The Future of PLUG

[Jim]

At the last PLUG meeting at Sequoia Jiva stepped down as the leader of PLUG
and asked me to assume that position.  I believe in PLUG and accepted.  I
take over for Jiva only with the acceptance of you, the members.  I know
that this position is a large responsibility and I also know that I will
not be able to get anything done without your help. I am not going to
promise that PLUG will take a certain direction because I view the position
as a facilitator of the wishes of the members.

You all know who I am.  I have tried to gently nudge PLUG and its members
in the past.  Now, I guess my nudging days are over.  I do believe that the
most important thing that I can do is to listen to the members.  If the
members come up with an idea that we agree is worth pursuing, it is my job
to make sure that there are people in place to make it happen.  I know that
no one person can do everything. I also know that if many people
contribute, everyone has less to do and we end up accomplishing much more.

Some of the things that I have been hearing and that I think are worth
pursuing:

Starting a newbie meeting.  Some of the topics that we have had in the past
are way above the people just coming into Linux.  They have found Linux as
an alternative and need to know the things that the gurus learned a long
time ago.  I think PLUG needs to support these newbies and help to get them
on the road to enjoying and contributing to Linux and to PLUG.

Keeping PLUG informal.  I hear the members saying that we are doing just
fine and that we should not try to change PLUG by setting up a more formal
organization.  Besides, AZOTO now exists to do the kinds of things that
require a formal organization.

I have a couple of things that I would like to see on the agenda.

Getting more exposure for PLUG.  People find us because they are looking
for us for whatever reason.  PLUG can get out into the community and let
people know that they have options.  Granted, we cant go out and
participate in things like other conventions and expositions in the area
because we do not have finances.  But we can do things like setting up a
table at places like Borders (or whoever else will let us) and pass out
information about Linux and PLUG.

More Steering Committee meetings.  Both closed meetings (open to SC members
only) and open meetings (everyone welcome to come and participate).  The
Steering Committee is the invisible hand that guides PLUG and it should be
more active.  Closed meetings are nice to keep tabs on current activities,
but open meetings get more input from the members and help to decide what
activities, if any, the members want us to get going, keep going, and quit
doing.

So tell me what you think.  Don't try to call me.  My phone line is
usually busy with the Internet.  I read my email frequently and I read most
of the posts to the PLUG mailing lists (altho I admit that I skip by a lot
of items that have topics that I dont think I can contribute anything to).