[sf-lug] how to improve the sf-lug web site(s)?

[Asheesh Laroia]

On Tue, 3 Jun 2008, Christian Einfeldt wrote:

> As much as I like the people at Javacat, that room is horrible for our 
> meetings.  The sound there is just awful.

I agree about at least the sound making it a bad place for meetings.

I vaguely remember two years ago we briefly discussed alternate meeting 
locations, but feel back to Javacat due to lack of decision.

> Also, I would kind of like to see us have a more coordinated meetings. 
> The current arrangement of meetings is nice in that people can just come 
> and hang out; but it is hard for us to discuss stuff as a group.  It 
> might be nice if we were in a place where we could have a loudspeaker so 
> that we could address everyone at the same time for part of the meeting. 
> As it is, the meetings are a bit chaotic, with people just coming in and 
> hanging out and just sort of drifting around.  Drifting around is great 
> for meeting people one on one, but not great for building group 
> consensus, IMHO.

I enjoy SF-LUG's "drifting around" thing, but then again sometimes there 
are conversations at multiple tables I want to be involved in.

> I am imagining an open-mic type of thing, in which people would come up 
> and make really short announcements for say 10 minutes, and then we 
> could discuss stuff as a group for say 30 minutes, and then we could 
> back to doing the same kind of hanging out that we do now.  As I say, 
> hanging out is great for building friendships, and I think that the 
> informal nature of the Javacat meetings has been one of the reasons that 
> this is the most friendly, nice FOSS list that I have ever been on.  I 
> do get the feeling, though, that our group is a little chaotic 
> occasionally.

I seem to recall Jim doing the "short announcements" thing at the start of 
the meetings I went to in the summer of 2006.

The small tables at the Javacat meetings can be a drag, too.

I personally find it a little hard to get out to the Richmond, but if 
we're to keep the location, I'll gently suggest Bazaar Cafe 
<http://www.yelp.com/biz/bazaar-cafe-san-francisco> to which I've never 
been but which seems to have nice things said about it on Yelp.  The days 
I don't make it out, I usually couldn't have made it if it were closer for 
me anyway.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/caffe-del-sole-san-francisco is a little closer to 
downtown, around 5th Ave, but I can't find much information on how much 
space there is inside.

Although http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCCnkZj9pAo does come up on a 
quick web search for them, which is a plus!

Perhaps we could have some trial runs of meetings at these (or other) 
places suggested by people on this list.

-- Asheesh.

-- 
Nothing is as simple as it seems at first
 	Or as hopeless as it seems in the middle
 		Or as finished as it seems in the end.