[wplug-members] WPLUG Membership Meeting on March 11th, 2006

[David Ostroske]

WPLUG MEMBERSHIP MEETING
March 11th at 10:30am to 11:30am
CMU Newell-Simon Hall Room 3002

WPLUG will be holding a membership meeting on Saturday, March 11th,
from 10:30am to 11:30am in CMU's Newel-Simon Hall Room 3002, in the
morning before the GUM. And this time, we're actually going to do
something worth getting up early for.

In the past, we've received lots of suggestions for promoting WPLUG
and getting the wholesome goodness of Linux and open source out to
people who, if they didn't absolutely need it, could really really use
it. These suggestions inevitably lead to this question: "Alright,
cool! But, who's going to do it?" As a member, you've got it in you to
step up and say, "I'll do it, because I want this to happen!"

You can call that the theme of this next business meeting: making
these things happen. And this is a great time to start.

According to our rules, the Board can't spend money on new projects
without the membership's approval. So the Board is recommending
language for a new PR Committee, which will make it easier for people
with great PR ideas to start up new projects and coordinate with
others on bringing their ideas to fruition. The recommended language
for the PR Committee is at the end of this message.

But just having a PR Committee doesn't really do a whole lot for us, does it?

We need people who want to get busy promoting Linux and open source.
That sounds like a vague and daunting goal. So, let's suggest some
things that we could do.

Here's a refined list of ideas that some WPLUGgers put together at a
brainstorming session last December. Does any of this stuff tickle
your fancy? Or perhaps have you got whole-new fancies you'd like to
tickle us with? Then come to the GUM early on March 11th and get
something started!

We could:

* Invite some big-name companies who have put Linux at the heart of
their businesses to give a talk. IBM and Novell have done this for us
before, and VMWare's coming in April. If you've got contacts in the
industry, why not ask them if they'd like to speak to us?
* Present talks that, given enough promotional push, would draw some
crowds. Some ideas: Mono at CMU, new Firefox features, Ruby on Rails,
and CMU's sponsorship of free and open-source software development.
* Have series tutorials. Would you want to teach a mini-course on your
favorite subject to a small group of interested people?
* Set up tables at computer shows, hand out live CDs, and show off
what all you can do with a Linux machine. It's a good way to show off
Linux to interested passers-by.
* Arrange a site visit to local companies. We visited Inflow back in
2004, and a good time was had by all. You could talk to Inflow again,
or Pair Networks, or the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, or 3ROX, or
who knows who else?
* Take WPLUG On The Road. We could pack up and head to other parts of
Western Pennsylvania. Erie's welcomed us in the past. We could also do
Johnstown and Greensburg, Oil City, Washington, Meadville, Cranberry
Township, and other places.
* Coordinate with other User Groups in the area. Plenty of
opportunities here. We could meet with Perl Mongers for an all-weekend
event. We could share podcasts with other user groups. We could host a
roundtable discussion with other local user groups of what's new and
what's ahead for open source. Or we could do like they've been doing
successfully for years in Ohio, and organize an all-state Mega
Pennsylvania LUG event.
* Do community service. For instance, we could offer tech help to
non-profit organizations, such as schools, libraries, churches, etc. I
have a note about "Abandoned PPS computer" which is somehow related to
this; I think it involves configuring and donating old hardware to
groups that could use it.
* Donate books to local libraries. We could request a WPLUG nameplate
for donated computer books.
* Sponsor social events, like bike rides, or trips to sporting events.
* Get our name out in front of the public. We could Adopt-A-Highway,
for instance. We could adopt a penguin at the zoo, which we've done in
the past. Or if we attend a sporting event, we could get a WPLUG group
announcement.
* Make new WPLUG T-shirts.
* With CACert & GPG, we could establish a WPLUG web of trust by
holding a keysigning.
* Establish free LUG-driven wireless Internet access.
* Set up a Linux PBX. (I believe that Max Putas has more details
pertaining to this.)
* Survey everybody, including ourselves and especially our visiting
non-members, to determine who we are as a group. We could talk to Mark
D. about putting such a survey online.

And now, here is the proposed language for the PR Committee. The Board
could have decided to form this committee all on its own, but we
decided that by giving this to the membership to do, we could handle
organization matters and start some PR projects up, all at the same
time. We recently amended the original recommendation to add the
second sentence, which would put the Vice Chair, in this case Beth
Lynn, in charge of the PR committee. We need to get at least 15
members to do business, so we hope to see you early on March 11th!

--BEGIN
WPLUG PR committee
A Public Relations Committee shall be appointed by the Board, and
shall be renewed promptly after a new Board takes office. The WPLUG
Vice-Chair shall be a member of this committee and serve as its chair.
Its duties shall include:
1. To swell the ranks of WPLUG membership.
2. To establish and maintain WPLUG's reputation as a key organization
for Open Source in western Pennsylvania.
3. To maintain a high level of awareness of WPLUG activities with the
general public.
4. To obtain favorable publicity for WPLUG.
5. To establish and maintain contact with other Open Source
organizations to coordinate efforts to further the cause of Open
Source.
The committee shall provide regular reports to the Board and to the membership.
--END

--
David Ostroske <eksortso at gmail.com>