[Sussex] A new LUG

[Paul Willis]

Hi Tim,
Sorry to be so late replying. I have found myself group leader of the
Rustington LUG which was formed as a U3A group, so very much senior geeks
like yourself. While the u3a enabled the group initially I often think
their structure is more a hinderence than help with all their concerns
about insurance, health & safety, insisting on u3a membership and so on. We
tick over with "bring a box" type meetings and occasional talks by a member
on something interesting that isn't necessarily about Linux, open source or
computing - one on GPS comes to mind, researched to give to a science group
but welcomed at ours for a test run. Normally we are happily interested in
each others Linuxy problems and the solving of them. Somehow this keeps our
members happy.
I regularly recommend the Portsmouth LUG which has a good supply of
university illuminati who (among others) are happy to inform and entertain
on a variety of subjects and is enthusiastically driven by Lisi and her
team. I feel that "proper" lugs meet out of working hours - evening or
weekends so folk working in the field are available. I didn't smell the rat
when ours started up on Wednesday afternoons! Still, any lug is better than
none at all :-)
For a startup, if no-one can offer their own home to get things moving, I
would suggest a quiet time in a pub where there is likely to be usable
broadband and often a big screen you can plug in to. A web presence and
mailing list can be had for free from lug central as someone else pointed
out. We had to abandon a lovely council room because the WiFi was unusable,
sadly out of the employees control, doubtless part of some corrupt deal
higher up. We had some luck with a mifi for a while and occasionally a
mobile phone hotspot helped. At present we use a church hall with WiFi laid
on by our founder member, Frank who funds it to help the church. Portsmouth
and Sussex use rooms in sports clubs which have some virtues, but internet
access can still be a problem. Portsmouth now has its own 4g deal.
Good luck whichever way you go. What will you call yourselves, TumLUG?
W-KLUG?
Let us know how you get on and keep up the tradition of asking for help or
advice when needed.
Paul



On 23 May 2017 3:08 pm, "woodman tim via Sussex" <sussex at mailman.lug.org.uk>
wrote:

Hello to you all.

I am Tim, a senior geek living in Tunbridge Wells who wants to form a West
Kent LUG.

Myself and a few friends moan and whinge about the non existence of a group
around our area so I am trying to start one.

There is nothing concrete planned as yet, we have not had a meeting yet,
never mind finding somewhere to hold it, I am mailing this list to get
advice and some people interested. We are not professional developers or
tecchies at all, just amateurs who have a Tux habit.

I would be glad of any feedback or suggestions from you all, the
difficulties of setting one up and keeping it active, encouraging others,
the legal aspects and funding. We are not rich folk at all so need to do
this on the cheap, it that is possible.

Yours, Tim Woodman.

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