On 12-03-23 02:20 PM, Jean-Francois Messier wrote:
> As it was stated previously in this thread, there is no single location
> that will please everyone. Ottawa-Gatineau is a large area. ......
> Another idea, is that we pick locations in different places, sometime
> more on the west, sometime more on the east of Ottawa. But I realize
> this requires more time and efforts from the board, managing each
> meeting location individually.
I should put in my two cents worth as well. To have a physical meeting,
requires that there be some folks who are interested enough to overcome
whatever barriers are in their way of attending.
Since we are spread out in a city that is so big that we have more cows
than people, (thank you Mike Harris) it is likely that no one physical
location will be suitable to more than half of the interested folks. It
is even more likly when we consider that a lot of the folks who are
close to OCLUG are from the Bike all year, use transit, down-town cliff
dweller Group, while others are suburban high-tech folks who have so
many time commitments that they even get their breakfast in their car.
I am a Stittsvillan, and so as far as I am concerned Merivale Road is in
the Far East and requires an epic hazard fought journey to visit. :)
(which explains my absence at OCLUG since the long ago times when the
Legendary Andrew Hutton ran Achilles Net
SO LETS TURN THE QUESTION AROUND :)
How can we make the meetings worth the effort to attend.
Beside socializing, (vital for any organization of this type)
{This is not a trivial question, the folks running the Linux Symposium,
perhaps the most important Linux even in Canada, are basically asking
the same questions.}
Are we
- Trying to get folks to switch from Windos to Ubuntu?
- trying to get our managers to use decent software at work?
- Trying to make the world a safe place for Linux (and BSD And ETC>)
- Trying to solve our day to day problems
- Trying to learn to be a better Programmer
- Trying to get skills that will make us more employable.
- Tying to prove we have those skills.
- Trying to become the worlds best Kernel hacker
- Trying to enlist high school and University computer students to
become involved in fixing bugs in teh software we use.
<That is the list I could think of for potential motivations>
Depending on what is the motivation for a given meeting the ideal
location may change. Even the economics of holding the meeting may
change. If the purpose of the meeting is something that a business
owner feels that it would be worthwhile ot support, meeting rooms with
coffee and doughnuts will magically appear.
As far as places we can meet for free, the continuing clamp down on
Public sector budgets has made it much more difficult to get free
meeting space. I can recall going to various meetings at places liek
NRC on Sussex, and various museums - I suspect that they are all no
lobger offered. One club I used to belong to used the Meeting room at
the Ottawa Citizen , but again I don't knwo if that is still offered. I
suspect that High Schools and community centers are also on a pay as you
go bassis.
The idea location should have both Transit way access, free parking (or
at least not tricky inexpensive pay parking near the venue.) And also
Bike pathway availability .
BUT depending on teh meeting purpose, a less than Ideal location may
still draw out the hard core Geeks, while you may need to do far more to
interest casual computer users to switch from the junk that comes on
their new computer.
--
Charles MacDonald Stittsville Ontario
[email protected] Just Beyond the Fringe
http://users.trytel.com/~cmacd/tubes.html
No Microsoft Products were used in sending this e-mail.
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