Getting new members and such

[Bill Mudry]

At 10:36 PM 11/8/04 -0500, you wrote:
> > On Mon, 08 Nov 2004 10:13:30 -0500, Bill Mudry <billmudry-MwcKTmeKVNQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> >> Those who already really know their stuff well rarely need the help
> >> of others and therefore do not have any dependencies for attending
> >> meetings ---- unless it is for the social interaction and a night
> >> out. If you want to grow the Linux crowd, you have to help people who
> >> have heard about it by offering workshops.
>
> > Perhaps this component can be added to TLUG/NewTLUG... a more "social"
> > aspect.  Have people get to know other people, what they do, what
> > they've done with Linux,and what their future projects may be.
>
>Some portion of the "social" aspect is already there vis-a-vis TLUG, in
>the form of the various gatherings before and after meetings.
>
>One of the serious challenges is that large groups are not directly
>amenable to, oh, call it 'meaningful social interactions.'  Having a big
>crowd doesn't mean that people actually interact.

Some of these problems could be eliminated or at least reduced by
forming small groups after the main presentation in which each group
handles specific, broad topic areas (SIG's). That allows everyone to
interact in a more manageable, interactive way and they can choose
the group that is of interest to them.

>On occasion, when feeling particularly mercurial, I have "played the
>game" of walking through crowds consisting of plenty of people I knew,
>and, by carefully avoiding eye contact, have affected virtual
>invisibility.
>
>It's pretty easy for people _not_ to interact, and, to my mind, a group
>of more than about 10 is unlikely to be particularly condusive to such.
>
> > Perhaps divide the time in half; the first half have a
> > lecture/workshop on a particular topic, and then in the second half,
> > open the floor up to people, to ask a question, talk about something
> > cool they found, or are doing, etc.  It may also be a good idea to
> > moderate this part; perhaps have the questions submitted beforehand,
> > and keep the discussion to a set time (say 15 minutes), after which
> > the next question/topic is introduced.
>
>There's considerable merit to keeping topics relatively short, as
>attention spans can flag.  William Park's talk on Bash extensions was
>pretty characteristic of that; he had some good material, but while I
>found it quite interesting, my attention was flagging well before 9pm.
>It was just too much to absorb.

Where possible, why not try to publish a summary (or even more if
available) on topics on a section of the TLUG/newTLUG pages. Eventually,
enough would be added that once in a while a person could be referred
to an article. This way, you would be able to catch up on what you would
not remember at a presentation.

>And he didn't even touch on the extensions (e.g. - XML and SQL
>handlers).
>
> > I realize that many people are inherently shy, or may not want to ask
> > questions out loud in front of everyone else.  But this kind of
> > community giving/receiving I think is the reason we all attend
> > TLUG/NewTLUG at all; to learn a bit, and to share a bit.
> >
> >> Once a person knows a subject well, it can seem easy to that person
> >> even if it is very involved and they can lose sight of what it is
> >> like for new Linux users or potential ones. If a person starts with
> >> enthusiasm only to see that they get stuck, not able to get basic
> >> things running, that enthusiasm will die out quite quickly. That is
> >> where workshop sessions on a regular basis means gold to beginners
> >> --- me included.
> >
> > Absolutely.  Often times it's just something small; like a particular
> > command or changing an option in a config file; finding it can be a
> > very frustrating experience.  I get questions all the time; "How do
> > you get this to work?" and often times, it's something I've read, or
> > searched on, or even fought through myself, and I can answer it off
> > the top of my head, or refer to a web site or something.  Every little
> > bit helps.
>
>Unfortunately, this is the sort of thing that all too easily devolves
>into a "grand scale" heckling session :-(.
>If someone comes in with a tasty question about Exim configuration, it's
>sure to fall into either grousing about how awful it is to embed Turing
>Machines in sendmail.cf, or some sort of flame war over whether to use
>qmail or Postfix instead.

That is where a moderator for each group could control that. Some mild
cajoling is ok but there should be an understanding that people should
not allow themselves to get really hot or obnoxious to the detriment of
the rest of the group.

>And frankly, I'd personally rather hear about those other peripheral
>things, as I haven't too much call for Exim...  ;-)

Having access to even one person to help on a subject can be most
helpful, too. New users are likely to have a lot of questions they hope
to find answers for that to an experienced person seems elementarily
simple.

For now,
Bill Mudry


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