[wellylug] Notes from Meeting (long but good)

[Lindsay Hunter]

I was talking to one of our prospective new members on Monday evening.  
He was interested in the sea change that was occurring in the LUG.  He 
is of an age that has access to Senior Net.  He asked them whether they 
would have a Senior Net Linux and got a surrounding "No!"  We thought 
that may be because MS is a sponsor of Senior Net.  He subscribes to 
this list.

The Senior Net is a good model but has the disadvantage that it is 
ageist, ie it discourages those who do not yet see themselves as being 
of that 'age' group. 

What they do is provide a beginners programme for a range of useful 
applications, for users.  They provide the stable installation, and a 
set programme that avoids controversy, variation and uncertainty.  Most 
want all of those things.  Could Linux and its supporters provide that? 

I am wondering whether one of the CD based distributions may be 
possible.  They provide stability, they are endlessly reproducible, can 
be quick enough with flash memory. 

If we cannot meet that challenge, then Linux has a way to go?  I would 
be happy to instruct on such a beginners programme but I am not 
competent to set up such a system

Lindsay

Klenner, Colin wrote:

>Happy to continue to help in whatever capacity the 'group' thinks I can be
>of assistance.
>
>Colin Klenner
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: wellylug-admin at lists.naos.co.nz
>[mailto:wellylug-admin at lists.naos.co.nz] On Behalf Of Tony Wills
>Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 5:24 PM
>To: wellylug at lists.naos.co.nz
>Subject: Re: [wellylug] Notes from Meeting (long but good)
>
>
>At 04:00 12/02/04 +0100, you wrote:
>  
>
>>On Tue, Feb 10, 2004 at 10:02:51PM +1300, lug wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>bugger.
>>>sed 's/nice guy/welcome guy/g' previous_email.
>>>      
>>>
>>oh and there i thought "nice guy" was another one of those club 
>>positions.
>>
>>greetings, martin. (can i be the nice guy, please? ;-)))
>>    
>>
>
>Well actually that was Jamie's name for the role in the draft meeting 
>notes, I suggested that it was very kind of him, but another title might 
>sound a bit better ;-)
>
>Now that you mention it, I would like to point out that I'm not a very good 
>candidate for welcoming people into the group, but as I suggested we needed 
>someone to make new members feel welcome at meetings I was landed with the 
>job.  I'm not really a 'people' person and have a terrible time remembering 
>peoples names and even if I remember their face I probably won't remember 
>who they are.
>
>But I don't mind trying to get something moving in this area, so here goes:
>
>The Problem:
>==========
>There are two categories of new members, those new to linux (or wanting to 
>know about linux) and those just new to this group.
>
>Both categories of new members who attend meetings often find there are 
>groups of people doing their own thing, talking or working on some machine 
>etc, and it's hard to get involved.  They may wander around looking over 
>peoples shoulders but may not feel brave enough to barge in, they may not 
>bother coming back either ...
>
>The group that are new to Linux also need help to bring them up to speed so 
>they feel able to participate, it's hard to ask those 'dumb' questions in 
>front of a group who you assume are all experts and expect are all far 
>ahead of you.
>
>Action Plan:
>=========
>Firstly I would like to hear from 'new' members and ask them what they 
>would like to see, what they are looking for when joining this group.
>
>Then I'd like some volunteers to help implement whatever help we can give 
>to these new members.
>(I envisage we need someone to actually physically acknowledge new members 
>[maybe this can be the person in charge of name tags as well], it would 
>help if this person could remember names! ).
>
>Feedback please! (either here or email me direct).
>
>Thanks,
>
>Tony W. 
>
>
>  
>

-- 
Lindsay Hunter
021 636 926
04.934 1702