[dundee] TayLug - light blue touchpaper and don't retire...

[Chris Wilson]

Having been involved in student societies recently, I'm in favour of
giving the students their own group to run, and the non-student should
have our own, which is not to say we should separate completely, rather
have two distinct bodies from and organisational standpoint.

I've been involved with student societies for a number of years now, and
the one thing I've noticed about them all is that students want to be
around other students doing studenty things, and they don't really want
to have a bunch of us creepy old men hanging around the place all the
time. There is a great need for a string Linux student society that can
operate both on it's own and alongside other student societies.

Being a student society though, they're not going to have great ties to
industry or to the larger FOSS community, which is where TayLUG comes
in. If TayLUG were to operate as a complete independent entity, it would
not only be free to operate outside of university regulation, but it
would also have a greater degree of stability as students will have
varying workloads throughout the year and many of them will move on once
they graduate. The members of TayLUG have the benefit of (generally)
more predictable lifestyles and so can make long term commitments that
students can't. They also have greater experience with the FOSS
community, either from having had more time to develop certain skills
(programming, etc) or have developed contacts within the community, two
things most students members of the Linux society are unlikely to have.

But that's not to say we should aim for an 'us and them' approach. Both
groups could, and should, maintain string ties that will see a flow of
members between both groups. Not all TayLUG members will want to attend
the student get-togethers, and likewise not all Linux society members
will want to attend the old folks club, but there will be a those who
will regularly cross between the two. Students and us older folks have
different wants and needs, and so I think it would be better to have two
organisations that catered to the needs of their respective
demographics.

Anyway, sorry for the rather long winded explanation of my position, but
that's it. I think there should be two separate groups here - one tied
to the university, and one tied to the industry and greater community.

Chris 
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