Jerry Kubeck wrote:
>
> My thanks to Bob also for gathering the panel he did to present a well
> defined subject and some prepared questions to get the topic to the floor.
>
> The Good , the bad and the ugly showed itself once again though.
>
> 1) The Good - an informed panel with articulate and unbiased but
> informative answers
>
> 2) The Bad - another meeting location that stopped us from benefiting the
> time required to give the panel the time to explore the subject further.
> There is a definite need to form a search committee to explore viable
> meeting places in the Concord area.
>
> 3) More Bad - This is kind of a two'fer. The timing for this subject after
> the LBS was good, if we could have parlayed the LBS attendees to further
> their exploration of Linux. On the other hand it came so quick after the
> Show, myself or others weren't prepared to do a real blitz of PR to make
> this the event it could have been. This was a venue that needs to be
> presented by each chapter or make it a GNHLUG event as it was obvious by
> the panel, that we have companies willing to do panel events with merit. (I
> am already thinking of making this part of the 2001 LBS)
>
> 4) The Ugly - It is still a shock to me that for all the espousal on the
> mail list on all the virtues and benefits of Linux and the stated want to
> make people aware of Linux, that more of the list, can't, or won't bother
> to get involved or to introduce a friend, a boss, or someone they know to
> the meetings with the rich source of material we are presenting at all of
> the GNHLUG meetings, not just this meeting last night. When we have as many
> panelists and committee members as we do attendees, we have a bit of a
> credibility gap.
>
> I do not want this to take away from the effort that Bob did in bringing
> this meeting to the Concord group, but instead make us all aware of the
> work ahead to make all the chapters successful with the goals defined as
> bringing new people to the meetings by word of mouth, better and more
> timely PR and support from a larger percentage of the GNHLUG group.
>
> Call me the eternal optimist.....but I believe it can be done.
>
> Jerry
>
I echo Jerry's thoughts. I look at last night as a good "beta." Many
thanks to Bob for getting this kind of thing kicked off, and a good
format (especially having some "kickoff questions". Now, we need to do
it at LBS2001, before then maybe redo this with:
1 Some better publicity
This is publicity reaching more than just the GNHLUG members. We need
to get the word out to the CIO / decision maker types. That suggests a
lead time of (minimum) 2 months for publicity time (jerry - you've got
the recent experience with this, do we need longer than that?). This
leads into the next suggestion:
2. Another location?
Possiblities include a joint one with BLU, or maybe sponsoring
something at one of the trade conventions that come to Boston region (I
know it's outside the normal GNHLUG, but I'm thinking how do we attract
as many CIO / PHB types as possible). Definitely, we need at least 2
hours available for question / answer. Another option, as Jerry
suggested, is a GNHLUG sponsored event, not just a chapter sponsored
(since we probably have a limited # of panelests avialable). A third
option would be some kind of web cast of the event, to allow multiple
locations to participate.
I'm willing to help on the investigation of these options, as well as
working on LBS2001 - A New Hope (or maybe Return of the Unix?).
jeff smith
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffry Smith Technical Sales Consultant Mission Critical Linux
[EMAIL PROTECTED] phone:978.446.9166,x271 fax:978.446.9470
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thought for today: That's one small step for a man; one giant leap for
mankind.
-- Neil Armstrong
