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<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">NEWSLETTER </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Hi Guys,</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Firstly I'd like to say we hope you
had
a fantastic Christmas and a happy new year (or should I say
GNU/Year).</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I have plenty of news for you,
firstly
there has been some massive changes at the Linux Society (the name
for starters) and some changes around in some of the officers. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">During the AGM/EGM it was decided
that
it maybe appropriate to consider a name change for the society, it
has been a long time since we were a Linux only sort of group and
we
have always been more into open technologies one than specific
type
of software one. So I'm proud to announce the Linux Society has
changed
its name to “The Open Society” or The O.S for short. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I was also nominated and elected for
the position of President of the society, with Nick Walker and
Werner
Nel staying on as officers, Nick Walker is Treasurer and Werner
Nel
Secretary. There is no Vice-President this year. I would like to
take the time to thank all the other ex-officers for their time,
and
we do hope to see you at the next meetings.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">There was many things discussed
during
the AGM and EGM and thanks to everyone that came along and had
their say. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Some of the main issues raised;</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Too many hacking talks.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">TayLUG being formalized.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Lack of Prior notice to meetings.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Lack of community members not
participating in the form of talks. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Location of the meetings, (Union Vs
University)</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Officer attendance</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Website (<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.thelinuxsociety.org.uk">www.thelinuxsociety.org.uk</a>)
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">More integration with other Societies
and Groups in Dundee</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">As you can see we have areas of
concern
raised by our members and input from everyone will be
required to ratify them.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">To this end I have agreed to swap
talks
with the hacking society, so co-president of the ethical hacking
society will be coming to us soon to talk about net-neutrality in
return from me speaking to them on tunneling out of
restrictive/captive
portals/firewalls.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">We had great success last year with
Dr
Tony Cox's historical tour of Dundee and am in the process of
arranging a date with him. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The meeting also saw a resolution
passed that requires all officers to have been to at least 4
meetings
per academic year.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Kris Findlay remains in charge of the
society's web site, however a new site will be deployed, and the
old
one is to be archived.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">During the meeting a large TayLUG
membership where present and of that section a large majority
wished to
see TayLUG formalized with a constitution and officers. Due to
Gordon Dunlop not being at the last meetings, Robert Ladyman
agreed
to start writing a draft constitution and have that posted to you
guys for your thoughts and additions over the next couple of
months.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">As for meetings,</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">13<sup>th</sup> January 2011 – Arron
Finnon – Welcome to the Open Society</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">27<sup>th</sup> January 2011 – Tom
Paynter – TBC </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">10<sup>th</sup> February 2011 – Dr
Tony Cox – Historical Tour of Dundee - TBC</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">24<sup>th</sup> February 2011 –
Rorie Hood – Net-neutrality – TBC</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">10<sup>th</sup> March 2011 – Flash
Talk Night</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Our membership also decided that the
society's meetings should return back to the Hannah Maclure Centre
at
the Union Campus, Nick Walker is looking into it however I am
unable
to confirm that this will be sorted by the 13<sup>th</sup>.so I
think
it wise to keep the next meeting at the university campus </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">As always if you have a talk you
would
like to give at the society, or have one that you would like to
hear
then drop me a line or speak to me in person. If you think of a
guest speaker you would like then drop me a line with their
details
and I would be more than happy to contact them for you.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">As usual our society meetings are
open
to everyone, regardless of any Student/Academic relationship, so
if
you have a buddy, partner, enemy or virtual pet that you would
like
to bring along to the meeting then please do so.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I hope to see you all on the 13<sup>th</sup>
of this month</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Yours</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Arron “finux” Finnon</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Open Society </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Cat Herder Supreme </p>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Arron "finux" Finnon
Finux.co.uk - Twitter.com/f1nux - facebook.com/finux
PGP: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://finux.co.uk/finux.asc">http://finux.co.uk/finux.asc</a></pre>
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