The Sydney Linux Users Group continued to broaden its activities and
cater to a wide range of interests over the past 12 months. It is
notable that SLUG grew despite the downturn in IT industry, and this
growth is a testament to SLUG's existence as a community group and not
simply an industry driven technical society. This is reflected in the
number and popularity of social activities held, and the increasing
involvement of SLUG members in community activities such as Computerbank.
SLUG held many technical events and activities during the year, including
the following:
o The Debian SIG started in May, arranged by Craige McWhirter.
This meets monthly at the Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel.
o MacLUG, a subgroup of SLUG catering to the Macarthur area,
held several meetings at Terry Collins' place.
o A presentation by Perl hacker Randal Schwartz, followed by
dinner and light refreshments, in July. This was arranged by
Chris Collins with the Sydney Perl Mongers.
o An Installfest held at Granville Town Hall in September,
organised by Criage McWhirter with the help of many SLUGgers.
o Regular monthly meetings, including a memorable evening
with Andrew Tridgell after which we filled two local restaurants
with rowdy geeks. Thanks to Chris Collins for co-ordinating the
meetings and Patrick Mougin for provisioning the coffee breaks
through the year.
The slug mailing list continues to be heavily used, and last year's
formation of a separate slug-chat mailing list for non-technical
discussions has proved very successful. Additionally:
o At some point in the last twelve months the #slug IRC channel
on openprojects.net sprang to life.
o Jeff Waugh rebuilt the SLUG mailing list archives in July.
o During the year Gus Lees developed a new web site backend at
http://beta.slug.org.au/
o We upgraded our incoming snail mail connection to a P.O. box
hosted at the QVB post office.
Our social activities were mostly organised by Craige McWhirter, and
included the following:
o 10 years of Linux: SLUG celebrated tenth anniversary of the
Linux kernel's first release (informally the 10th birthday of
the Linux Penguin mascot, Tux :) with a family picnic at
Centennial Park.
o In November a contingent of SLUGgers took to the paintball
fields, and much bruising and exhaustion ensued; (it rocked!).
o The Debian SIG held a Christmas party at a Teppanyaki
restaurant in North Sydney.
o SLUG held a family picnic Christmas party at Garigal National
Park, Middle Harbour.
SLUG is run by its members; our events and activities are organised
by many volunteers, not only those on the committee, and would not be
possible without the support of our members. Thanks to everyone who
helped out over the past year, and sincere apologies if there are any
omissions or misattributions in the above summary.
Conrad Parker
March 2002
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SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/
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