[SWLUG] Idea for Meeting Timetable / Rant

[Pete Prior]

Daniel Barbato wrote:
> Just to piss into the wind. Why bother having a rota that most people
> can't agree on anyway?

/me watches Dan plummet into the deep end of a pool of brimstone.

> 
> There is already a polling system set up, and no one seems to know
> what they are wanting to do any more than a fortnight in advance let
> alone 4 months in advance.

It's much easier (and more normal) for people to adjust their schedules 
to accommodate for a lug meeting than for a lug meeting to adjust its 
schedule to try to accommodate for individual members.

People just need to reserve that date in their diary if they want to go.

> 
> I suggest that a week ahead of time a poll is run, the question is: Do
> we run a lug in $location in a fortnight? The options being
> Monday-Thursday, so the 3rd will have a poll for the week commencing
> the 10th.
> 
> This way you would not only keep the majority of people happy on a
> weekly basis, but you'd also know how popular it is by the end of the
> week, eg will 1 person turn up or will the majority of the group turn
> up.

The majority isn't the problem.  It's a handful of whinging bastards 
most of which never go to lug meetings anyway.

> 
> A note is then put on the site, set as topic on # and emailed around
> on the monday morning to the list stating where and when the meeting
> that week will be. If people can't be bothered to check their email
> once a week after the amount of debate going on recently, then frankly
> that's their own problem ... in reality it's a geek group, you should
> all be able to access your mail once a week although I suspect half of
> you have it all forwarded to your phone/pda/pocket watch anyway! ;-)

Indeed.  The meeting dates are already set in the IRC channel topic but 
as you may have noticed someone is already bleating about how they can't 
access the IRC channel. You'll also notice that rather than admitting 
it's their connection that's at fault they want to question the entire 
existence of an IRC channel. I assume the possibility of a shell account 
hasn't occurred to them.

> 
> On a slightly different not the site could also be update weekly with
> a round up of what happened at the lugs, given that wspoons does
> wireless dare I say that a live webcam could be set up? Might be
> interesting for outsiders to see what they can expect at a typical
> SWLUG meet .. and that it isn't all keyboards at high noon? Because,
> quite frankly, one of the reasons that I don't go to the lug meetings
> is that I suspect that there's more arguments at a swlug meet than any
> other meet due to the number of random aggressive arguments online
> about something such as setting a schedule for meeting up for a pint!
> I'm surprised that half of you actually want to turn up with some of
> the grief on the postings.

It's bad enough having static images of me drinking let alone a live 
video feed ;)  The whole point of a lug is so people come out of their 
caves and socialise with people.  If you don't like socialising with 
other people, eating in public or having a drink with a few like minded 
people (alcoholic or not) then here's a shocker:  Lug meetings might not 
be for you!

You should also try going to a few, DAN, so you can see for yourself 
your above assumptions are not true. Mark my words I'll be dragging you 
to the next Cardiff one myself :)

> 
> The amount of arguments I've seen on here and the occasional times
> I've popped into the # have made me question what's soo appealing
> about the group to make new/inquisitive users and experienced users
> coming to the area, want to join? (Don't expect me to get into an
> argument about the last couple of points, you'll only be proving the
> matter).

I dunno - they want to socialise with a few like minded people and have 
a bite to eat and a couple of pints?  It's not rocket science :)

> 
> Ok got into a bit of a rant, sorry. But I do feel that running a poll
> might be a point well worth considering.

Running a weekly poll would just result in people bitching about how 
skewed / inaccurate polls are on a weekly basis rather than from time to 
time.

Pete