[aclug-L] Re: [announce] Next meeting.

[Bruce Alderman <baa@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I want to echo some comments David Wiebe made about ACLUG meetings. I
have attended two meetings, but I doubt anyone in the club would even
recognize me if I showed up again.  No one spoke to me from the time I
entered the door until I left.

The meetings were loosely organized, which can be great for groups of
friends, but can be off-putting for new people.

As it happens, I've just been reading Steven Levy's _Hackers_.  Levy
describes (among other things) the Homebrew Computer Club, which began
in the late 1970s in Silicon Valley, and whose members helped launch the
home computer revolution.  One of the things that made the Homebrew
Computer Club successful was the structure of its meetings.  Each
meeting would begin with a "mapping" section, in which the attendees
would describe the projects they were working on.  At the end there
would be a "random access" section, to allow members to talk to others
who were working on similar projects.  These were wrapped around a short
talk or a demonstration of a new project.

Maybe this could be adapted into something that might work for ACLUG
meetings.


-- 
Bruce Alderman                                baa@xxxxxxxxxx
                 http://www.intcon.net/~baa
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle."
                                       - Philo of Alexandria

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