Status of the Salem LUG
For the past couple of years, I have been involved in trying to get the Salem Linux Users Group restarted. However, after some time and energy, this quote of an email to a friend pretty much describes it well:
Well, the current status of the LUG is pretty unfortunate. For several months we had some small (2-4) people meetings. They were going fairly well, though they mainly were just the same three people, myself, Bill English, and one other guy. It really was just a social meeting, which is great, but Bill and I can get together with our families, and have a much more enjoyable time. All that being said, we still have a mailing list with about 25 people registered on it. Questions and comments come through from time to time, but it is pretty quiet.
However, with all of that said, if we could get a consistent group of 5 or more people, myself and Bill included, it would give us a reason to have meetings again. Unfortunately it is a “chicken and egg” problem, and one that Bill and I have already put quite a bit of time and energy into. Should we have more people who have genuine linux experience and are willing to have discussions about things other than converting MS Word documents for use in Open Office, I think we could make this group work go.
So, with that in mind, what are your thoughts on the subject?
The problem we are experiencing is nothing that other LUGs haven’t run into. Unfortunately, we are discouraged and haven’t been interested in putting the energy into it for a few months. I still would love to see a LUG is Salem, Or, and I am willing to put energy into it, assuming I can find the right people.
Anyone interested?
July 13th, 2004 at 10:16 am
I am more than willing to help with time, ideas, and energy. But, there does need to be some return on that other than a social time. Like you said, we can get together and have that anywhere, anytime. My time is very limited between work and my side photography business. I think a LUG is worth putting time into, but as of yet we haven’t seen the return that makes it worth the time.
I’m all for it! Let’s generate some interest!
January 29th, 2007 at 9:48 am
The way we started TriLUG was to involve the local Universities. From that base we expanded to the consultants and business folks that use OpenSource as their livelyhoods - and the LUG became a good source for them to generate publicity and gain clients. Fortunately for us, we had a lot of local folks already talking to each other and helping each other out. That was a great basis for a LUG. The organizational meeting had so many folks we couldn’t all fit in the building.
My second bit of advice is: Free food.
Good Luck… and never give up!