[dvlug] It's back...

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Robert Wall (robertlikesturtles at gmail.com):

> * http://www.dvlug.org/ now has actual information on it. If you have
> comments or suggestions, feel free to let me know; the site is very much
> a continuing page-under-construction, so criticism is welcome!

Most important thing (IMVAO) is:  Date/time/place/date formula (Fridays,
6 -7 pm) should ideally be closer to the page top, and maybe near the left.
That is, the most-important information should be presented as
prominently and concisely as practical -- including putting it where
people look first.


> * We're now having regular, informal meetings every Friday at 6:00PM at
> Caffe Le Scala in Walnut Creek. More details (copied from the webpage):

Very nice.  Are you going to continue with a weekly schedule?  

There's only one other group I can think of that does, Smaug in Santa
Cruz (http://www.scruz.org), which meets Monday nights at a pizzeria
in downtown Santa Cruz.  The fact that the venue takes care of itself
does tend to make it more practical than it would be otherwise -- but
the catch is that you really need to make sure there's _always_ someone
there, without fail, to greet people.  

BUUG used to have meetings every Thursday night at Cafe Au Coquelet in
downtown Berkeley, but that got to be a bit much, so they scaled it back
to 1st and 3rd Thursdays.

> Meetings are non-mandatory, not overly serious, and there should be
> someone there every week (and if none of the regulars think they can
> make it, we'll let the list know in advance).

Once you start reaching out _past_ the existing membership to the
broader public[1], measures like "We'll mention on the mailing list any
meetings that have to be cancelled at the last minute" become not quite
enough, because inevitably people will have checked the Web site a week
ago, made notes in their day planners, and just shown up.  If there's
nobody there -- well, you see the problem.

Further (annoying, gratuitous, presumptuous) advice here:  
http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Linux_PR/newlug.html
<grin>


I'll soon be adding a DVLUG entry on BALE, http://linuxmafia.com/bale/ ;
whatever you guys want is fine.


[1] Generally what a group wants to do, if it aspires to grow.  ;->