On Sep 25, 2006, at 11:21 AM, Joshua Zeidner wrote:
>>    This is a matter of opinion... in my estimation its best to
>> establish the group on sound principles and clear intentions and
>> problems will not arise at a later time.  Some of these groups are
>> very serious.  Some even print up business cards.  I think that
>> the reluctance to make structure is really about deferring
>> authoritative decisions, which quickly degrades into anti-social
>> behavior, which is something I hope the group will not be about.

I agree that organization is important, but what I was suggesting is
the "don't optimize too early" principle.  Rather apply the amount of
organization it takes to do it right at the right time.  As many
know, I personally think that PLUG could do better with a more formal
organization, but that said they have actually been fairly successful
because "doing" was more important that "posturing" in their
infancy.  I think you can see the Ruby and Refresh groups struggling
with this sort of thing as well.  Spend time early "organizing" and
you never get anything off the ground.  Get something off the ground
and don't add organization quick enough and it becomes impossible to
put a structure to it.

>   PLUG is not a person and therefore does not qualify as a team
> contact.

So put yourself as contact and get it started.   Anyone that wants to
complain about it should have gotten off their ass and done it
themselves. :)


>    I am not a huge fan of physical meetings.  They are a great way
> to socialize, etc. but really are not necessary and often
> needlessly time consuming.  Newsgroups are definitely interesting
> because people can formulate strong opinions about someone without
> ever having met them in real life, which can be quite unnatural for
> some.  A lot can happen through email/blog/forum/etc. if it is
> taken seriously, which it rarely is.  Thanks for the input Derek, jmz

Physical meetings are necessary for networking purposes.  That is why
I proposed using EXISTING meetings to gather at so you don't have to
have own formal meetings (which I think would be largely a waste).
This gets you exposure so that there are people to build a virtual
community around that can do something for the LoCo.  My best advice
is just do it.  I learned a long time ago that sitting around trying
to get "consensus" in the software world leads to dead ends.  Doing
something only leads to dead ends half the time. : )