[HLUG] May HLUG Meeting Survey Findings and Way Forward

[Julian Robbins]

Hi everyone

We had a good meeting last night with 7 people turning up. Lots and lots of
interesting discussions mainly from the results of the Survey I posted
recently. These point to a number of ways forward that we wish to take to
get the LUG more active again:-

Regarding the Survey the take away points were as follows:-

   - We had 31 responses of which 18 were full and another 13 were deemed
   'incomplete'. A really good number. All survey responses were taken into
   account.

   - *What can we do to get more people coming to meetings?*

   The largest number of responses to the survey came from people who
   either never come to meetings & events or not very often. This is good to
   see more interaction as we are very keen as a group to welcome as many
   people to the meetings as possible. We cannot cater for everyone's
   particular interests as there is such a wide variation in abilities,
   interests, and particular individuals need but we will try to cater for as
   many as we can ;-)
   There were a mix of responses but most people who don't come along is
   because of other commitments or being busy on the day that events are
   normally held (ie Wednesdays)
   We decided that as this is something quite easy to change that we will
   have varied event days to make it easier for folk who cannot attend on
   Wednesdays normally. One response suggested earlier meetings on 4-6pm or
   Sat. Mornings but I suspect we would have even less people able to attend
   at these times. But we will have meetings and events on different days of
   the week, and I will try provide lots of notice beforehand.

   - *Newbie Considerations* Quite a number of responses showed the need
   for many more Linux newbie topics such as '*Interested in general
   computing, replacing windows or mac with linux full time'* and '*How to
   load photo's from Ipads, mobiles and camera's, using Linux: which are the
   easier to use softwares/app's'*.
   We're keen to help Linux newcomers and I always remember how different
   Linux felt when I first started using it. Because of this we will shortly
   start holding a series of Workshops and normal Meetings targetted at new
   Linux users. Further details below:-

   - *Events Types  *Many people would like to keep having normal monthly
   meetings with more folks wanting more workshop style events too. I am very
   keen to have more Workshop events. Please bear in mind though that these
   workshop events do take much more organisation in terms of booking a room,
   publicising and getting a speaker, preparing a presentation etc, etc which
   is why its sometimes difficult to get them arranged. If we get more people
   getting involved this does make things easier to share the work involved
   more widely.
   There was some interest too for a more social events. Because of this we
   agreed to have a Summer BBQ one Sunday evening before the School holidays
   probably at George's house where there is lots of space.

   - *In terms of where meetings should be held*, Hereford was by far the
   most popular choice with the North of the county as runner up. Therefore we
   will keep running most events in Hereford and occasionally elsewhere.

   - *Topics* - I asked what type of topics group members would like to
   see. These ranged from *Installing software: manipulating software:
   loading photo's - how to: what software to use as a starter.........* to
*3D printing in open source areas and overlapping in maker communities. May
   be simple side of Android phones, ROMs etc. Home or local clouds or meshes.
   *One other interesting comment was *'Personally I'm less fussed about
   specific topics - it's the social aspect and application/effect of
   technologies across all areas of life that interests me.'.* I would also
   agree with this. Certainly lots of good suggestions and ideas.

   - *LUG Communications* The questions concerning how we should
   communicate as a group and a mixed response but with broadly similar
   numbers for keeping the mailing list and using a new 'Discourse
   <https://www.discourse.org/>' style web forum. Because of this I will
   prepare a Discourse style forum that we can play with and try out, and
   depending on feedback we can either keep it, or continue with the mailing
   list. One thing that is clear which one respondent said is '*that we
   should maintain just one main mode of communication*' which I
   wholeheartedly agree with. I believe the Discourse forum also has a Chat
   module which may fulfill some of the other thoughts made in the group.

So to Summarise

   1. Varied meeting nights, a summer BBQ on a Sunday evening with plenty
   of notice
   2. Wider selection of newbie friendly topics for new Workshops/Meetings.
   We won't be giving up the more techie talks but the newbies have spoken !
   3. I will put together a Discuss type web forum as a test to see if we
   prefer to Mailman.
   4. Keep meetings in Hereford with some in the North of the county too.


We then discussed a few topics that folk would like to present on :- These
include:-


   - WINE - We had a request for help on using WINE - This was thought to
   be a good topic.
   - Raspberry Pi demo battery powered with solar power display - Tim to
   present
   - Beginners Linux - setting up, working with printers etc. Workshop
   Leominster Grange Court?
   - Getting images off phones and using Gimp -
   - Desktop flavours. Linux Distros .. - Julian
   - Must arrange a group outing to the Makers club which is held in
   Bromyard every Tuesday. George has been a couple of times and can help here.

So lots talked about and lots to plan ;-)

I will also send on the full Survey responses (when I've worked out how) on
a separate email.

Julian