[Discuss] the state of VLUG meetings at present

[Larry Gagnon]

My comments below are in no way meant to denigrate anyone, least of all  
any club member or club officer, they are simply observations with some  
possible suggestions about what we might do to improve the situation, and  
of course, I throw this out to the discuss-list for some ideas and  
discussion, so that together, we can maybe improve our meetings. If anyone  
disagrees with my observations or suggested ideas please don't hesitate to  
say so! If you want to do this in private call me (382-1266).

I have been a member of VLUG for about 3 years now, and I enjoy going to  
the meetings to learn and discuss and (sometimes) to contribute where I am  
able. Over that period of time though I have noted the following:

1) a distinct drop in attendance from about 25-30 members and guests to  
now often less than 6-8 people
2) a distinct lack of effort to prepare for or arrange presentations
3) presentations (not so bad recently) which were pitched way above the  
heads of obvious newcomers/ newbies and/or poorly presented, often without  
even a proper introduction
4) sometimes a lack of welcoming "discussion" or club information for  
newcomers
5) a distinct lack of attention payed to the presenter and his or her  
presentation by a small element of attendees.

OK. Now I've said it, and I don't really think any of my observations  
above are way off the mark. So in doing so I have these suggestions below.  
How we might implement them is something altogether different but I  
thought I would start this now because our AGM is coming up next month and  
perhaps we can discuss these points further at the AGM and prior to it on  
this list.

1) Attendance drop:
- advertise VLUG (which is not presently happening)
- make newcomers more welcome and provide interesting, consistent  
presentations
-
2) Lack of Presenters:
- possibly two members to work on finding people for each month
- set every third month as a free-for-all discussion and/or install-fest,  
not requiring a formal presentation - but have a definite moderator, who  
leads the evening
- canvas places where people may be using Linux for interesting work (eg  
Hertzberg Institute of Astrophysics) to give presentations that may not  
necessarily be fully Linux related
-
3) Poor Quality Presentations:
- have a presentation by an expert on how to give presentations!
- a moderator at each meeting intervenes if presenter is "loosing hs  
audience"
- all members to get a demo on how to use the projection system
- projection and wifi system prepared beforehand and working prior to 7PM
-
4) Lack of Welcoming
- formalize the meetings so that we don't look like a ragtag bag of geeks
- prepare a newbie pamphlet (already done in the past??)
- re-instigate the raffle of Linux text books ?
- 2-3 members designated to welcome newcomers, find out their interests,  
experience, etc.

5) Lack of Attention to Presenter
- not much to say about this. It is rude, but it is also a free world!
- I guess having more and higher quality presentations might be a solution


Comments and discussion and ideas greatly appreciated.

Larry Gagnon