<div dir="ltr">How many people are there in the Scarborough lug at the moment?<br><br>Andy<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">2008/8/1 Al Girling <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:al@gcguk.demon.co.uk">al@gcguk.demon.co.uk</a>></span><br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c">On Fri, Aug 01, 2008 at 10:05:44AM BST, John Allsopp wrote:<br>
><br>
> >I'm not sure where the social element of LUG meetings will go - across<br>
> >the country they sound like they only succeed in some pockets.<br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> So where's this feeling that LUGs are becoming less popular coming from.<br>
> Al, you said it (first). What are the experiences of other LUGs, are<br>
> they dropping off too?<br>
<br>
</div></div>I think it's more a seasonal thing than a general lack of Linux<br>
interest.<br>
<br>
I went to the York social meeting this week and considering it's a<br>
university city with a potentially large Linux user population there<br>
were only six of us.<br>
<br>
It's quite obvious with the Ryedale LUG that winter time gets more<br>
people coming to meetings. The Beverley LUG has always been very quite,<br>
but I've not heard from them for months now.<br>
<br>
I'm convinced that the numbers attending meetings reflect the enthusiasm<br>
of those who organise them. I subscribe to the Sussex LUG list and<br>
their meeting this week had almost twenty attending, but they usually<br>
have at least one talk or presentation of some description per meet.<br>
This isn't to say that SLUG should go down the route of monthly meets<br>
with presentations at each meet. It's been tried before and there aren't<br>
enough people here to make it happen.<br>
<br>
There might be some mileage in the facebook/bebo/etc idea. Personally I<br>
think they're the spawn of satan, but accept that lots of people use<br>
them, so they could well bring more people to the LUG. At the end of<br>
the day the LUG has to provide something for them, if they see that as<br>
being just going to the pub and chatting with a bunch of folks with<br>
pointy heads and hand woven sandles then they're unlikely to turn up.<br>
<br>
The most successful groups seem to be those who mix social and technical<br>
meets. Somewhere to bring machines for fault solving and displays work<br>
well it seems.<br>
<div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br>
Toodle pip,<br>
<br>
Al<br>
<br>
--<br>
Al Girling<br>
<br>
Linux User: #290080 <<a href="http://counter.li.org" target="_blank">http://counter.li.org</a>><br>
Home-page: <<a href="http://al.sdf-eu.org" target="_blank">http://al.sdf-eu.org</a>><br>
<br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Andy Copland<br><a href="mailto:andy.copland@gmail.com">andy.copland@gmail.com</a><br>mobile: +44 (0) 7970 267 882<br>
</div>