[kwlug-disc] I miss KWLUG so badly!

Wed Nov 22 10:33:53 EST 2017

Ubuntu had, up until a year or two ago, a very active Ubuntu community.

They were, however, focused on marketing and social stuff more than tech.
And I think it was mostly run by one guy.

The meetup group is still around, tho. It might be a useful place to gather
some additional folks for a revived VanLUG...

https://www.meetup.com/ubuntuvancouver/

Darcy.

On Wed, Nov 22, 2017 at 10:03 AM, Paul Nijjar via kwlug-disc <
kwlug-disc at kwlug.org> wrote:

>
> We miss you too! I do, anyways.
>
> It sounds to me as if VanLUG is in trouble, but not critically so. Do
> you have any inclination/energy to help revive it? You could be the
> VanLUG that you want to see in the world.
>
> KWLUG went through a similar process where things were still happening
> but the organizers were losing enthusiasm, and then an energetic young
> man by the name of Richard Weait came in and revitalized the place
> with his energy. That kept KWLUG going for at least a decade longer
> than it would otherwise have, even though Richard has since moved on.
>
> Here are some easy wins, based upon looking at the website and what
> you have told us:
>
> - You could work with the website maintainer and make some small
>   fixes. The front page could show upcoming meetings rather than the
>   wall of text that is there now.  You could figure out what the
>   proper meeting day is and then make sure the website reflects that
>   information. You could set up some contact mechanisms that work,
>   even if they are just ineffectively obfuscated email addresses
>   ("Contact us at vanlug at gmail dot com") and not real webforms.
>
> - You have done all kinds of interesting things, and you gave a talk
>   with Bob Jonkman on some of them. You could revive that talk or
>   offer to give a different one, the same way you were planning on
>   speaking with KWLUG.
>
> - There is a watcamp-style listing of tech events for Vancouver at
>   http://startupnorth.ca/events/vancouver-events/ . I see that the
>   last VanLUG meeting was not on that. It might be possible to get
>   future VanLUG meetings there (or maybe you can use that calendar to
>   find a less dysfunctional community).
>
> - After putting your money where your mouth is by giving a talk, you
>   could get some of the members to commit to giving talks in future
>   months, thus ensuring that there are regular meetings happening. One
>   of the reasons KWLUG still exists is because we do not take months
>   off. As soon as you start skipping meetings you are in trouble.
>
> There are some things that are less easy wins. Losing a mailing list
> is traumatic; if we lost kwlug-announce and its subscription base then
> KWLUG would likely be hosed. Dealing with membership fees and the
> restrictions of a nonprofit structure is a hassle, which is why I have
> resisted it (and probably hurt KWLUG in the process).
>
> The existing website is not fantastic but it is functional enough.
> People want to integrate all kinds of functionality into their
> websites, but I have come to believe that splitting this
> functionality can be a good idea. kwlug.org is now mostly an
> announcement site. If we had to deal with memberships and fees and
> such, then my preferred solution would be for the treasurer to have a
> spreadsheet or a GnuCash setup or something rather than trying to
> integrate some e-commerce solution into the main website. But these
> things are out of your hands as a newbie.
>
> What you do have to offer is a set of fresh eyes and (potentially)
> some energy. Both of these things are invaluable to keeping user
> groups alive.
>
> You may well get resistance to change from the old guard. That's okay.
> Sunny persistence goes a long way. Once people start trusting you and
> believing that you are in this for the long haul (or the medium haul)
> they will trust you more.
>
> Of course, if VanLUG is not worth your time or energy then you should
> not feel obligated to revive it. But it seems that the opportunity is
> there if you want to take it on.
>
> - Paul
>
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 07:48:27PM -0800, Ronald Barnes wrote:
> >
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > I just had to say how much I'm missing KWLUG.
> >
> > The organizational skills by Paul, Andrew, and everyone are sorely
> missed in
> > Vancouver.
> >
> >
> > /begin rant
> >
> > Since arriving back in Vancouver in July, there has been *one*
> presentation
> > at VanLUG - a display of BSD file system hierarchy.
> >
> > On average, 3-4 regulars attend and a couple stragglers.  There are
> *nine*
> > Board of Director members though.
> >
> >
> >
> > The web site states:
> >
> > >As a registered non-profit society in British Columbia, VanLUG is
> > >governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. Without its executive,
> > >the VanLUG community would be quite disfunctional [sic].
> >
> > Yet the president admitted on the recently restarted mailing list:
> >
> > >Although we've been working on our website for *years*, we have yet to
> > >get the back-end to function properly. We can't input data manually,
> > >we can't get proper reports out, we can't transfer funds into our
> > >bank account. MySQL currently tells us that VanLUG has three
> > >members.
> >
> > It's unfathomable that a LUG would spend "years" on a simple web site and
> > still be non-functioning.
> >
> >
> > They want $20 per year for membership.
> >
> >
> > * Their web site listed monthly meetings on the 2nd monday of each month,
> > and on another page, on the 3rd monday of each month.
> > * The mailing list was out-sourced and they lost all data.
> > * Their Twitter account wasn't even registered.
> > * The "Contact Us at the form below" ... didn't actually have a form to
> > contact them at.
> > * etc ad nauseam
> >
> > /end rant
> >
> > Gawd, I miss KWLUG!
> >
> >
> > r b
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > kwlug-disc at kwlug.org
> > http://kwlug.org/mailman/listinfo/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org
>
> --
> http://pnijjar.freeshell.org
>
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