[Rustington] Some decisions

[Paul Willis]

This is not "minutes" but an opening shot at summarising the last meeting
for further discussion and clarification. The eight involved were:
David, Derek R, Jack, Harry, Colin, Bob, Derek W and me.

We decided to cut back on some meetings, so the next three will be on
10 June
22 July
9 September.

I saw the discussion as falling under these headings:

Scope - Linux and open source software seemed to be the most acceptable
summary with a wish to help Linux starters. General computing starters did
not seem appropriate. There was some doubt about how to incorporate new
people but much depends on their interests and experience.

U3A - has got us to where we are and gives some financial security, but
will probably be unhappy to fund us if our room costs continue to exceed
our collection. It also limits our growth to the U3A membership excluding
younger blood in particular.
I have agreed to be group leader to hold the keys, collect and despatch the
cash and notify the U3A of our decisions for the time being.

Place - is up for question mainly because of cost. I now know that the U3A
charges £25.75 for the afternoon session which is 2 - 5 PM. This is not an
hourly rate and I have been given a name to write to if we wish to plead
for a reduction. Other possible venues include the St Mary's spire room
(thought to be £10/hour) and the Angmering community centre (£unknown).
Pubs and sports clubs are used by some LUGs.

Time - we have decided that 2 - 4 would be enough in the current format,
but evenings and weekends would allow people with normal jobs to join in.

Content - some are happy with it vague for general discussion and others
would like more structure and formal presentations.
Jack offered to play a role in organising our meetings. This might be
helped by each of us listing our experience, interests and aspirations.

So - best to hang on to what has been achieved so far while we collect
ideas and information to move the group on. By having fewer meetings we
would be able to try some additional venues in between while trying to
reach out to new members who might not be in the U3A. We might need to
increase the sub to keep the U3A happy or even pay for a room elsewhere.

-----------------

Afterwards I gave the next meeting dates to Caroline in the Council office,
signed up as the new key holder and asked to change their own notice about
our group from "Computer Club" to "Linux User Group" while they were
swapping Frank's details for mine.

Unfortunately I think none of us had read the contributions in the previous
lugmail thread from Lisi (Portsmouth LUG) re scope and Stuart who I hope
will be back for a look once the content is more inspiring....

P
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