Attached - please not that standard disclaimers apply :)
If there are no mistakes - then, this becomes the official minutes
-cheers-
sdg
Minutes of the meeting of Indian Linux Users' Groups - Kolkata chapter
======================================================================
Date: 22nd of September, 2002
Venue: HA12 Salt Lake
Sector III
Kolkata 700091
Minutes Taker: Sayamindu Dasgupta - a.k.a SDG ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Minutes: The meeting was supposed to begin at 11:00 hrs (IST). However,
it began to rain windows and penguins at around 10:00
and I was wondering wether, anyone was going to get to the place.
However, it seems that the penguins of Kolkata can also dual boot as
ducks ;), and at 11:30, we had in the dark office room (powercut:)
eight tuxes sitting pretty. The final name list is
* Rajib Bhattacharya (our meeting host)
* Saugata Ghosh
* Surajit Sengupta (new face - welcome aboard)
* Raja Guha
* Amit Khan (newbie at the meeting)
* Siddhartha Basu (official LUG download tux)
* PK Sharma
* Sayamindu Dasgupta (minutes tux)
The meeting started off (in the dark) with PK proposing that the discussions
be broken up into sections - and the minutes will be presented in that format.
COMPASS
=======
As usual, the subject of sponsors came up first, and it was decided that we
would
approach the other "experienced" LUGs and ask them how they manage to get the
money
without being a formally registered organisation. Raja Guha reported that so
far, there
are approximately 10 serious volunteers for COMPASS. Rajib Bhattacharya said
that his
organisation was probably going to participate in this COMPASS, and we might
get some
space from there. Amit Khan also said that he would approach his organisation
and find
out if we can share a stall. PK Sharma suggested a third possibility that we
may be able
to get a free stall from the guys COMPASS :). However, there are 200
applicants for stalls,
whereas the number of stalls is only 120, so the third option's possibility is
low.
It was also suggested that we might be able to approach some hardware vendors
and get some
hardware from them. In exchange we would show that their hardware is "Linux
compatible".
The proposed focus of the LUG in the COMPASS was decided as "Propagation,
Support, and Bangla
Linux".
In the end of this session, Amit Khan and Rajib Bhattacharya was assigned the
job of approaching
their bosses, and ask them if they can share with/donate a stall to iLUG-Kol.
Raja Guha was
assigned as the co-ordinator for the co-ordination and recruitment of
co-ordinators ;).
BOOKFAIR
========
Raja Guha announced that he has approached some groups on this matter
(informally), and they may give
us a part of their stall. However, the length of the Bookfair was also
discussed, and factors such as
dust, overcrowding were discussed. Sharma-ji demo-ed a sample of the tablet PC
that he described as the
book of the future. We discussed the possibility of loading Linux into one of
them (I volunteered to have
a go at that:), and if we manage to do that, the iLUG-Kol stall at the
bookfair may be first ever stall
to demo a real ebook :).
Finally it was decided that bookfair is definitely in our agenda - that we
will go forward with it, and
in the end, if it does not work out, we will ditch the plan.
Registration as a formal groups :)
==================================
As usual, we were expecting the highest amount of fireworks in this session,
and we did have some
interesting discussions :).
Raja Guha gave an idea regarding the minimum requirements for forming a
registered society -
* 7 members
* Charter/Constitution
* 1 president, 1 secretary, 1 treasurer
* A permanent address
* An yearly meeting of the central body, and an yearly audit of
accounts
Going by the format of the discussion, the arguments placed against the
proposal were
* No critical mass yet
* Loss of freedom
* Hassles and Jhamela
* Increase in politics
* Becomes single person dependant
* Lots of extra responsibility
* Difficulty in reaching consensus regarding Constitution, etc.
The arguments placed for the proposal were
* Formal status as a group
* Becomes possible to handle money directly
* Easier to interact with third parties
Ultimately, it was decided that registration as a formal society is needed -
however, the question is
do we have the required critical mass, and has the time really come??
Comments from listers are wanted :).
OTHER STUFFS
============
I gave some idea about bangla in Linux, and the work that needs to be done in
that area. Discussions
regarding the website came up - and I gave a brief idea regarding the
capabilities of the Drupal based
system.
THE END
=======
The meeting ended around 14:00 hrs (IST) and all of the tuxes went back home
(most of them in
Sharma-ji's car) - eager to have to their afternoon herrings :).
