeting?  I've been talking with Robert about the
>future of the group and if there is nothing else scheduled for the meeting
>next week, I'd like to discuss the status of the group and see if we can
>reorganize a bit to help us keep going.
>
>I would hate to see the group falter because some of our members are moving
>on to other projects.
>
>Is there anyone here that is willing to step up to help with the management
>of the group?  If we can get a group of people together it will be easier to
>manage than just depending on one or two people.
>
>I for one am willing to help out.  Anyone else willing to help?
>
>Chuck.
>
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