[wplug-board] WPLUG Board meeting 17 Sep

[Pat Barron]

The interruptions and noise are part of it - but only part.  I don't 
think the seating is adequate for a presentation (though I have to 
admit, the way the tables were rearranged for the last GUM made things 
better) - it's uncomfortable.  I would personally rather see 
presentations happen in a facility that has rows of seating that all 
face front.  When you were giving your presentation this past Saturday, 
you had to balance your laptop on a ladder because there wasn't a better 
place to put it...  I think HackPittsburgh is fabulous as a workshop, as 
a place to do hackfests and to get "hands-on" and work on projects.  But 
it's noisy, and disruption-prone, because we have to share the shop with 
other users (the "real" HackPittsburgh members - I acknowledge that 
we're just guests there, and I'm grateful for their hospitality...).   
Given the nature of HackPittsburgh's mission, I can definitely 
understand that they can't just "shut the shop down" for 4 hours on a 
weekend afternoon (prime project time) to accommodate us, they have 
stuff they need to get done.   I just don't (personal opinion...) think 
it's a good choice for doing a presentation, if there are any better 
options available.   (And admittedly, sometimes there aren't....)

Point Park isn't available to us (PACC can only meet there because they 
have a faculty sponsor, and the university actually makes them carry a 
pretty big liability insurance policy in order to meet there - that is 
why they are starting to think about other space, with their faculty 
sponsor getting ready to retire), so at least that is one that we don't 
need to consider.

I do have the space at IBM booked for the original date, and could try 
to move it.  Though if we don't have a presentation on the agenda, it's 
probably not necessary to even consider that.  I would need to defer to 
Vance on this, who's been the closest in communication with the 
potential speaker.

I don't necessarily disagree with you about WSCC, I'm on record as 
stating that that's not a great place to run a presentation, either, and 
I did get a little more unhappy with them as we started getting into 
situations where they didn't have space available to accommodate us when 
we asked about it (though I admittedly don't feel as strongly about the 
matter - I'm definitely not of the opinion that I won't show up if we 
plan a meeting at WSCC, I just think that if there are other options 
available, they should be considered...).  If I had to choose between 
doing a presentation at WSCC and meeting at HackPittsburgh, if those 
were the only two choices in consideration, I have to admit I'd probably 
go with HackPittsburgh (unless it was strictly a "speaking" presentation 
without a projector, in which case I would lean towards WSCC). Though 
that's all hypothetical, since we aren't needing to choose only between 
those two options....

--Pat.

On 9/21/2015 6:34 PM, John Lewis wrote:
> I am willing to forward you message to the HackPittsburgh list to let
> them hear your complaints because having my meeting interrupted was very
> annoying, but let me get this straight.
>
> I would rather quit WPLUG entirely than go to another meeting at the
> Wilkins School Community center! As bad as HackPittsburgh is, it spiked
> our membership roles by 66% at its peak over the course of the last term.
>
> I don't think the Point State collage is a good place either because the
> class room plugs voltage is too low. I can't get a Raspberry Pi to turn
> on and I can barely charge my laptop.
>
> I am developing a top card, introduction to Raspberry Pi presentation
> for next month, which is good because you have not identified or secured
> your potential speaker as of yet to my knowledge.
>
> On 09/21/2015 09:48 AM, Pat Barron wrote:
>> Sorry for taking a few days to reply to this.
>>
>> I have no specific objection to the change of date - selfishly, the
>> proposed new date is actually better for me.
>>
>> My only concerns are that I know we were talking to someone about
>> possibly doing a presentation, and I want to make sure that we're not
>> messing with that person's schedule (if they've committed to anything,
>> which I'm not sure of to begin with - which is why I don't actually
>> mention the person's name here...  ;-) ).
>>
>> If there's a presentation, I'm also concerned about moving the
>> location back to HackPittsburgh, which (IMHO - as I've stated
>> before...) is a poor venue for doing presentations.
>>
>> But if there's no presenter (yet), and/or the presenter doesn't have
>> any objection, I'm cool with this.
>>
>> --Pat.
>>
>> On 9/18/2015 12:49 AM, Vance Kochenderfer wrote:
>>> John and I were the only ones present tonight, so we did not have a
>>> quorum to hold a meeting.
>>>
>>> We discussed the upcoming nominations and elections, and John proposed
>>> to reschedule the nominations meeting for October 24 at HackPittsburgh.
>>> This would just give us the 21 days necessary to give notice of the
>>> election.
>>>
>>> To make this change would require a special Board meeting, which may be
>>> called by the Chair with 24 hours' notice.  Note that 28 days' notice is
>>> required for nominations, so the membership notice for an October 24
>>> meeting must go out no later than September 26.
>>>
>>> Vance Kochenderfer        |  "Get me out of these ropes and into a
>>> vance at happylemur.com      |   good belt of Scotch"    -Nick Danger
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> wplug-board at wplug.org
>>> http://www.wplug.org/mailman/listinfo/wplug-board
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