[NTLUG:Discuss] Do LUGs Still Matter?

[Stan Gatchel]

Leroy,

Thanks for your suggestions. I was wondering if we could have some 
regular program for newbies and if we did that, would anybody show up?

Long ago (yikes! 3 years ago this April) we held a 1 day seminar at the 
Grand Prairie High School called "Linux in Education, Spring 
Conference." It was all organized by a wonderful teacher there named 
Marilyn Hagle, who, on her own, put Knoppix on all the workstations in 
her class. She became a Linux enthusiast and decided to hold this 
conference in 2002. She obtained approval from the school posted for 
help on some sites. That's where I learned of the conference and wrote 
to her. Several of the LUG members helped (Dennis? Tom?). We only had 
about 20 people attend, but some came as far away as Austin and some 
were from Dallas. It was completely focused on elementary education. 
Some students even gave demos. The people who attended really 
appreciated it. 

Marilyn still has the link up:  http://www.hagle.com/index.html (click 
on the speakers and links to see the agenda)

The conference assumed no previous knowledge of Linux (or even computers 
for that matter). Through a series of presentations, we stepped people 
through the basic ideas in simple terms.  All the presentations were 
developed in OO.o 1.0. The presentations given that day have been sent 
everywhere. In fact, Marilyn still sends these presentations to people.

One of the attendees, Gil Brand, who lead the NTPCUG Linux SIG every 
month at North Lake College, asked me to present some of these segments 
at their meetings, which I did. I don't think many newbies were there 
but they listened (with my luck, they were probably all sys admins ;-)

There seems to be a lot of interest in Linux but most people barely 
understand what they use now. When you throw Linux at them it can be 
overwhelming, so they stay with what they know. Would these people show 
up at the meetings if we held a regular newbie sessions (maybe separate 
from the main session?)

Thanks,

Stan

>
> Stan,
>
> A suggestion for you.  If you feel that there isn't enough activities 
> for newbies then do this: During the month, write down a list of 
> questions that come up and bring them to the meeting (my further 
> recommendations are that you do so as they arise so you don't forget 
> and that you print them on paper with enough room between each to 
> write down an answer).  There's usually someone at the 9am Linux 
> Installation Project who can answer them (no, it's not the primary 
> purpose for the time but if someone has answers and you have questions 
> and don't interrupt the installation process then who cares).  You can 
> also use the time between meetings and after the main meeting to ask 
> questions. Finally, tell us what's lacking.  Chris has indicated that 
> he is looking for new ideas and I believe that most of us are willing 
> to help.
>
>
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