[Bradford] Linux and Business - Levelling the Playing Field

[David Carpenter]

There will be a meeting at:

7.30 p.m. Wednesday 14th January 2009, Victoria pub, Great George 
Street, Leeds (behind Leeds Town Hall).

to form an organisation which will develop marketing strategies,
marketing tools and marketing materials for those of us earning our
living in the private sector applying OS applications, skills and
software, especially those on the Linux platform.

M$ vendors and point-and-clickers have a veritable armoury of such tools
as well as a massively resourced PR and brainwashing machine to help
them gain business. We need to be able to compete on something
approaching equal terms.

Our new organisation will need a name, a constitution and a steering
committee to get it up and running. We will need a variety of specific
skills on the committee and a few gophers to help organise meetings and
publicity as required. Specifics will include minute taking, letter
writing, chairmanship (a real English, gender-ambivalent word and I am
not going to apologise for using it), networking and general glad
handing. We will also need a treasurer, at least until we are rich
enough to appoint an accountant to keep an eye on the books. Other 
skills such as PR, design and so forth will be very welcome, too.

The idea of this inaugural meeting is to gauge opinion as to whether 
this is seen as a worthwhile objective. If this is so we then need to 
set up the initial steering committee.

The purpose of the steering committee will be to make a start on 
defining the full scope of the organisation and the skills set required 
at each level, e.g. committee member, elected officer and so forth; to 
set the initial membership fee; examine potential sources of outside 
funding; devise a method of choosing a name; decide upon the legal 
status of the organisation, e.g. informal association, company limited 
by guarantee; set the groundwork for the first AGM where a full 
committee can be elected from previously invited nominations from the 
wider membership.

For more information or to express an opinion, please contact 
Mike Goodman:
info at stopwatchweb.co.uk

or myself.

Hope to see you there.


-- 
David Carpenter

nornir

E: david.carpenter at nornir.co.uk
Skype: carpenter.david

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