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

[Christian Einfeldt]

hi,

I just got off of a conference call with the two people who organize the
tenderloin tech day event at St. Anthony's Foundation (Karl Robillard and
Kari Gray).  Those two suggested that we might want to consider holding our
SF-LUG meetings (or maybe one meeting per month) at St. Anthony's Foundation
in the Tenderloin.

The goal of holding meetings there would be to make our expertise in
GNU-Linux to the people in the tenderloin who need it most.  Karl Robillard
is a master of getting the word out on the street, and if we coordinate it
with Karl, we could probably set up the meeting such that people would be
able to bring in machines to get a new OS installed on it if they are having
malware issues.  We will need to work with Karl re the scope of issues to be
addressed during these events, i.e, maybe we would need to start small and
just have monthly meetings there, so that new users in the neighborhood
would know that they have the option of coming in there to have questions
answered.

This proposal came up with Kari Gray pointed out that better follow-up was
needed for the new Linux users who come to the one-every-three-month tech
days such as this event, which was netcast on Cnet's service:

http://tinyurl.com/44yjyf

So there have been three of these Tenderloin Tech day events, but Kari
pointed out that we could get more focus on Linux if the new end users knew
that they could come back in between those once-quarterly events and find
help, especially if Karl publishes the events, as he is willing to do.

If I understand Karl correctly, we would need to hold these meetings on a
Tuesday through Thurdsday, and possibly Friday.  The details we can work
out.  With this email, I mostly wanted to return our conversation back to
the possibility of branching out from the Javacat, for all the reasons
previously discussed.

So I am wondering what our next steps would be to getting the new meeting
place decided and posted to the SF-LUG site?  Can we try to set something up
for July?  Or is that too soon?

thanks to all.

On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 9:10 PM, jim <jim at well.com> wrote:

>
> good ideas.
>   i say let's have the scheduled meetings at
> javacat and have one extra meeting each month
> at some other place as a means of scouting
> out an alternative.
>   what do you say?
>
>
>
> On Thu, 2008-06-05 at 12:54 -0700, Asheesh Laroia wrote:
> > 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.
> >
>
>
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