Additional meetings at additional locations on different days of the week might be a good idea for a number of reasons. (separate venue, facilities - possibly an internent connection, pick up people who cannot make Tuesdays, etc). This can be tricky to coordinate and keep the groups cohesive (lest the separate meeting turn into a separate group) but I, for one, would like to meet more often. The meetings are always highly educational even when we don't have a topic or a speaker.
I agree that announcing topics and speakers could help a great deal. We should endeavor to do this. Even without outside speakers we have enough knowledge within the group to make this work. Outside speakers are an added bonus. I also agree that a section for newbies that is adequately advertised could be a great stimulus to attendance. One thing I like about this group, however, is that the level of technical discussion is very advanced. I would hate to loose that. But I think we can do both with a little organization. I also like the idea of advertising us as a resource to newbees at places like compusa, (or anywhere that fine software is sold :), the library, colleges, etc. I've never met a Linux person who did not like helping people who were new to, and wanted to try, Linux. Some new juice on the web site would probably help a lot. The site is probably stale by now. Remind me to create a blurb for the site that goes something like: "HAMLUG is looking for ideas on how to assist those new to Linux. We will be devoting a section of our meetings to those new to Linux who want to get started. Post your ideas and questions and we'll address them at meetings. Also, feel free to bring your hardware for help with installation and configuration." (actually, that came out pretty good. We can use it just as it is. Put it up on the web site!) Then we need to adapt the meeting to address this but not overshadow the other things we want to do. There is time and room for all of this if we just think it through. Wayne __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM). http://calendar.yahoo.com
