Re: Meetings and all things morlug.

First i'd like to start by thanking those that did make useful  
suggestions to the list in the last few weeks. It was good seeing the  
list alive again for a couple days.

<rant>

Several weeks ago I sent the below-quoted email to the Morlug mailing  
list. I asked for several things:

1) Some discussion about who will and how to advertise each and every  
meeting
2) Some discussion on how to decide the topic for the meeting from  
the available pool of topics. This includes reserving equipment and  
talking to the speakers to make sure they are available.
3) Discussion about the installfest. The new date since the last one  
slipped us by and making sure we were ready for it.

I haven't seen this on the list, so for sake of my blood pressure I  
will assume that it is going on OFF the list and I will hear about  
the results of the discussion shortly ... Especially since it is time  
to start thinking about the next meeting (which is next week) and get  
some advertising together for it.

Also, Saturday November 4th we have a LAN party on our calendar. Is  
the room we discussed reserved and ready? Advertising underway for  
that? I haven't seen any mention of it, other than it appearing in  
the minutes from the august meeting.

I'm sorry if I sound like I'm being a hard ass, but this is a  
community driven group that happens to be an official WVU student  
group for which I am the faculty advisor. This is NOT Mike driven  
group. I'm here to advise, not to lead. I will perform tasks that I  
am asked to do, but I will not delegate those tasks to myself or  
others. We have student officers to lead the group forward, If they  
are not doing their jobs the group needs someone else to step forward  
that will (preferably a student that can then be elected into an  
officer position). If this doesn't happen MorLUG will once again go  
silent, which i would rather not see happen.

</rant>

I am available by appointment/email/IM/Phone call if you'd like to  
discuss anything with me privately to help to group move forward. In  
case my information isn't already available enough:

Cell: 304-282-0640, If i don't answer leave a message. I'll call  you  
back
email: [email protected], my spam filters are aggressive if you  
have a wvu email address use that it won't be blocked
IM: [email protected] OR [email protected] or mbond@the- 
forgotten.org (msn)
IRC: freenode.net in #MorLUG as mbond, frequently idling

Mike.
[email protected]




On Sep 27, 2006, at 8:46 PM, Michael Bond wrote:

>
> This is going to be a bit of a rant, but an important one.
>
> This is both a WVU student group and a community group. We rely on  
> everyone to do their part, to help, to plan and to share their  
> knowledge. This evening is a good example of how this all broke  
> down. Only myself and one other person showed up for the meeting  
> this evening.
>
> As advisor to the group I have been extremely lax/passive/informal  
> about how things get done. That's just how I am, I believe that if  
> you have a group on intelligent people who can ask the right  
> questions little needs to be done by an advisor or supervisor.
>
> This, sadly, doesn't seem to be the case with MorLUG for whatever  
> reason. As such, we will have to become more formal.
>
> First, next wednesday was supposed to be an installfest. I haven't  
> even seen if we actually have the room reserved or not. I also  
> haven't seen any advertising. I suggest we postpone it to a later  
> date.
>
> Next, we need members. We have 2 regular student attendees. We need  
> 3 officers to be elected in January, that means we need more  
> student members attending meetings so that we can vote.
>
> I hate saying this but it needs done, If we do not have enough  
> students to hold an election in january I will be stepping down as  
> advisor for the following school year. Finding new blood is the  
> students of the groups job via word of mouth and advertising. Use  
> facebook to your advantage. Hang fliers, etc.
>
> The meetings need to be announced to the mailing list with an  
> agenda. I've been doing this, but again, i'm not here to run this  
> group. I'm here to advise, and I advise you to select someone to  
> announce meetings and agendas several days before hand.
>
> We have a list of topics in the last meeting minutes. Talk to the  
> people, find out when they can do it and schedule it. I will add a  
> topic to the list now: "Using IPTables to secure a linux box" ...  
> its the one i worked on this evening.
>
> If another meeting is cancelled because of complete lack of  
> planning i will be very upset. I want to see discussion on the list  
> and a decision about who will be posting announcements and agendas  
> within the next 2 weeks. I also want to know what the plans will be  
> to advertise each and every meeting, and our up coming special events.
>
> Mike.
> [email protected]
>
>
>
>
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