[BozemanLUG] - Why I attend/What I like

Tue Oct 5 00:07:28 MDT 2010

Not sure I have any answers.  I have been trying to think of how we as a group could promote Linux and especially the IEEE units with Bozeman kids.  But so far I have been unable to think of an appropriate age group/event that would allow us to get involved.

I do think a big hurdle might be the knowledge that we exist.  After someone finds out for sure we exist then comes remembering the one night a month and not being caught up with other life obstacles.  I wonder how many people are uncomfortable or unsure of finding us on campus?  I had to step out of my comfort zone the first time on several levels one of which was venturing onto the campus.

For me, I enjoy attending even when there is no presentation planned.  I attend for a few different reasons but all in all because I just enjoy getting together with everyone.  I especially enjoy the after meeting side walk BS sessions - not sure how we can promote those without Beer and Meat being offered :).  I attend in hopes I learn something Linux related that I might be able to put to use. 

I might be a bit more unique though than everyone else.  Although I am just guessing, I think I may be the least educated, least Linux experienced and probably least technically experienced person in the group.  This at times has created brief periods of minor "deer in headlights" episodes as I have had no real understanding of some discussions.  This can be somewhat uncomfortable, but to date no one has really shown any irritation over my lack of comprehension which has made my LUG experience all the more enjoyable.  Perhaps some people assume attending a LUG meeting would be a little like a farmer in a room full of Google Engineers?  Anyhow, my overall lack of General or specific Linux experience is why I have not and cannot think of anything to present.  It's not that I want Scott or anyone else to shoulder all the presentations, it's that I don't feel I have anything to offer.  My Linux usage, my Linux customization, etc., all must be pretty simplistic or it probably won't get done.  

Like I said, I don't really have any answers, but I've tried to shed some light on why I attend, what I enjoy and why I don't give presentations.

-Rob Potter

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at bozemanlug.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at bozemanlug.org] On Behalf Of Scott Dowdle
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2010 10:56 AM
To: Bozeman Linux Users Group
Subject: [BozemanLUG] A blog posting I just wrote

Greetings,

The BozemanLUG has been in decline for some time. What do I mean by decline? Well, we have a somewhat small number of hardcore members who regularly attend meetings BUT we haven't really been attracting much in the way of new members. In fact, very few MSU students have come our way in the last couple of years and the reason is clear. We haven't been doing anything at all in the way of promotion... other than on the mailing list and the calendar here.

Why haven't we been promoting? I know exactly what to do... make up some flyers, print them out, and then post them around town and all over campus... especially in areas where "computer people" might be found. Another thing to do would be to contact the various local periodic print media and get included in their "events calendars".

But that doesn't answer my original question... why haven't we been promoting? The answer to that is also clear... at least in my mind. I've had a hard time getting presentations over the last year and as a result I don't really want to promote the club only to have new folks show up to a sub-standard experience. Goodness knows I've done well over my fair share of presentations but now I feel as if I'm "phoning it in". I've been a bit cranky a few times in mailing list postings trying to nag people into volunteering but of course that hasn't worked out so well.

So where to go from here?

Targeting a Very Broad Audience

Linux users are all over the place. Some are programmers. Some are System Administrators... and some are plain old desktop application users who got tired of Windows. Some use Linux only on servers and prefer a Mac or perhaps even Windows. Some play games and some work on embedded hardware. My point is obvious... we have a very broad audience. Since I've been doing about half or more of the presentations for the last couple of years... and I'm primarily a Systems Administrator who prefers the command line... most of our meetings are about fairly technical topics that probably only appeal to a small segment of our potential membership base.

Recently an MSU CS Student by the name of Chris Ching started something he calls, "Linux with Linux". Every Thursday around lunch time he hopes to have a few people show up for some beginner type presentations focusing more on desktop / end-user type stuff. It was stated by one of his attendees that the LUG group was a little intimidating... which I found odd because the person who said it, to the best of my knowledge, hasn't been to a LUG meeting yet. I'm sure they are right though and probably picked up on that from the postings here (again, mostly done by me on technical oriented topics) or from my persona... as I'm sure I can be a little intimidating... even though I don't mean to be. You know us geeks don't always deal with human-to-human interactions as well as real people-persons do. :)

Chris came to me about a year ago asking for something like "Lunch with Linux" but I told him I didn't want to do it myself and that it would be better as a student lead thing. He is a very busy person and delayed doing it as long as he could, but he finally gave in. We'll see how that goes and perhaps we can get some of his participants interested in the LUG.

I've had another person visit me a few times to talk about how to promote the BozemanLUG as well as a few other FOSS related organizations. His name is Srinivas Gumdelli and he is a new CS masters student from India who was involved there with the Free Software Foundation. I've conveyed to him what I think needs to be done to promote the LUG and put most of the needed future action on his shoulders but I think he has gotten too busy with school. He did check out an OLPC with the stated goal of learning SUGAR software development... so perhaps he has gotten sucked into that wondrous black hole.

Seeing the Possible Directions

As time passed, I thought more and more about what Chris and Srinivas said to me. I know we have this great potential... and a great community of people to serve... I just wanted to remind everyone that I can't do it all by myself... and the few hardcore BozemanLUG regulars are fairly happy with the way things are... so... WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

I don't think we can get going anywhere until there is more discussion and this posting is effort to jump start that conversation. What says you?

But Wait, There is More

I know the BillingsLUG has been dealing with similar issues lately and I extend this posting to them as well... and hope someone from their community will will pipe up with their own posting. Of course I encourage participation from anyone anywhere in the state... this is "MontanaLinux" after all.

- - - - -

TYL,
-- 
Scott Dowdle
704 Church Street
Belgrade, MT 59714
(406)388-0827 [home]
(406)994-3931 [work]
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