[dvlug] BALUG: meeting TOMORROW!: Tu 2017-04-18; RSVP POLICY UPDATE & other BALUG News

[Michael Paoli]

BALUG: meeting TOMORROW!: Tu 2017-04-18; RSVP POLICY UPDATE & other BALUG News

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items, details further below:
BALUG meeting TOMORROW: Tu 2017-04-18 & IMPORTANT: RSVP POLICY UPDATE
giveaways (Books/publications, CDs/DVDs, ...)
help BALUG! :-) - volunteering, venue, ...
Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/BALUG_org
Upcoming BALUG list changes?!

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For our 2017-04-18 BALUG meeting, and also note IMPORTANT: RSVP POLICY UPDATE

At least presently we don't have a specific speaker/presentation lined
up for this meeting, but that doesn't prevent us from having
interesting and exciting meetings and discussions, and we do have some
suggested discussion topics, so we'll likely cover at least some of
that and very possibly other/additional topics folks may bring up at
the meeting. Our suggested topics for this meeting include: AWS, BALUG
infrastructure and lists and (near) future plans, spam and anti-spam,
the upcoming Debian 9 "Stretch" release, and other related topics. We
also manage to sometimes secure/confirm a speaker too late for us to
announce or fully publicize the speaker (that's happened at least twice
in the past). Got questions, answers, and/or opinions? We typically
have some expert(s) and/or relative expert(s) present to cover Linux
and related topic areas. Want to hear some interesting discussions on
LINUX and other topics? Show up at the meeting, and feel free to bring
an agenda if you wish. Want to help ensure BALUG has
speakers/presentations lined up for future meetings? Help refer
speakers to us and/or volunteer to be one of the speaker coordinators.
Great food and people, and interesting conversations to be had.

As was decided unanimously at last month's BALUG meeting, there are
significant chagnes to the RSVP policy - in short, if you want to be
sure there's a meeting to go to, be sure to send your RSVP in time for
us to receive it by not later than 5pm of date of meeting.

IMPORTANT: Please RSVP to rsvp at balug.org if you're planning to attend,
and also note our revised RSVP policy further below.

Meeting kicks off at 6:30 P.M. - we start with meet and greet and chat
and such, then proceed with dining around 7:00 P.M. for dinner - please
arrive before 7:00 P.M. if you want to join us for dinner.

RSVP

IMPORTANT: Please RSVP if you're planning to attend. To do so please
e-mail us a note to rsvp at balug.org
indicating meeting date. If you'll be bringing additional guest(s)
please let us know total number of folks you're RSVPing for.
Also please let us know any special requirements or concerns you may
have (e.g. if you have any particular dietary considerations, so that
we might possibly be able to accommodate you, or if you won't be dining
with us but do wish to otherwise join our meeting).
IMPORTANT: IF WE'VE RECEIVED EXACTLY ZERO RSVPs BY 5:00 P.M. ON DATE OF
MEETING, MEETING MAY BE CANCELLED WITH NO FURTHER NOTIFICATIONS. So, if
we receive your RSVP in time, then there is a meeting, if we receive
zero RSVPs in time, there may not be a meeting, so if you want to be
sure there's a meeting to go to, be sure to send your RSVP in time for
us to receive it by not later than 5:00 P.M. US/Pacific time on date of
meeting. Host(s) and any speaker(s)/presenters will be presumed to be
RSVPed yes, but will not be counted towards the total of RSVPs received
even if they've explicitly RSVPed (hosts/speaker(s)/presenter(s) will
be communicated with if meeting is cancelled for any reason).

    6:30pm Tuesday, April 18th, 2017 2017-04-18
    Henry's Hunan Restaurant
    110 Natoma St. (between 2nd & New Montgomery)
    San Francisco, CA 94105-3704
    1-415-546-4999
    http://henryshunan.com/
    Easy Transit/Parking Access: short walk from BART, MUNI, parking
       Trip planning:  http://www.511.org/

Delicious Hunan cuisine and reasonably priced.

Meeting Details...

Cost/Dining:
     The meetings are always free, but dinner is not (unless you are our
     guest speaker, in which case we also treat you to dinner).  For
     Henry's Hunan Restaurant, if folks are agreeable, we'll share and
     dine "family" style, and split up the costs, and typical cost per
     person including tax and tip (but not including beverages beyond
     complementary tea) would be in the $13.00 to $20.00 range, and
     commonly around $15.00 to $17.00.  Cash may be preferred to ease
     splitting up the check.  One can also specifically order the
     dish(es) one needs/prefers (e.g. for dietary considerations) - and
     we also commonly order some dish(es) that may meet various dietary
     considerations) (e.g. vegetarian, non-pork, ...).  Please arrive by
     7:00 P.M., we expect to order entrees at that time, and may order
     appetizer(s) and/or soup(s) anytime after 6:30 P.M.

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We typically have various giveaway items at BALUG meetings.  We'll
likely have at least the below plus additional items.

Books and other titles!
have a look/read here:
https://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=balug:books_and_publications

CDs/DVDs/ISOs, etc. - have a peek here:
http://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=balug:cds_and_images_etc
We may also be able to "burn" images per request or copy to USB flash,
etc.  Donations of blank or +-RW media, USB flash, or funding thereof,
also appreciated.  See the above URL for details (and the inventory
(qty.) of what we specifically have "burned" and available on-hand does
also frequently change).

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help BALUG! :-) - volunteering, venue ...

You can do useful and cool stuff volunteering to help BALUG,
e.g. following up on many leads for possible venue, among many other
possibilities.

Quite a variety of opportunities to help BALUG.  Come talk to us at a
meeting and/or drop us a note at: balug-contact at balug.org
These opportunities may include, among other possibilities:
o venue arrangement (e.g. followup on potential leads
   on-site coordination/preparations), see also:
http://lists.balug.org/pipermail/balug-admin-balug.org/2014-July/001504.html
o chief/assistant cat herder
o assist on speaker coordination/procurement, etc.
o assist on publicity
o Linux Systems Administration (e.g. do/assist/learn, with/under some
     quite experienced and skilled Linux systems administrator(s)).
o webmaster, assistant webmaster, designer, graphic artist
o archivist/history/retrieval/etc.
o and other various/miscellaneous tasks BALUG would like to be doing
     (also feel free to suggest ideas!)

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Twitter - you can also follow BALUG on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/BALUG_org

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Upcoming BALUG list changes?!

Yes, for the past many years, much of BALUG, including our lists, has
been and is still presently hosted on DreamHost.com.  We will be
changing that in the not-too-horribly-distant-future.  (primary
volunteer on this has been buried under some other stuff to attend to,
so taking a bit longer.) We'll update on status when that's about to
change and when it does change.  We'll provide more details as we
approach and go through that transition, and we'll make it as painless
as feasible.

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Feedback on our publicity/announcements (e.g. contacts or lists where we
should get our information out that we're not presently reaching, or
things we should do differently): publicity-feedback at balug.org

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