organizational meeting minutes

[Eric Zundel Ayers]

15 December 1994

Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts (ALE) Organizational Meeting

7:00 PM  Georgia Tech College of Computing room 101

Minutes taken by Eric Z. Ayers (zundel at cc.gatech.edu)



Meeting Time and Place
----------------------
A Meeting time of 7:00 PM on the 2nd Thursday of each month was decided upon.
We consulted Computer Currents to try and avoid conflicts with other user's
groups.  For now, the Georiga Tech College of Computing was decided to be the
meeting place.  Greg Hankins and Eric Ayers will reserve the room for future
meetings. 


Mailing Lists
-------------
A new mailing list, 'ale-admin at cc.gatech.edu' was created to help coordinate
orgainizational activities.  Send mail to 'majordomo at cc.gatech.edu' with the
line 'subscribe ale-admin <your e-mail address>' in the body of the message to
subscribe.  Greg Hankins is maintaining these mailing lists
(gregh at cc.gatech.edu) and the ftp.cc.gatech.edu ftp site which contains a
mirror of sunsite and other Linux archives.


Publicity
-----------
Jeff Hoepfinger (jeff at cc.gatech.edu) volunteered to be in charge of
coordinating advertising for the group.  This would include posting messages to
USENET newsgroups (atl.general, git.unix.linux, ga.general, maybe
comp.os.linux.announce for the first meeting), contacting Atlanta Computer
Currents to be listed in the User's Group section, spreading the word on BBS's
(OASYS?) and local Computer Stores.  Mike Warfield (mwh at wittsend.atl.ga.us)
volunteered to help announce ALE meetings at the Atlanta Unix User's Group
(AUUG) and help be an unofficial liason between the two groups.  The idea of
writing an article for Atlanta Computer Currents was discussed as well.


Group Organization
------------------
Mike Warfield told the group about the organization of the AUUG.  The
philosophy of Lindsey Cleveland (the meeting MC and general point of contact
for AUUG) is KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid.)  AUUG has no dues, committees, or
elected officials.  They meet once a month (first monday) and pretty much stick
to the same format.  They start with a 'guru' session at a local pizza joint about 30minutes before the main meeting.  The main meeting is held on the Emory
University campus.  The meeting starts with a general welcome, an introduction
of new attendees (info sheets are handed out), an announcements time, a
'switchboard' session where people who need help with some technical question
are paired up with people who can help them (to meet after the main speaker),
a main speaker who may speak from maybe 45 mins up to 2 hours or more, and
finally the official meeting is over and people break up into groups for
general chit chat.

Some members of the mailing list expressed concern over the apparent
'cliquishness' of many users' groups.  Recognizing the nature of Linux being a
new operating system, we should expect many new people at meetings.  We decided
to make welcoming new members a part of every meeting.  Vernard Martin
(vernard at cc.gatech.edu) offered to hold a 'newbie session' after each meeting.
At the meeting we discussed the need for a Lindsey Cleveland type, (but decided
that probably such a person could not be appointed.)


Sponsorship
-----------
Mike Warfield described how AUUG uses money provided by corporate sponsors.
Donations basically covered the costs of mailings.  Speakers are not paid a
fee, and group memebers are not charged dues.  Mike speculated that over 2/3
(?) of the membership of AUUG did not have e-mail access.  Several people
present expressed interest in making contact with corporate users of Linux.
Although not representing DEC, Mark Walters (walters at alf.dec.com) who works for
Digital Equipment Corporation was present and said he was monitoring the
progress of Linux for the Alpha chip and was interested in running Linux at
home.  Someone (I forgot who) mentioned the possibility of approaching a local
bookstore (Oxford books) for sponsorship.  Maybe in exchange for announcing the
bookstore's name at the beginning of the meeting, the store would offer a
discount on computer books for members?


Logo
----
Anyone want to do a logo?  A suggestion of the atlanta skyline being
incorporated into a logo came up.


Meeting Format
--------------
A general format for the montly meetings was proposed:

   General Welcome
   Short Introduction of New Attendees 
   General Announcements from the Floor
   A 'Switchboard' session where people with problems ask for solutions and
     are paired up with someone who can help for discussion after the meeting.
   A 'State of the Kernel Address' by Greg Hankins
   Introduction of some newly emerging software (***no person designated)
   Main Speaker(s)
   Humorous Interjection (Flame of the Week?)  (***no person designated)
   Tip of the Month (***no person designated)
   General Adjournment 
  
     Newbie Session hosted by Vernard Martin
     General chit-chat...

Anywhere you see a (***no person designated) feel free to volunteer!  No
experience necessary, although a sense of humor is reccommended for at least
some of the slots.

As a general rule, meeting topics would alternate between topics for less
experienced users and more experienced users every other month.  


Meeting Topics
--------------

We decided on the first two meeting topics.  The first meeting topic would be
an introduction to the ALE group and to Linux in general.  It be a
tag team effort between several people.  

The second meeting topic will be given by Mike Warfield and will be about
installing and using dosemu under Linux.  

Meeting Topics will not necessarily pertain to only LINUX systems
Other topics suggested included:
   Installing Linux from a distribution
   Installing the X Window System
   Commercial Aps under Linux
   iBCS, ELF, and other object file formats
   Network Connectivity
   Installing and using WWW services under Linux (Mosaic, lynx...)
   SQL Databases under Linux
   Using 'term'
   Serial Port configuration
   *Your Favorite Topic here*

It would be nice to have speakers lined up two months in advance.  It would
also be nice if someone could prepare a 'backup' topic to give in case a
speaker has to cancel at the last minute!  We need a real 'minuteperson' here. 

A sheet was passed around to sign up for areas of interest. I'll post that
next! 

Please forward any corrections to me (zundel at cc.gatech.edu)  We'll put the
meeting minutes on ftp and WWW.  Anyone want to volunteer to keep minutes
regularly?  I don't mind doing it for a while, but I do plan to do part of the
presentation at the next meeting.

-Eric.