[sf-lug] Rick Moen quoted in article re building LUGs

[Bill Kendrick]

On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 03:27:35PM -0700, Rick Moen wrote:
> LUGs would have a much better time in the USA if we had the same social
> institution of pubs that the UK and Eire have.

When I moved away from Davis, and it was becoming more difficult to
schedule speakers for EVERY LUGOD meeting (we met 2x / month),
we decided to make one of our monthly events a social gathering, and
that's worked out pretty well.  (There's not a ton of time to
_socialize_ at our general meetings, because we're doing club
business and watching a presentation.)

We hold them at a local crepe-oriented restaurant, that people seem
to enjoy, though I recently discovered the local southwest-style
restaurant holds fundraisers on the day of the week that we hold
our socials.  (In other words, we hold our social there, and 10% of
everyone's meal price is donated to the club by the restaurant.
Ben & Jerry's does/did that, too, and we held a little ice-cream
fundraiser for EFF a number of years ago.)

>From what I've seen of SF-LUG, the meetings are generally more
social-oriented, versus guest-speaker oriented (though I've gone
and spoken at least once :) ).

I think it's good to have a mix.

Rambling,

-bill!