[kwlug-disc] (In progress) kwlug candidate meeting site sourced.

[Raul Suarez]

--- On Sat, 12/19/09, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday at crashcourse.ca> wrote:
>   and i realize that i'm not going to win any friends
> with what i'm about to say

:) I should have started every email in this thread with this sentence 

>  but i would disagree that KWLUG has been a
> "success," depending on your definition of the word.

Agree. Success for me, may not be so for you.

> linux is all the rage, you can get it on netbooks, everyone's 
> talking about it, you can't turn around
> without the mainstream media writing about the delights of
> open source and

Another point of disagreement. I don't work in a "linux" environment so I don't see it as mainstream as you.

>  ... KWLUG is currently looking for a place to meet.
>   how exactly does that qualify as "successful?"

Well, we don't have a rich daddy. I know of another group with a very rich daddy, that meets in donated space. They are also risking loosing it.

> reporters would be trying to get quotes or opinions about current 
> developments ... you get the idea.

To my point that it is not as mainstream as you may perceive.

Besides, most reporters wait for information to be pushed to them, that's one of the reasons why companies have whole departments doing press releases.

> KWLUG has gone in exactly the *opposite* direction.

I take huge exception to this, specially as I know there are other people reading this: Attendance to the meetings has been growing. The number of presentations and presenters is quite healthy.

>  while linux has
> been growing wildly, KWLUG has gone from having a place to meet to *not*
> having a place to meet.  using what imaginable metric is that
> "successful?"

We didn't loose the place to meet, we decided that it was noisy, no one kicked us out. Actually, regarding success this is interesting: The other reason was that attendance grew to a point that we didn't even fit the space. That to me qualifies as successful.

This is a User's group. I don't know what other metric you can use. Why not measure against "other user's groups"?

> if the current membership is happy with the way things are.
Oh, we will never be. 

> Maybe i'm just being overly critical.  but
> the thought that a *linux* user group in the most technically-advanced
> community in the country can't find a reliable place to meet strikes 
> me as just plain weird.

:) We certainly can get a place. I think that we put a lot of caveats; 

- Accessible
- Inclusive
- Regular (always the same time of the month)
- Independent: Not tied to anyone else's agenda.

As a reflection: 
Do you think that the KWLUG would be more successful if the smaller number of people that regularly buy food met at the Heuther? 

We would have a place to meet, there would be meetings but I am sure we would loose some of the members that make the LUG successful according to my definition.


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