I might have read wrong, and if so please disregard, but it seems like JaxLUG's meetings are sponsored, complete with food.
Bad idea. First, for the cost of feeding 10 people at each of two meetings, you could buy a year's worth of web hosting, email hosting, and heaven knows what else. But worse than that, fed meetings deny a LUG the opportunity of the meeting after the meeting, and the meeting after the meeting after the meeting. Most LUGs meet at a restaurant after their their official meeting. Of course, not everyone goes to the restaurant. Some don't have it in the budget, and some need to get up at the crack of dawn, but my experiences is about half the official meeting attendees go to the restaurant. The restaurant is called "The meeting after the meeting." At the restaurant the conversation is much more free-ranging. There are often several simultaneous conversations. Friendships are built and cemented. I can tell you that at GoLUG, several people like the meeting after the meeting more than the meeting itself. There are often laughter, one-liners, retorts and laughter. When everyone finishes their food, they go out in the parking lot. You'd think they'd just go home, but noooooooooo. The parking lot meeting is called "The meeting after the meeting after the meeting", and is where the hardcore people further cement relationships and often discuss the future course of the LUG. Remember in another post I said it's best to have a small group of people who really love your LUG, and they can generate the necessary enthusiasm? The meeting after the meeting after the meeting is one of the best places to find such people. I have a fond memory of a meeting after the meeting that didn't involve a restaurant. In the fall of 1999, Art Wildman and went out to a woods behind the JaxLUG meeting place, and for a half hour or so discussed a book I was just beginning to write, "Samba Unleashed". Art gave me a heck of a lot of good ideas about material and organization, right there in the dark by a big bent tree. In summary, I believe food at meetings to be counterproductive, because it eliminates the meeting after the meeting and the meeting after the meeting after the meeting, and because it costs a half year's web and email hosting. StevET -- Steve Litt Author: The Key to Everyday Excellence http://www.troubleshooters.com/bookstore/key_excellence.htm Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/stevelitt --------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive http://marc.info/?l=jaxlug-list&r=1&w=2 RSS Feed http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml Unsubscribe [email protected]
