[Scottish] Next Meeting

[Willie]

On Monday 08 December 2003 21:39, Tony Dyer wrote:
> How about we leave it at the last Thursday of the month. This LUG caters
> for more than students!
The bah humbug factor in me says "Sod Xmas. We'll have it on the last Thursday 
as per usual". However sense (for once) prevails and it would be a poorly 
attended meeting I suspect. Thats if there was anywhere open to have it.

So I say bring it forward a week to the 18th -- or don't bother with a 
December meeting cos the pub will be full of office parties. Or organise our 
own Xmas party elsewhere...

Previous mails have expressed a little dissatisfaction with the monthly pissup 
meeting in the Counting House.
I think perhaps it is time to stand back and ask ourselves what do we really 
want out of this LUG? What is its purpose and and how can we best deliver 
that? 
We have 230 subscribed addresses on the mailing list. At a rough guess thats 
170ish real people. Maybe 20-30 are regular on IRCand Counting House meetings 
are getting about a similar number, 20-30 folks. Thats not the same 20-30 
folks but there is of course a considerable overlap. So there are 100+ 
mailing list members that we do not see at meetings or hear from on IRC. 
There is something we aren't doing right there......
OK not everyone is near Glasgow and like it or not, whether we call ourselves 
the Scottish LUG we are effectively the Glasgow LUG. Although by all accounts 
a successful LAN party was held through in the mysterious east at the 
weekend.
So much of what we do now happens through the IRC channel that the monthly 
meeting may be tending to the superflous for the IRC folks. The non IRC 
regulars will probably feel differently about this (and rightly so)
Inadvertently I think the IRCers may have formed a bit of a clique (possibly 
Im being a bit too strong here) but its a natural development when one 
section of the membership uses a more instant form of communication and 
possibly have more time to be able to chat. (who said bloody students and 
sysadmins?)

Lets face it, we are a diverse bunch with diverse skill and knowledge levels, 
different ideas of what we need and want out of the LUG and diverse ways of 
communicating with each other. We dont have a formal structure ,though I can 
see the the reasons why others may wish to get some more formal structure in 
place. All of this basically boils down to "Who do we trust to handle the 
money?" and "Who is daft enough to put themselves up as leader?"
Being deeply cynical and lazy, I'll go with the informal structure for the 
time being. 

None of the above should be taken as criticism by anyone, its certainly not 
meant as such, its just my particular view of how things have developed.

One suggestion -- if anything (pissup, LAN party whatever) gets organised via 
IRC then please  include an email invite via this board to our non IRC folk. 

OK two suggestions -- non IRC folk, please consider joining in if at all 
possible. 
I suppose a mini HOWTO is called for here but for now....
1) get a client - mIRC is good for starters if you are just beginning cos it 
is a Win prog and effectively free for 30 days - I won't presume to suggest a 
Linux client but I'd be surprised if there isnt one installed by default with 
your distro.

2) point it at eu.freenode.net  -- yes there  _are_  alternatives, this will 
get you started.

3) join #scotlug

4) Have a lot of fun -- and dont be scared to jump in with the boots on and 
ask for help, advice whatever.


-- 
Best Regards
Willie Fleming