Re: Is this LUG Still Active -- Confusion

I hadn't seen your response, because I had the 'digest mode' turned on.
(I've turned this off now.)

I only saw Ron Petty's reply, because he sent it directly to me AND posted
to the list.
(I tend to do the same with newsgroups)

You pointed out that 'luni' is the main mailing list.  I will subscribe to
it now.

I had subscribed to luni-d because the lists were described on the webpage
like this:

* luni-announce is used for announcements only
* luni is used for techincal discussion and announcements
* luni-d is used for general (non-techincal) discussion

I didn't want my inbox filled with emails about how to get a particular
video card
working with X, so I avoided the luni list because it was described as
'technical discussion'.
Instead I joined the list described as 'general (non-technical)
discussion'. I didn't see the
description 'Off-Topic' associated with any of the lists.

>What is wrong with LUNI.  It is true that we did not have any meetings in
downtown area
>recently, I have no problem with you starting to have them.

Great.  Can you give me any pointers on how to go about organizing
meetings or who
I should talk to for guidance?  Perhaps you could give me a clearer
description of what
LUNI is and does in relation to the other LUGs.

>There are at leat 4-5 active groups in the area already, most have very
good
>relationship with LUNI, like having the same mailing list.

Are there any active groups in the city proper?

>Please see the mailing list archives for LUNI-announce and LUNI on the
>luni.org web site.

I'll check these out.

>We do have monthly meetings, however they are currently at the College of

>DuPage in Glen Ellyn, IL along with InstallFest, usually last Sunday of
the
>month from 10 am to 3 pm.

My main reason for wanting to have a LUG that meets in the city is that I
live
downtown (printers row) and work downtown.  Deeded parking spaces are
$27,000- $30,000 and monthly rentals are around $200 per month, so I sold
my car about five years ago.  There are a lot of other professionals and
students
living downtown that don't have cars or don't want to drive an hour each
way.

I started searching the net for LUGs in the city and came across the UIC
and DePaul
LUG's listed on your site, but was frustrated that I couldn't seem to find
out ANYTHING
about either of them:

-where and when do they meet?
-who organizes the meetings?
-how do I get involved?

I followed the link on your site that said 'ChicagoLand LUG
(Downtown/UIC)' and it
took me to http://clug.chicago.il.us/ which says " use the new LUNI page
instead of this one".

Neither page answers these three questions with any completeness.

I tried in vain to find any info about getting together with anyone in the
city on your
website, so I finally decided to try subscribing to your non-technical
general discussion
group  and find out if there were any active LUGs in the downtown chicago
area.

>There is no way you are going to get a member list at this point, you may

>post to LUNI mailing list however if you wish to start a new list people
>can subscribe there.

>I would strongly recommend against that, LUNI mailing list has over 450
>people on it, and is the mailing list for *multiple* area LUGs.

OK, now I now what is not recommended. What IS recommended?

>Downtown meetings usually had about a dozen people, unless we had
something
>specifically interesting (say Randal Swartz, which drew at least 100).

Who organized these meetings and how can I contact them about either
helping
them organize future meetings or having the baton passed to me so that I
can
organize future meetings?

>> My image for the group would be an organization that met once a month
with

>Peachy..

Perhaps you can give a better description as to how such a meeting should
be
organized.

>There are a number of groups that use the LUNI mailing list, the mailing
>list itself is ran by me, I used to organize CLUG/LUNI meetings downtown
in
>the UIC area with others' help.
>
>/Seva

It looks as though you might, then, be the person that I was looking for.
Based on
the rather clear description you now have of my goal of either attending
or helping
to organize/revitalize the CLUG at UIC or DePaul or any other downtown
location,
what suggestions do you have?

<constructive criticism>
Perhaps www.luni.org should contain have a section or a link to a page
that describes
* How to get involved*

Perhaps you should remove the link to http://clug.chicago.il.us since it
doesn't appear to be
active and the information on it is stale and misleading/frustrating.
Alternatively, we could
update information on this page and make it a useful source of information
about how to
get involved in the downtown chicago area.

Perhaps the following description for the lists should be used instead of
the
current ones:
luni-announce is used for announcements only
luni is the main list used for on-topic and techincal discussion
luni-d is used for general (off-topic) discussion
</constructive criticism>


Thanks,

-Kendall