On Fri, Feb 21, 2020 at 10:00 AM Ken D'Ambrosio <k...@jots.org> wrote: > Hey, all. I'm deeply, deeply sorry I missed the fun. Tow truck finally > got me to Amherst around 7:00, and I still had to walk home from the > shop. But enough about me: I'm curious how things went! Was a good > time had by all?
Everyone was so devastated by your inability to attend, they all left after learning of the news. > Should we consider getting together again on a regular > (probably quarterly) basis, maybe with an actual agenda, etc.? My personal opinion (and not that of any other person, organization, or entity) has long been that regular meetings should come before formal meetings. It seems like people get caught up in the desire for topics or speakers or other formalism, and seeing an inability to sustain such, give up. My thought is that if a community is built and nourished, things like topics and speakers will follow naturally, as people discuss, discover, and want to do more. But if there is no community, the opportunity for that synthesis is greatly diminished. (Others have theorized that a lack of formal structure means there is nothing to build on. So maybe I'm wrong.) So I would suggest picking a date and recurrence interval and getting that going. Perhaps at the next meeting, the question of topics of interest could be the discussed. (See? Already the synthesis occurs.) One concern I do have is: It is often difficult to hear and be heard in a restaurant venue. It certainly was the other night. At the same time, it seems like food and drink are an appealing aspect for many. I know in the past, venues with a quiet corner or room, such that the celebration and the discussion could be colocated, or relocated to with a short walk, were sought, with some success. Perhaps that is still a possibility? -- Ben _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
