[ON Topic] How 'bout them Linux? Ain't they somethin?!

bscott at ntisys.com bscott at ntisys.com
Tue Feb 3 20:51:21 EST 2004


On Thu, 29 Jan 2004, at 5:41pm, maddog at li.org wrote:
> What do you look for in GNHLUG?

  Everything that you and others have said: Community, camaraderie,
knowledge-sharing with peers, interesting presentations.

> What brings you to a meeting?

  My car.  ;-)

  Seriously, I go to meetings mainly when the topic is of particular
interest to me.  As of the past few years, I've been fairly involved, on a
professional level, in many things Linux and FOSS.  That means two things:

  (1) Pretty much all introductory and many intermediate presentations are
      review for me.  This probably means I should be giving presentations
      instead of listening to them, but see below.

  (2) Even intermediate presentations on things I haven't encountered before 
      are often uninteresting to me personally, because I'm so worn out from 
      hacking systems professionally that I want to do something non-computer
      in my off hours.

  The "below" from #1 above:

  (1) I often lack the time to do this sort of thing.
  (2) Subject matter I am familiar with may not be of interest to the general
      GNHLUG population.
  (3) While I know I can impart knowledge with a fair degree of success
      in written documentation and one-on-one dialog, that does necessarily
      translate to good presentation skills.  I might suck at it.

> What drives you away from a meeting?

  Lack of available time.

> What would it take to get you to bring new members to a meeting?

  I would have to encounter potential new members.

> Would you be willing to volunteer for helping to pull off some "activity"?

  I am willing to volunteer.  When I find I have free time *and* the will to
do so, I try to do things like improve the website and attend more meetings.  
If there's something more I can do, let me know.

  Note that I'm not volunteering to be a chair or any other piece of
furniture.  My schedule is too irregular for me to honor that kind of
commitment.  (I know I'm not alone here.  This appears to be a problem that
plagues all our members.)

> Would you be willing to spend a Saturday once or twice a year in staffing
> some project?

  I'd even be willing to spend a Saturday (or part of one) several times a
year.

> If so, do you have any activities that you would especially like to do?

  I've offered (on this list) to give presentations on a couple different
subjects.  Nobody's actually taken me up on it yet.

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
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