TLUG's value to community ???

[William Park]

On Wed, Jul 06, 2005 at 02:37:21PM -0400, G. Matthew Rice wrote:
> mgjk-cpI+UMyWUv9BDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org writes:
> > > What is GTALUG's value to community?  What service do we provide?  What
> > > do "our community" get from us?
> > 
> > TLUG is a users group of hobbysts and professionals.  People show up
> > because they like what the other people showing up are doing.
> > 
> > The community is the service.
> > Right?
> 
> Wrong.  
> 
> William, I believe, is referring to the incorped GTALUG Inc. that has been
> going around and collecting membership fees from people at TLUG and NewTLUG
> and Linux World but have yet to say publicly what the money is for, who is
> running GTALUG (the biz), why they think that they represent TLUG and NewTLUG
> (and now westlug [or phlug??? are they the same]) plus a bunch of other questions.

It started as PHLUG, but it was already taken, so it's WestTLUG for now.

> 
> In fact, I think that IBM has asked them to stop the membership drive at the
> IBM meeting location for NewTLUG until such information comes forth.
> 
> Hope this clarifies the question.  It probably raises many more, though ;)

I didn't know that.  But, the issue is about money (ain't it always).
We should be providing a concrete service to our community.  But, we
don't have any "service" to provide and don't have "community" to
provide the service to.  Having something on these 2 fronts would go
long way.

Here is my thought on services we can provide:

    - group rate on ISP accounts.  Recently, there was flurry of
      activities about getting ISP account.  Perhaps, if we can get
      committment from 50 people (for example), then we could go to
      local ISP for group deal.  Everybody benefits, discount for us and
      more business for the ISP.

    - group rate on computer parts.  Again, everybody has bought
      computer parts in the past.  But, if we can make a deal with local
      store/supplier for group deal, then everybody can benefit.
      Savings for us and more business for the store.

    - Linux courses or tutorials.  I would like to see a relationship
      developed with community colleges and other schools.  We can
      certainly help them put together "Introduction to Linux" course.
      Perhaps, provide instructors for their courses.  Our collective
      expertise is pretty impressive, so we should be able to use it at
      something.

-- 
William Park <opengeometry-FFYn/CNdgSA at public.gmane.org>, Toronto, Canada
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