Re: Rooms at WVU available (a Stallmanite perspective)

I'm sure these issues have been discussed at length in the past, but as a 
newcomer to the organization, I thought I'd add the perspective of someone 
relatively on the outside, for what it's worth.

I think the benefits of a meeting place near or in (and perhaps affiliation 
with) the University can't be overstated.  The success, and youthful 
membership, of LUGs like WPLUG at Carnegie Mellon and the many others on 
university campuses around the country should perhaps be taken as an example.  

If MorLUG is interested in educating the public about the virtues (both 
pragmatic and philosophical) of F/OSS, then it should take better advantage 
of the ready community of young, curious students at the university who 
haven't yet necessarily settled into the Microsoft/Apple paradigm.  Having a 
meetings far away from the campus is inherently counterproductive to this 
end.

Surely, there are numerous professors and students at the university who are 
involved in and interested in GNU/Linux (several of my student friends are, 
for example).  Why they don't attend meetings is probably a combination of 
their not knowing about the MorLUG and an unwillingness/inability to attend a 
meeting of the Morgantown Linux User's Group that actually isn't in 
Morgantown (but rather Granville.)

Community efforts like helping around SRSH are obviously worthwhile, but let's 
not forget that there is inherent social value in simply promulgating and 
advocating for the F/OSS and helping curious newbies to come into the 
fold.  This is what LUGs are best equipped to do, and what they do best.  It 
seems that MorLUG would profit by focusing this aspect of our potential 
contribution to the community, and as I have suggested, improving 
accesability to new/young computer users and students would be highly 
conducive this end.

Just some thoughts to consider.

Ryan