Introduction / Offer for help

[nbs]

On Mon, May 20, 2002 at 09:25:02AM -0700, Eric Eisenhart wrote:
<snip>
> 
> So, can you help us be more organized?

I'm not sure I can.  LUGOD is lucky in that we have a number of very
strong core members (like myself, and founder / current pres. Pete Salzman),
and a good number of dedicated, if forgetful, project-managing members.

For example, our Installfests happen once a month, on the 3rd Sunday, and
none of the officers even needs to THINK about it anymore, thanks to
our appointed IF coordinator, Rusty Minden (who volunteered, of course :^) )


Demos happen more-or-less monthly, thanks to our demo coordinator,
who's also now treasurer (previously vice-pres) and has been librarian
since I ran out of time (while I was pres & vice-pres).


So, I guess, try to find recruits! :)



> Can you help us find speakers?

Probably.  This summer we have a pretty cool line-up, including
the folks from ELC and LinuxDevices.com tonight, Hans Reiser,
Rasmus Lerdorf (PHP), Jon 'maddog' Hall, and Bart Decrem (Hancom).


Lately, people have been saying "WOW!  How did you get these guys!?"
My only answer is:  "I e-mailed them"


Of course, having a good line-up has helped; it kind of snowballs.
(One fellow who's planning to come talk (date to-be-determined) from TiVo
said he was especially interested, simply because we have such a cool
set of people coming, and he wants to be part of it. :) )


I like to keep a list of pending speakers.  It's actually online:

  http://www.lugod.org/meeting/tba/


I just go back and bug them now and then and say "Hey, we still want you
to come talk - think you can come on [list of dates] ???"

Sometimes, people never end up coming.  For example, a fellow from
Jim Henson's Creature Shop (they use Linux!) was going to come, but he's
left the company.  Someone from Glyphic Tech. e-mailed me the other day
saying he just can't come any more.  It happens.

The worst, though, of course, is when you get a guest speaker all scheduled,
and they just don't show up, or have an emergency, or something.
Fortunately, that's only happened once.  It wasn't dreadful, though, since
it wasn't like we were promising Linus Torvalds, and had 200 people
throwing tomatoes ;)


Anyway...  I can probably help find speakers for you guys.  I'm sure
people in the Bay Area would be more willing to drive up to Sonoam County
than to practically-Sacramento, too. ;)


In the meantime, just do what I do...  pick a target and ask. :)
No idea who to bug?  Browse Linux Journals and other magazines.
(I read an article in Embedded Linux Journal, noticed the author was
from a company in Berkeley, e-mailed them, and they came up to talk a
month later! :^) )


-bill!
(sorry if I'm rambling :) )