PLUG Steering (Was: Re: hey jmz! (and the rest of you guys!) :))

[Alan Dayley]

On Sun, Jul 18, 2010 at 2:56 AM, Technomage <technomage.hawke at gmail.com> wrote:
> just found your blog man (I was trying to locate when  plug was officially
> founded).
> I noticed that you mentioned:
>  "Some claim that there is a Steering Committee associated with PLUG,
> however the names of the members of this group have never been released to
> the public."

- PLUG has a Steering Committee.
- The names of the members of this committee have been "released to
the public" and often.
-- At one time we had a page on the web site about the organization of
the group.  As author of that page, I know the names of the Steering
Committee members were on that page.  I don't think that page exists
anymore, lost in the transitions to new CMS iterations.
-- When I led the PLUG Developer Meeting, I would regularly describe
the Steering Committee and name it's members as part of the meeting
introduction.  I would do this even if only one new person was
attending.
- The names of the committee members have been published in this list
incidental to other discussions, I'm sure.  Though I'm not going to go
hunt the archives.
- Members:
-- Hans Krugeler (sorry about the spelling) is the Chairperson
-- Alan Dayley (I am nearly inactive, as you may have noticed)
-- Brian Cluff
-- Joseph Sinclair

We had a three other members who have moved away but provided
excellent support for group activities during their time with the
committee.

> I can conform that there was in  fact a "steering committee" (I should know,
> I was on it).
> I have long since forgotten the names of the others on it. The committee was
> disbanded shortly after
> the members agreed to a base set of rules to found plug as a 'semi
> professional"
> community oriented Linux users group.

OK.  I joined PLUG in May, 2000.  It has a Steering Committee then and
has had one continuously to today.  Maybe you are referring to
pre-2000 time.

Confession: The current truth is that the Steering Committee is
semi-active.  I have mostly moved on to other community groups
(Ignite Phoenix, Gangplank events, Phoenix Scrum User Group).  Others
have been busy with many things.  From my point of view, the Steering
Committee needs to become more active again.  I am not the one to
drive that as I have my free time focus elsewhere.

> That founding occurred back in mid 1998. most of the list didn't start
> getting seriously archived until early 1999.

I understand it was founded earlier than that, around 1996.  Rusty
Carruth was one of the original PLUG members.  I work with him at my
employment.  I'll have to ask him Monday about the founding date.

> I kn ow Der.hans was pretty much in there from  the beginning (you still on
> list Hans?).

Hans is still around.  He posts about meetings, etc. in this list
quite regularly.  He chairs bi-monthly PLUG planning meetings on IRC
every other Sunday evening.  He's still working for the group.

>I haven't seen any notices for a west side meeting in
> some time though
> (you still doing that tuna?).

West side meetings now take place at DeVry University, when there is
someone to make sure there is a speaker.  They have not always been
held every month of late because of a lack of a solid organizer.
Hopefully that will change.

Calls for west side speakers and meeting organizers go out every
month, usually written by Hans.

> anyway, I thought I'd pop on list and remind you guys that some of us old
> guard are still about.

Thanks!

Alan