----- Original Message ----- From: Sumeet Madhukar Moghe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: ILUG CAL <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2002 2:19 AM Subject: [ilug-cal] Meetings
> I must say, that we are somehow not doing > adequate justice to the goals of a group of this nature this is very true > by having > impromptu meets with no agenda whatsoever. this is not true we are NOT having impromtu meetings any more .. for the last 3/4 months the meetings have been regular .. as also the meeting venues .. 2nd sunday of the month .. or the saturday before that (to accommodate those who can't make it on sundays for sooo many reasons) .. over the period of time the meetings have become a little more structured .. with an announced agenda BEFORE the meeting .. the agenda is announced thru this list itself .. so the 'no agenda whatsoever' remark doesn't fit .. not only that .. the meeting co-ordinators have also been fixed .. amit khan for meetings in lake gardens and rajib for meetings in salt lake .. they work in the organisations who provide the premises .. so they are the best placed to co-ordinate also .. the need for the tech part has been voiced in the last few meetings .. by indra among others .. and it HAS been decided that EVERY meeting will have a tech content .. people wanting to demo, lecture, tell, show need to inform the co-ordinators AND sdg .. so that it can be announced on www.ilug-cal.org too .. the co-ordinators can then proceed to arrange/co-ordinate h/w needed .. in the last meeting we did have a demo of the tech kind (read the minutes) .. and there should be tech part in the next meeting too ! for the upcoming compass event, meetings were suggested by me .. every saturday .. volunteers to get together .. but raja guha (co-ordinator for volunteers for the compass participation) opted for co-ordination thru this list .. so it was said .. so it be the interest level going up is a direct result of meetings .. by word of mouth .. and the attendence has increased from the minimum of 2 (my first ilug-cal meeting .. me and amitabh) to double digits now .. i do expect that we will outgrow our venues soon .. in the last meeting all the chairs were occupied .. its was a full house .. suggestions are invited .. from other members too .. what would they like to show or be shown .. and other members then can come up and do it > I would like to present an interesting statistic here.In the last > fortnight, there have been posts on the mailing list from just 26 > people. Two of them are not regular members of this group.This makes the > number 24.It just goes to show that despite the fact that we may have a > much larger multiple of this number as members of the group, the active > participation isnt as much as we would like.Take away Sayamindu, > Soumyadip, Tathagata da, PK, Mr Raja Guha, Russell McOrmond from that > list of mails, and u would possibly realise what I mean. wow ! that's an eye opener .. thank you .. but let me give you some more info .. i am on several groups and lists .. some with membership of 500+ some with 3500+ .. but the active (read writing emails kind) members are always very few .. and they are neither all that senior, knowledgeable nor carry any weight .. but keep the lists buzzing .. with comments .. discussions .. etc what we have here is a good list .. with some differing views .. no fights .. no ego wars .. sensible intelligent discussions .. quite a bit of movement in the real world too .. quite a big amount of give and take .. accept and agree .. co-operate and surrender .. and the result is we have a thriving list ! in ALL lists .. a huge number of members are termed 'lurkers' .. i call them 'lookers' .. lurker sounds sinister .. they only look .. and sometimes come out in the open only once in two/three years ! .. but they follow each and every mail .. that's important to the list too .. keeps members coming in to watch what goes on .. so, i'll modify what you said .. take away xx, yy, zz and what have you .. to add more to xx, yy, zz and we will have aa, bb, cc and a very thriving list which must and therefore will do wonders .. its inevitable .. the flag is always carried aloft .. the torch always reaches the arena .. each of us is not important .. its what happens collectively that makes all this happen and works quite well .. one more remark .. too much freedom to email is a very great power in the hands of people .. used wisely, it yields great results .. but sometimes some 'senior', 'older', 'active', 'weighty' members need to put their foot down on some issues .. getting decisions democratically by putting every decision to vote doesn't always work .. so we should all respect that risk that member is taking .. of doing the thankless job .. and co-operate .. and support the objectives of this list .. instead of oppose the members of this list .. (just for records!) > The problem which we face here is something that could be easily > ignored, could be easily ignored .. this is correct .. but this is not what is happening ! in fact there is a good amount of healthy, constructive, intelligent and fruitful discussion .. in the list .. in the meetings .. and one to one basis too .. results are the web site up and running, the participation in compass, the 2nd sunday meetings, the decision to deliberate over a much longer period about ilug-cal's constitution, nature, character, structure .. and many more things besides so you see, it's not being ignored .. its being tackled and dealt with .. and you are helping too .. keep writing and suggesting .. every person counts > but is something that will become more apparent once we start > analyzing as to how many of our members are actually participating in a > proactive manner. this is true .. we need many many more members to become proactive and participate .. i need to lessen my burden too .. so this call .. would someone come forward and want to 'chair' the meetings .. that means attending every meeting and keeping it in proper shape, structure, and agenda .. and ensure the tech component at every meeting .. this is one vacancy which needs to be filled pronto good luck, good people .. may the good of the greatest number gather momentum .. we ARE lucky .. the field is ripe for the seed to thrive ..pk We are conveniently ignoring what I regard as possibly > the most important goal of a LUG---socializing. I'll shamelessly quote > from a LUG-Howto in the lines that follow. > > <quote> > It seems, however, that whenever two or three Linux users get together fun > is sure to follow. Linus Torvalds has always had one enduring goal for Linux: > to have more fun. For hackers, kernel developers, and Linux users, there's > nothing quite like downloading a new kernel, recompiling an old one, > twittering with a window manager, or hacking some code. It is the sheer fun of > Linux that keeps many LUGs together, and it is this kind of fun that leads > many LUGs naturally to socializing. > <quote> > > <quote> > In any movement, institution, or human community, there is the need for > some process or pattern of events in and by which, to put it in Linux > terms, newbies are turned into hackers. In other words, socialization > turns you from ``one of them'' to ``one of us''. > <quote> > It is very obvious that the rest of the members that dont post on the > list feel that they are "one of them". > > <quote> > For armed forces in the U.S. and in most countries, this process is > called boot camp or basic training. This is the process whereby > civilians are transformed into soldiers. The Linux movement has > analogous requirements. It is important that new Linux users come to > learn what it means to be a Linux user, what is expected of them as a > member of an international community, the special vocabulary of the > Linux movement, its unique requirements and opportunities. This may be > as simple as how Linux users in a particular locale pronounce ``Linux''. > It may be as profound as the ways in which Linux users should advocate, > and the ways in which they should, more importantly, refrain from > advocating Linux. > <quote> > > All we need do is have a fixed day for the meet every month/fortnight. > We could fix it permanently as the evening of last Saturday of every > month and adhere to to that day, come rain, hail or shine. Each meet > should have a fixed agenda. For example, we could FIRST do a demo topic > like "Clustering" or perhaps "Mail server config" or "Debian > Installation" or "DRI, Linux and Gaming" or "Desktop performance on > Linux". NEXT we could have a brief look at a "programming language of > the month" ..we could start with Perl and Python for starters and we > could go on, in future meets to discuss stuff like the GTK+ libraries > and/or QT, ORBit etc. ONCE WE ARE DONE with this we could spend some > time discussing other activities of the group like advocacy drives, > seminars and stuff like that. At THE END OF THE DAY, we could have a > "Tip of the meet" which could be any small hint to enhance the > experience of usin' Linux. We could have a small CD Burning/Bug > Squashing session too. > > What this kind of an approach does, is that it gets every member that > attends the meet, to appreciate the virtues of using Linux and Free > Software and we generate the interest amongst the "not so active/not so > interested" members. He/she tries his hand at it, gets stuck, posts on > the list, starts a thread, gets a solution, is happy and learns the > virtues of being a LUG member. Most Linux users, even today, initially > install Linux bcos a dual boot system is supposedly "kool" B-). What we > need to do is make them realise that using Linux as their primary OS is > much kooler !!;) > /Sumeet > > -- > > ___________________________________________________________ > This message was brought to you by Linux, the free unix. > Windows without the X is like making love without a partner. > Sex, Drugs & Linux Rules > win-nt from the people who invented edlin > apples have meant trouble since eden > Linux, the way to get rid of boot viruses > (By [EMAIL PROTECTED], MaDsen Wikholm) > ___________________________________________________________ > > > -- > To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the body > "unsubscribe ilug-cal" and an empty subject line. > FAQ: http://www.ilug-cal.org/node.php?id=3 > -- To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the body "unsubscribe ilug-cal" and an empty subject line. FAQ: http://www.ilug-cal.org/node.php?id=3
