[Tfug] A BLUG for UA could have important logistical advantages, increasing Tucson's total membership in free UNIX users groups.

[Chris Niswander]

At 11:34 AM 7/17/2004 -0700, you wrote:
At 11:34 AM 7/17/2004 -0700, Christopher P. Robbins wrote:
[....]
>Would it be worthwhile to start a LUG for the UA?
>Does TFUG cover most of the Linux users in town (UA students included)?
>Is there room in Tucson for more than one LUG?
>Are there any reasons why I should/should not start up this LUG?

In Rick Moen's article ( http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Linux_PR/newlug.html )
he strongly recommends that meetings have a regular, easy to understand
time and place, that is rarely if ever canceled.  Otherwise, fewer people
become 
regular attendees, and the club evntually languishes.  The {$X}th Thursday
of the 
month *every month*, for example, is an easy, good date to keep track of;
it can be found with a glance at a calendar.
Every other Thursday *except when it isn't*, for example, is harder.

TFUG sometimes has great difficulty attaining regularity
partly because it has been using meeting spaces access to which
is limited and temporary.  For any given meeting location
(St. Gregory's or wherever) TFUG has been entirely reliant on
one sometimes very busy person who has access to that location.
If that person is out of town, out sick, or insanely busy, TFUG's
regularity suffers.

An officially recognized University of Arizona club can
obtain effectively free (paid for through UA funding)
meeting space, which can be reserved by *any appropriate official
of the club*.  The club can reserve as much as an entire semester's
worth of meeting place/times in advance.  Club meeting space
can even be obtained in the summer.

As long as the required minimum number of club officials are
UA students / faculty / staff, the club is permitted to invite as many 
people from outside the UA as it likes, if the club thinks that this
is somehow helpful to the club's goals.  I have certainly seen
this sort of thing done in practice.

The downside is that a few reasonably responsible UA students/faculty/staff
have to be willing to file some paperwork with the UA and volunteer as club
officials.  *There must be multiple officials*, so that if one person is sick,
out of town, insanely busy, having a brain-fart and/or working as a Microsoft
intern, club activities will proceed on schedule anyway.

It may be practical to co-schedule meetings with Harry at the USGS building,
but at least find out whether, if/when the USGS building isn't available,
the UA club will be able to reserve a relatively close meeting location,
and put up signs where the meeting *isn't*, directing people to where the
meeting *is*.
With cooperation between Harry and an official UA club, a very high degree
of regularity could be obtained.

Mind you, this doesn't mean that no additional TFUG events should ever
happen in different places and times.  The more the merrier, I'm sure.
But ya gotta walk before you can run.

Well, there's my inflated two cents.  Tommorrow I will probably
know why I am all wrong.

Chris