Re: Post-meeting places to eat and talk

Quoting Derek Konigsberg ([email protected]):

> I'm not entirely sure anything actually materialized after the meeting
> last night.

Just a general (and very much not aimed at you) comment:  If nothing
happened, it's because members didn't step up to the plate.

I'm the guy who sent out the meeting announcement, researched a bunch of
post-meeting eatery options, and recommended two in particular (Round
Table Pizza and then La Victoria Taqueria) as seemingly pretty suitable
and upon late enough.  _But_ I was unable to attend, so it was up to the
members present to run with it.  Seems like nobody did.

Kevin Dankwardt set up the meeting and provided the new venue.  He says 
(http://lists.svlug.org/archives/volunteers/2017q1/004877.html) he was
there and it went well enough.  But I wouldn't expect Kevin to do
everything, just as I got a little tired over the years of people
expecting me to do everything.

Probably a bunch of you present knew the drill:  There ought to be a few
welcoming remarks, maybe a call for anyone who has a
_brief_-and-we-mean-brief announcement to come up and speak, a concise
reminder that anyone interested in dinner at the end should hang around,
and then introduce the speaker.

Oh, and, before that, someone ought to say 'Welcome, Meetup.com users.
Just a reminder:  This is Silicon Valley Linux User Group, and our Web
server is at www.svlug.org.  Please be welcome and keep coming to our
monthly meetins, every 1st Wednesday, right here.'

At the end of the talk, someone should thank the speaker, remind the
audience that this is Silicon Valley User Group with some help and
participation from our good friends at the Silicon Valley Linux
Technology Meetup (Kevin's main Meetup), and ask for a show of hands
about how many are coming to dinner.

Since we're in a new location, it would have been necessary for someone
to just bloody well _decide_ among the options I listed or whatever
others, say it'll be (say) Denny's, or Round Table, or La Victoria.
Get an approximate head count, announce where it is, suggest anyone
confused follow someone else's car.

Pick up any mess, politely remind people that, as the saying goes, 'You
don't need to go home but you can't stay here', make sure the door locks
behind us, reconvene at the restaurant.

I'm betting a whole bunch of attendees knew that general routine, and
could have faked it nicely -- but I gather nobody did that.  Too bad.
Maybe people can try to do better in the future.  Or not.



> The meeting itself seemed to gather a combination of several
> different groups, with SVLUG not appearing to be the dominant one.

So, here's the thing:  Kevin runs Silicon Valley Linux
Technology Meetup and uses it to (among other things) promote SVLUG, so
he tells its members about our events.  He also now runs a Meetup that
another member originally created, called 'Silicon Valley Linux User
Group' whose purpose is to be outreach from SVLUG to users of
Meetup.com's online service.  Kevin kindly updates that
Meetup.com-specific page based on what we schedule and display on the
(canonical) www.svlug.org pages.

Kevin's a terrific help and a mainstay of this group.  _However_,
there's a thing about the Meetup.com culture:  Your typical Meetup.com 
denizen acts like nothing outside Meetup.com is very real.  

So, my guess is you encountered a bunch of people saying and believing
they were at a 'meetup'.  Maybe some thought they were at the Silcion
Valley Linux Technology Meetup, Maybe others thought they were at the
Silicon Valley Linux User Group Meetup.  Maybe still others knew it was
a Meetup of some kind, but they are unclear about which one; they only
know they saw it listed on Meetup.com and decided to check it out.

We're delighted they find us.  We hope they'll keep coming.  You should,
IMO, too.


> Hopefully next time, assuming its an SVLUG-only meeting, it'll be easier
> for us to organize something.

'Us' starts with everyone present.  ;->