Women and TLUG - a personal rant

[John Moniz]

On 01/15/2014 09:31 PM, James Knott wrote:
> William Park wrote:
>> Come on, guys.  This bitching about TLUG meeting is strange to me and
>> counter productive as group.  People come to the meeting because they
>> want to learning something, and people don't come to the meeting because
>> they have nothing to learn.  Heckling and harassment are side issues.
>> -
> I find it very annoying when the heckling interrupts the presentation,
> sometimes to the point where the presenter is sidetracked to the point
> that the presentation is a waste of my time.  I have to come in from
> Mississauga and I want to hear the presentation, not someone's interrupting.
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
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>
>
Speaking up at times of disruptions really works. Some speakers have the 
skill to handle such disruptions (heckling is not really the right word, 
I don't think), but most do not and should not have to possess that skill.

At the old NewTLUG meetings (which I attended frequently right from the 
very first one to the time they ended) some of the same disturbers from 
the TLUG meetings were also there for a time, causing many, many 
interruptions. It became a waste of a trip and time spent at the 
meeting. Someone spoke up (name is not important) and basically told the 
clique, who liked to sit together as a group, that we were here to 
listen to THAT presenter and if they wished to provide their own input 
to the subject, we would likely attend their presentation as well.

The interruptions stopped, not only for the rest of the current 
presentation, but also for most future presentations. NewTLUG meetings 
became a pleasure to attend. An unwanted side effect was that the 
hecklers stopped coming to the meetings. They were welcome there, but 
better they leave than me - that was my thought anyway. They were 
clearly there for the wrong reasons.

Speaking up works very well!

John.
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists