Re: SVLUG meetings, and lack of

Quoting Sarah Newman ([email protected]):

[Kevin D. running the SVLUG Meetup presence:]

> I reimbursed him for that actually, but never got around to giving him
> a logo to put up on the meetup.

Good on ya!

> I regrettably have not made time to come to meetings regularly. If
> there is interest and speakers I could probably arrange for space at
> hacker dojo.  Alternately, facilitron https://www.facilitron.com/
> rents school facilities for extremely reasonable rates and probably
> everyone chipping in 5 bucks would easily cover costs.

My thanks to you, Robert Freiberger, Mihir Sevaki, and Bob Smith for
various offers and good thoughts.

To explain (in part) my saying 'It'd be nice if someone else steps
forward and declares a venue & day/time, and I'll then add it to the
schedule. [...] If nobody acts, then no more meetings until someone
does', I've always consistently declined to 'run' SVLUG, because I'm
already responsible for a different Bay Area LUG, CABAL, which meets
monthly[1] at my and my wife's house in West Menlo Park.  Also, I suck
at finding speakers or meeting venues, so those specific LUG tasks need
to be handled for SVLUG by others.

Anyway, although I'm just the guy who keeps the Web site content
updated, listadmins Mailman, and does occasional sysadmin duty at the
two SVLUG sites generously hosted by prgmr.com (lists.svlug.org) and
Linode (www.svlug.org), IMO whoever has a good idea for new SVLUG General
Meetings or monthly SVLUG dinners or monthly SVLUG installfests should
just go ahead and declare that it's happening, at a venue the declarer
has checked out, on a day and time the declarer picks.  (Then be there
to follow through, please.)  I'll add any such thing to sVLUG's Web site
as soon as I see a post declaring here that such a thing is happening,
where, and when.

In response to Sarah's and (IIRC) Robert's about unsatisfied need for
local LUG focus on desktop/laptop Linux, I agree.

Recent years' SVLUG topics have skewed towards developer and embedded
topics _probably_ because of Kevin Dankwardt's job focus and
interpersonal networking at Cavium (an embedded Linux firm).  I _think_ 
also there may have been a misperception that SVLUG speakers must be
experts -- which, if so, is really unfortunate.  In my own half-dozen or
so SVLUG talks, I tried to address this with, among other things, a
concluding slide in my presentation deck that always said 'This talk
sucked!  It was put together in n days [usually about 3].  You can do
better.'  I'd really love to see members come and do either short or
long presentations about things they've merely been playing with and 
know only a little about.  That was the norm when I first started
attending meetings in the middle 1990s, and it was terrific.

Anyway, Sarah, if you're looking for people willing to help run an SVLUG
installfest at Hacker Dojo on a Saturday in April, jot me down, for one.

> Incidentally, I'm probably giving a talk at SCALE and it would be nice
> to practice that in advance, like around the end of February. The
> title is "Accidentally Accessible: a Mostly-FOSS Workflow" and I'll be
> giving it along with my employee who is blind. Does anyone want to
> hear that?

And yes to that.


[1] CABAL is also the Bay Area's longest-running installfest, plus
people tend to bring food (and I cook), since it's 4pm to midnight on
2nd Saturdays.  I.e., the event is social and technical.