[HLUG] May HLUG Meeting Survey Findings and Way Forward

Wed May 30 11:17:24 UTC 2018

wednesday 27 june im going to dee koffee pot, hope hlug can be on tues 
or thurs


https://www.facebook.com/events/1861878550499271/?notif_t=event_calendar_create&notif_id=1527677737027929


On 24/05/2018 22:59, Julian Robbins via Herefordshire wrote:
> 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


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