[kwlug-disc] Linux & Linux admin for newbies

[Paul Nijjar]

(I thought I sent this already, but I guess not. Apologies if it is a
duplicate.)

That is a generous offer. 

There may be a call for people to help KWLUG financially if we cannot
get a free meeting space for our new home. 

There are also other items that I have been thinking about
fundraising for. It would be nice to get a better projector, for
example. 

But none of this directly relates to your offer. I think that if you
as an individual was to arrange for some KWLUG speakers then that
could work, but it would be you who makes the financial arrangements
(because as Chamunks noted KWLUG does not officially exist).
Once you have somebody arranged I (or another organizer) can slot that
presenter in. 

Keep in mind that in addition to finding people who know how to do
Linux administration, we would want to bring in people who also have
skills at doing presentations for others. Robert Elder might qualify
for this, but I think arbitrary people on UpWork would need more
vetting.

Having said that, I think there are MANY people on this list who have
the knowledge and talent to offer some really good newbie training,
either during meetings or as a separate event. I would love to see a
few more offers from people willing to present Linux basics. 

I agree that getting newbies out to meetings is a challenge. Sometimes
people come for a few sessions, and then leave because the talks
people are willing to offer are at too high a technical level (or
maybe we are unfriendly in other ways). 

John got us started on a list of topics, but it is not clear to me
which ones are in demand, or are most useful in 2018.

I am guessing these will be incorporated into regular KWLUG meetings,
as opposed to being separate events?

- Paul


On Thu, Jan 18, 2018 at 11:14:00AM -0500, Ron Singh wrote:
> Here's my 2 cents, not sure how it will be received.
> 
> See, I value what I have gained thus from the KWLUG meets I have attended,
> the topics discussed on the mailing list, and tangentially, the information
> gleaned from a single(so far) KWVoip meetup.
> 
> In the spirit of giving back, I am able to pony up to $50 per
> session(month?) to someone from outside of KWLUG, or $400/yr to KWLUG
> towards expenses(essentially a sponsorship). I can also support KWLUG via
> donations of older(but not *old*) computer hardware as it becomes available
> to me.
> 
> If the $50/session thing does not contradict the spirit of KWLUG, I would
> like to make contact with a few individuals here --
> https://www.upwork.com/local/canada/ontario/waterloo/linux-system-administration/
> and see if they would be amenable to doing a 60-minute segment for newbies
> and live with a mere $50(or less) fee for the talk and travel time.
> 
> I see a couple of UPWORK low-cost younglings here and here:
> https://www.upwork.com/o/profiles/users/_~01be403b78b96c7860/
> https://www.upwork.com/o/profiles/users/_~01ae67e5ea9c1e9763/
> 
> and a more seasoned UPWORK dude here:
> https://www.upwork.com/o/profiles/users/_~015d41ca163d109259/
> 
> How about Robert Elder?
> http://blog.robertelder.org/robert-elder-software-linux-operating-system/
> He is quite the CLI guy.
> I attended one of his meetings on SSH where I got about 30% of the ideas
> and logic being discussed. Should I contact him on behald of KWLUG to see
> if he is willing to do a talk on CLI commands. He is definitely not a GUI
> guy.
> 
> Alternatively, I donate a year's worth of sessions to KWLUG and everyone
> chimes in with suggestions/contact they have to do talks for newbies.
> I see one big challenge though and that is how to grab all the newbies by
> the scruff and drag them into the KWLUG meetings to benefir from the newbie
> sessions.
> 
> I am just throwing this out there.
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Ron Singh
> "in transit, via mobile comm device"