I agree, the meeting was a fantastic success! Great turnout, wonderful enthusiasm!
And a great after-meeting meeting at the Red Hook brewery for the real hard-core
zealots! We're tackling a big challenge, with equally big rewards! (See the
comments from Rick and myself at the end of this message for more about that!) BTW,
we agreed to retitle the event, see subject line for the agreed-upon "official"
nomenclature.
I've copied this to the general gnhlug list so that everyone can see just how big
this could be. If you want to be a part of accomplishing something special, please
sign up and help - start by subscribing to the gnhlug organization mailing list
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> so we don't clutter this list too much! Hopefully
the traffic there will be archived somehow so that as folks join us in the future
they don't have to miss what's gone before, or have it repeated ad nauseum.
I'll add more details from my notes to the traffic on gnhluh-org later, for now I've
added just a couple of comments here (apologies for not trimming the quoted
messages, but I decided toleave it to echo on the main list for folks there who
haven't yet had a chance to subscribe to the -org list)...
Thanks to everyone who attended yesterday for their enthusiasm - and especially to
Lori Hitchcock and Rick Petree for pulling the meeting together!
--Bruce McCulley {a/k/a lbm}
Rick Petree wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Benjamin Scott [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: 29 January, 2000 10:34 PM
> To: GNHLUG Organization List
> Cc: Rick Petree
> Subject: Re: BUN meeting
>
> PRE-SHOW STUFF
>
> We need to put together an online registration form/interest survey and
> get
> it online. I'll work on that and will have a draft ready by Monday night.
>
> We need to get in touch with advertising sources. Local papers.
> Websites.
>
> We need to contact area business associations and groups to let them know
> about this. Spread the word.
>
> We should look into posting information about this in local computer
> stores,
> bulletin boards (the physical kind), etc.
>
> SHOW SUPPORT
>
> We need to find out about food at the show.
>
> We need to determine what our needs our (of course, we need to determine
> what we'll be doing before we can determine what we need to do it):
> - Computers
> - Projectors
> - Displays
>
> We need to find out what kind of facilities will be available, in terms
> of:
> - Space
> [I already have RM 29 reserved, but I will get the Conference room and a
> few other class rooms reserved; just tell me how many. General rule is if
> they are not using it then if we book it in advance then we can use it.]
{PLEASE ALSO GET ROOM 28, I'D SUGGEST THAT YOU BOOK EVERYTHING YOU CAN GET, WE CAN
ALWAYS CANCEL RESERVATIONS LATER, BUT I'LL BET WE DON'T HAVE TO! -lbm}
>
> - Power
> [All rooms have several outlet and they have power strips available]
{IS THERE UPS POWER AVAILABLE? SHOULD WE PLAN TO BRING SOME UPS UNITS IF NECESSARY?
-lbm}
>
> - Networking
> [RM 29 and the Conference room have connections to their LAN and direct high
> speed connection to the Internet]
> - Computers
> [For now we have sixteen; do we need more????]
{YES!!!!! - lbm }
>
> With that information, we can determine what we'll need to supply
> ourselves.
> [OK what else do you need??]
>
> About those computers at NHTC:
> -We need to find out we are allowed to do to them.
> [Primarily the computers have OSs on them. They are used by the
> Networking, Linux, and NT students to learn and fully explore the OSs. If a
> class screws up a computer then the computer guy comes in any downloads the
> new HD image to it and it is back in service]
> -We should verify they have backups, in case we destroy something.
> [They maintain image back-ups of the HDs for themselves]
> -We need to determine their hardware, to make sure it works on Linux.
> [Linux (RH6.1) is already installed]
> - We need to visit well in advance to install, configure, and test our
> software to ensure it works.
> [Agreed!! The best times is any Monday or Friday; no classes in RM
> 29 all day. Just let me know in advance so I double check and reserve the
> room]
> - We need to save those configurations in case we need to restore them
> in the mean time.
> [Sounds like we need to back up our critical file or maybe the copy the HD
> image for ourselves; suggestions]
>
> We need to find out where things are going to be at, plan it all, so we
> can
> setup quickly on The Day.
> [Agreed and I think full dry runs will help us do this]
>
> PRESENTATIONS
>
> We need to find out if we can get one or more "keynote" speakers who have
> implemented Linux successfully in this business. Suggestions were someone
> from Burlington Coat Factory and someone from Virtual Airways.
{ALSO SUGGESTED WAS REAL WORLD INTERFACES (?), A
ROBOTICS COMPANY FROM JAFFREY. I THINK SOMEONE
MAY HAVE A CONTACT THERE, BUT I MISSED THE DETAILS,
SORRY. --lbm}
>
> We need to find success stories about Linux in business that we can talk
> about during our own presentations.
{HOTMAIL'S ABORTED PORT TO NT WAS MENTIONED, THAT
COULD BE A GOOD ONE! --lbm}
>
> We need to put together our own presentation. What do we talk about?
> What
> do we show? How? We need to gather information, lists of software,
> screenshots, and the like.
>
> We need to find people to put on our presentation itself. They need to
> practice it.
>
> DEMONSTRATIONS
>
> We need to find people to man demos and supervise the try-it-yourself
> sections.
>
> We need to work out what those demos are going to be. :)
>
> We need to find out about end-user business application software, such as
> Corel Office, StarOffice, Applixware, and anything else that works. We need
> to have copies of it to install on our demo machines.
>
> Especially good would be any software which implements functionality
> similar
> to Microsoft Access. That is, an easy-to-use, GUI database front-end.
>
> We need to contact LinuxCare and find out about local Linux support
> options.
> If possible, we should look into other local support options as well. Not
> because I don't like LinuxCare, but because it's the right thing to do.
>
> We need to contact Red Hat, SuSE, etc., for promotional materials.
> Brochures, displays, etc. Copies of their free distributions to give out
> would also be good.
>
> We need to contact ISVs supporting Linux to get promotional materials.
> Oracle, IBM, Informix, etc. Any company will have tons of sales junk they
> just love to give away. Free sample CDs are even cooler.
>
> We need to find out about local VARs and ISPs that are Linux-friendly, and
> contact them for donations and about booths at the show.
>
> [ I 100% agree with everything here and want to add that when the people
> come forward to volunteer their services that they need to provide a commit
> date as to when this will be done. I think that this could be done by small
> groups or subcommittees. Take advertising for example. We need ~3-4 people
> to come forward to take charge and plan then execute their proposal. Just
> keep the group informed on the overviews of what is going on and don't stop
> for anyone.
> Not only are we going have fun with this I think that this could be really
> BIG!!!]
{YES - I AGREE WITH LORI'S COMMENT AT THE AFTER-MEETING
MEETING AT RED HOOK THAT WE COULD DRAW AS MANY AS 500
ATTENDEES. AS HOT AS LINUX IS THESE DAYS, WITH THE LEAD TIME
WE HAVE TO PUBLICIZE AND THE SCOPE OF WHAT WE ARE
PLANNING PER ABOVE LIST, WE HAVE A VERY GOOD CHANCE
OF MAKING A BIG SPLASH - LET'S ALL PULL TOGETHER TO MAKE
SURE WE HAVE A BIG BLAST NOT A BIG DUD! -lbm}
>
> T- 89 days
