Am 29. Mar, 2007 schwätzte Andrew Harris so:

> The West-side isn't west enough. Again, I'm a kid. Who would go to a LUG meeting organized by a kid?

The first LUG I attended was started by a person of youth :). He later
moved to .jp and I took over as president.

>  Ok, maybe lots of people. But how can I organize a LUG meeting? On the end-user/hacker scale, I'm a little more towards the end-user side. (Although I've convinced myself that I'm a hacker, even though I'm not :P )

You don't need to know lots of technical stuff to start a meeting. You do
need to be committed to being there and making it happen. We haven't had
that for the (north)west side meeting and it shows[0]. All the other events
have someone to drive them.

You have interest. You have enthusiasm. Those are far more important than
technical knowledge. Even for a LUG.

Again, I'm not trying to push you towards starting something. That's a
decision you ( and your parents ) have to decide.

If you do start something and want it to be a PLUG event we would love to
support your efforts! Most of that support will be in helping you promote
the event, but we might also be able to help get presenters or other
resources.

I really think you'd be best off starting with a Stammtisch. Find a
location with wireless that can hold 10 or 20 people. If 3 people show up,
that's fine, but you want to be able to handle at least a dozen or so.

The beauty of a Stammtisch is that you just hang out and talk. It doesn't
even have to be about GNU/Linux or other Free Software. A Free Software
Stammtisch is a place for Free Software enthusiasts to meet and hang out.
They talk about whatever comes up, which might be a book or a movie or how
much petroleum products are used in fast food...

If you start a Stammtisch in your area I think it would be great if it
were the same time as the one I started, 19:00 on the third Tuesday of the
month, but feel free to hold it a different time if that time is bad for
you.

Geographically the Valley is huge. It's a commitment to drive across town
for events ( I do that every month, so I'm very familiar with the time and
effort it takes ). I would love it if we had events in different parts of
town.

I was hoping the Estrella Community College LUG was still open to
everyone, but I learned this week it's only for students. Fine, let's do
something else.

In the end, you don't need my approval or the approval of anyone else in
PLUG. Do what you think sounds interesting and plausible to you. If you do
something that works for PLUG the Steering Committee would love to support
your efforts. I'm certain many other PLUG members would as well.

I can say all of the above in my role as Chairman of PLUG, but honestly
that role doesn't give me any authority to approve or deny anything. PLUG
is a volunteer run organization. PLUG does stuff because people volunteer
to make them happen.

Please also remember that participating in the discuss list is a great way
to help PLUG and make things happen.

[0] A few of us have recently been putting a lot of effort in to the west
side meeting. The meeting is starting to take off again. It's way in the
north part of the Valley, so doesn't help you, but I wanted to say that
the (north)west side is growing.

ciao,

der.hans
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