On 23 Mar 2003, Sumeet Madhukar Moghe wrote: > PS :(For Atul) I agree that it makes great sense to have a theme > announced beforehand for a meet. That's something I have tried, (though > not with much success)...but I feel we need a month or two by which time > our meets will, hopefully get regularized and fall into a set pattern, > before we can actually decide on a proper "theme meets". With no > disrespect meant to anyone, I guess even u realized, when u came down > here, that most of us are very reluctant speakers. Announcing a theme > and not getting any speakers, is a **foot in the mouth** situation that > I would like to avoid for the time being. However,if u feel I can work > around this situation in someway...please tell me.
This situation is far from unique for ILUG-CAL - believe it or not, we face the same situation every month in Bangalore. There is no such animal as non-reluctant speakers. We fight every month to get people to realise that not only is speaking at the LUG good for the LUG and the people attending the meeting, but extremely good for the speaker as well. A clear example - when I need to hire someone, I look for people who are outgoing, not afraid to stand before an audience and who clearly either have knowledge or interest in a subject. What better place to go hunting then than the next LUG meet? ;-) We usually structure themes around the need for of the hour or "hot topics". For example, this month's BLUG meet is on localisation, next month's meet will probably be on wirelress networking, etc. Despite the difficulty we have in getting people to come and speak, we have never had a situation where we have ended up with egg in the face. Worst case we have annoucned a theme, got no one to speak on it, and simply changes the theme the day before the meet. There is no shame in this - *we* tried our best, and that's all that matters. By all means try the un-themed approach for a while, but do give the themed approach a shot as well over several meets. Cheerio! Atul -- ------------------------------------------- Atul Chitnis | [EMAIL PROTECTED] Exocore Consulting | http://www.exocore.com Bangalore, India | +91 (80) 344-0397 ------------------------------------------- -- 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
