On Sat, Jan 04, 2003 at 10:31:11PM -0500, Levi Bard wrote:
> If I may ask, what's the point of forming a new LUG in this area? Doesn't it make more sense to consolidate all of ourselves into a single monolithic group, rather than having multiple splinter factions? If the membership gets spread too thin, both LUGs may end up failing.
That's what they said about kernel forks ;)
Seriously though, it's really about management and attendance. Well
managed groups stay around longer. Long running groups enjoy popularity.
There are enough folks to have splinter SLUG meetings in various
locations throughout the months, why not more groups? As the community
continues to grow, the education cycle (read "re-education" of Microsoft
drones) does take a while - the number of folks who are just beginning
to play with Linux increases by the day. I run into Tux heads everywhere.
As for management, the organization and model you use will attract
different types of people.
Smaller local meetings are great: you get to know your neighbors, and
have more one-on-one walkthroughs of problems. Larger meetings tend to
fracture into various independent conversations anyway.
Meetings can be run as simply a social event (like many of the SLUG
meetings) where you get to meet peers and talk shop for a while.
In my opinion, the best user group meetings are those that have one
threaded discussion. More than one, and the volume of the room immediately
increases as groups attempt to talk over one another. Have a
greeting/introduction of members at the beginning of the meeting, give a
presentation, and then open up the floor to a single open discussion.
The result is generally a "great" meeting where everyone feels included,
and interesting topics are discussed. This model has worked well so far
for the TampaBaySAGE meetings, anyway.
Diversity is a wonderful thing. There's a group for every minority in
any society, particularly Linux and OpenSource. Beginners or experts,
hobbiests or programmers, find your like-minded peers.
But, most importantly, Have Fun.
- Ian
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