[Glastonbury] Tonight's meeting

[Martin Wheeler]

Very constructive meeting tonight, despite the fact that there were only four 
of us present (with apologies for absence from Sean, stuck in Shepton; and 
Greg, doing his accounts).  Very chastising to realise that
I was the only one there who hadn't driven for more than half an hour to get to 
the meeting -- with folks coming from as far afield as Wellington, it's more 
than ever necessary to ensure that meetings are well-advertised in advance, and 
the events worth attending.  (Although it was pointed out that some actually 
enjoy the unstructured approach, which gives room to chat about personal 
queries.)

Didn't see anything of Mike Lee, or the caretaker; but Room 4 was open, and the 
projector worked just fine with my laptop (thanks TimW, for finding the remote) 
-- even allowed me to demonstrate a DVD film with sound.  [Whilst on the 
subject, can anyone on list help Peter with installing xine under SUSE 9.3? 
Via the list for starters; then Peter will be bringing his machine in to the 
next meeting to see if we can fix various anomalies for him.]

Interesting comments arising from general discussion showed that we really need 
to do something about the website, to make it easier for *anyone* to update, or 
add reviews, comments, etc. to it.  The current version of Mambo is a 
nightmare, even if it *is* pretty to look at.  (Personally, after all the 
comments made, I think we should scrap it, and start afresh.  Tony suggested we 
take a look at the Devon & Cornwall LUG site; and in particular their wiki -- 
having just had a butcher's, I think it's something we should definitely think 
about adopting ourselves; see :

      http://www.dclug.org.uk/

I notice they've also already got on their front page one of the ideas put 
forward tonight for our own enhanced organisation  -- Librarian.)

*Very* exceptionally, I've attached to this e-mail a copy of the OpenOffice 
presentation used tonight as a basis for discussing the future organisation of 
the group.  (q.v.)

Basically, we threw around ideas which formalise quite a lot of what exists 
already -- the idea of a "core" group of three people to represent the group 
(to the press, to local educational establishments, to anyone who requires an 
'official' of the group to be present when third-party premises are being used, 
etc. etc.)  At the moment this function is roughly carried out by Steve, 
MartinW, Kelvin, Sean and TimH.

Plus other named persons responsible for Meetings Organisation (we don't have 
anyone doing this specifically, at the moment -- Cherry; Ian -- fancy taking 
this on?); Postmaster, to look after the mailing list (currently carried out by 
MartinW, Sean and Kelvin); Webmaster, to look after the website (currently 
carried out by Sean and TimH); Librarian, to take care of software and books 
acquired by the group (currently devolves on Steve); Quartermaster, to look 
after hardware and equipment donated to the group (currently devolves on Steve 
also); Treasurer (haven't needed on yet, so no-one has been doing this for the 
group.  Any offers?)

Comments, please ?
Offers to fill any of the proposed posts ?  Further suggestions ?

It was also tentatively suggested that group meetings continue on a monthly 
basis, on the SECOND TUESDAY of the month; thus making the January meeting 
Tuesday, January 11th.
(Times still kept at 19.00-21.00 for the time being.)

As for the question of premises, I hope to have news for the group in the next 
few days which will solve many of our current problems.

Until then, it would be nice to get discussions under way on the proposals made 
in the presentation -- so it's over to you now.

Cheers,
-- 
Martin Wheeler   -   StarTEXT / AVALONIX - Glastonbury - BA6 9PH - England
mwheeler at startext.co.uk                http://www.startext.co.uk/mwheeler/
GPG pub key : 01269BEB  6CAD BFFB DB11 653E B1B7 C62B  AC93 0ED8 0126 9BEB
       - Share your knowledge. It's a way of achieving immortality. -
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