[aclug-L] Re: [announce] Next meeting. (I am finally fed up.)

["Dale W Hodge" <dwh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: discussion-bounce@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:discussion-bounce@xxxxxxxxx]On
> Behalf Of David Wiebe
>
> I've been subscribed to this list for about a year and a half, have gotten
> fast, friendly tech support a couple of times, and have attended one ACLUG
> meeting.
>
> It appears like ACLUG is in the process of self-destructing.  This saddens
> me, but I can't say that I'm surprised.  Some observations:
>
> 1) During the one meeting I did attend, no one spoke to me from the time I
> entered the door until I left.  No welcome.  No introductions.  No "What
> brought you here?". Nothing.

This surprises me a bit. Usually, we are a fairly social group. You ask a
question, and usually a number of the people in the room will have an answer.

As for introductions, we have done that on occasion, but I always get the "do I
have to?" look from people in the room.  If people want, we could do the name
tag thing, it's just it had never been suggested.


> 2)The meeting was extremely frustrating to sit through. The meeting began
> with a business meeting / open-ended discussion.  Most of it centered on
> inside information (and inside jokes) which since it was my first meeting I
> had no way of understanding or participating in.

Unfortunately, that (inside jokes) happens when a group has been together for a
number of years.  It's been that way with every group I've ever participated in.
There's a core group who is *always* there, so it's going to happen.  But if
there is something you dont' understand, then speak up.  None of us are
professional Teachers or Lecturers, so we don't always realize when we're not
making things clear.


> 3) I came because I'd just started a project related to the announced topic.
> I reasonably expected to get some good tips on how to proceed and maybe some
> hands-on tutorials.  Instead I got about 15 minutes of reading (boring) from
> the introduction of a very large book, followed by an ill-prepared attempt to
> write a short script, which I later found out wouldn't have run in the first
> place.

Unfortunately, this is a volunteer organization, and not everyone who gives a
lecture on a topic is a dynamic speaker.  Basically, we take what we can get.
Sometimes it comes off well. Most of the time it's just okay, and a few times it
has outright sucked.  About half the time, the person who's giving the lecture
has just learned the topic himself. So, they don't know if frontwards/backwards
and have to rely heavily on notes.  If you (or anyone, for that matter)think you
can do it better, then volunteer to do so.


> 4)I've seen you folks a couple of times at Saturday Sale.  I'd have to say
> that was a friendlier atmosphere, but again, you really blew the opportunity
> to show-off Linux.  You could be demoing all the new whiz-bang stuff Linux is
> developing, instead it seems like you sit and bitch that you aren't "selling"
> enough CDs.

It's dang hard to really show off Linux at something like the Saturday Sale.
Unless someone comes over and asks specific questions, you end up spending 6
hours trying to find something interesting to do. A lot of what Linux can do
isn't that interesting to the casual observer.

It's a *lot* of work. I have to get up early, spend half an hour packing, drive
45 minutes, spend ~20 minutes setting up, sit there for 6 hours all the while
hoping someone else will show so I can get some lunch and a bathroom break,
spend 20 minutes packing up, and 45 minutes driving home. That's about 8 hours
out of Saturday. That doesn't include the time I spend downloading and burning
the CD's that we sell, and the time it takes to print up any of the hand-outs.
Now ask me again why we bitch about not selling enough CD's. ;-)

--dwh

---
Dale W Hodge - dwh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Secretary & Website Maintainer - info@xxxxxxxxx
Air Capital Linux User's Group  (ACLUG)
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