Re: [activities] President's report, 2010-2011

The rooms we'd previously allowed to use gratis were suddenly going to cost
us hundreds of dollars a month.

I wasn't around at the time either, but I believe thus was related to VSU
and the union suddenly needing to find alternate funding
On Apr 7, 2011 11:36 PM, "Samuel Marks" <[email protected]> wrote:
> Perhaps the business focus of SLUG should be changed back to a student
> focus... I wasn't part of SLUG when it was at UTS, so maybe someone can
> enlighten me as to why we moved (not that I don't like Google HQ, just
that
> our President wants more members...)
>
> On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 9:16 PM, James Polley <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> President's Report 2010-2011 by Sridhar Dhanapalan
>>
>> Experimentation and minimalism have been the themes of the 2010-2011
>> period. We
>> started 2010 (prior to the 2010 AGM) by utilising the many rooms
available
>> to
>> us at Google to hold meetings with many streams at once; we ended in
early
>> 2011
>> by having simple brief meetings, with just one speaker followed by
>> socialising
>> in the pub.
>>
>> = Statistics =
>>
>> Prior to the 2011 AGM (ie, for the 2010 year), we had 34 financial
members.
>> This is around the same as a year ago, but represents just over 60% of
our
>> membership in 2009. Importantly, this number of financial members was not
>> sufficient to meet our costs during 2011 financial year - but our
>> treasurer'sreport will cover this in more detail.
>>
>> Mailing lists (lists.slug.org.au) continue to be a major part of SLUG.
>> Compared to figures from the previous two years (in brackets), the
numbers
>> of
>> subscribers have been increasing, although the rate of change has slowed:
>>
>> announce = 452 (402) (332)
>> slug = 787 (778) (732)
>> activities = 221 (210) (200)
>> slug-chat = 231 (227) (218)
>> coders = 190 (172) (155)
>>
>> Also important is the #slug IRC channel on Freenode.
>>
>> = Minimalism =
>>
>> To quote from my email announcing my candidacy for president over a year
>> ago:
>>
>> I do believe there's a place for an organisation very much like SLUG, I
>> just
>> don't think it makes any sense for that organisation to be called the
>> Sydney
>> Linux Users Group; nor do I feel that SLUG, as it currently exists,
>> adequately
>> serves the needs of the people I've just talked about. SLUG is slowly
>> dying a
>> natural death; I want to be President so I can help ease the
>> suffering and pain
>> and ensure that its death is swift, painless, and serves a purpose.
>>
>> Through the year I had discussions with many people in the community,
both
>> en
>> masse at meetings and in private. These discussions revealed a broad
>> consensus across several areas.
>>
>> Many people feel that SLUG could use more meetings - meetings with a more
>> specific focus on more technical areas were mentioned; weekend daytime
>> social
>> events were suggested. However, no-one has yet stepped forward to run any
>> of
>> these meetings...
>>
>>
>> Another common theme was that the name SLUG should be retained.
>>
>> In discussing the differences between SLUG and other similar bodies such
as
>> Linux Australia, there was consensus that SLUG's main differentiator was
>> it's
>> focus on the local - it's a forum for people to meet local people with
>> similar
>> interests, for people looking for local jobs, and so on.
>>
>> Lastly, there was general agreement that the fact that our membership
>> numbers
>> aren't high enough to pay cover our expenses was a concern.
>>
>> To address all of these concerns, several motions were passed at the EGM
>> held
>> immediately prior to the AGM. The committee will be approaching Linux
>> Australia
>> and asking them to take over the running of the regular Sydney meetings,
>> and
>> then winding up and leaving the Sydney FOSS community in the hands of
Linux
>> Australia.
>>
>> = Conclusion =
>>
>> As one of the oldest Linux user groups in the world, the SLUG community
has
>> shown a remarkable degree of persistence and adaptability. Hopefully the
>> work
>> we've done over the last 12 months (and are doing over the next 12
months)
>> will
>> help the community to grow in size and strength.
>> --
>> SLUG Activities
>> Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Samuel Marks
>
> Degree: Bachelor of Information Technology
> Emphasis: Majoring in Software Technology

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