I strongly agree with having a roaming meeting location. I think the additional work would be minimal in going to different locations each meeting. This would make the burden of travel much more evened out among the group and potential new members may not be willing to travel as far, so they might consider "catching it when the LUG is in my area".
Having said that, I think it's quite clear that the largest suburban area of Jacksonville is Orange Park and do not see a reason it should be automatically excluded from a possible meeting location. My fear is that the meeting will always take place in north, "south" (what we call south is actually south east), and west Jacksonville areas. These are all far drives for myself and anyone in my vicinity. If we have membership in these areas, why is it OK to say we'll go to a meeting in these other places where members reside, but not in OP because it's not a part of Jacksonville? Should we break off and make an OPLUG? The rationale just isn't sound IMHO. As I said before, I don't feel bad at all to ask others to do what I've already been doing since I've joined the group (travel long distances to get there). Having said all of this, I only wanted people to be polite and consider the location because I did have to 'pull some strings' to get it secured. If it's not the consensus of the group to meet in Orange Park you're not hurting my feelings at all, but then where and why? I think it would take minimal effort to have everyone post their zip codes and see where our member base is actually located. If other members are too lazy to take on this project, I will gladly oblige. Please make no mistake, I'm not interested in trying to persuade the group to meeting at the location I've secured. What I am interested in, however, is getting the group to meet at a more sane place than we are currently meeting. The meeting room just isn't large enough to facilitate our audience. I think it would be a mistake to wait, because it inhibits the growth of the LUG. This is why I implore the group to find a suitable meeting place which as it stands is no longer Peak10. On Sun, Jul 24, 2011 at 11:28 AM, Billy Haines <[email protected]> wrote: > Mr. Rathburn makes a good point. Floating locations would be more work but > could entice new members. I still like the AT&T location although its a good > distance from home but will be attending regardless. > > Mike Rathburn <[email protected]> wrote: > >>We live in the largest city, land area wise, in the US. Selecting a locale >>anywhere is going to be time consuming for most. Selecting a locale >>anywhere outside of the available 820 square mile area of Jacksonville, I >>think, is not necessary and should be discouraged. >> >>I've also presented in the past the concept of always having a roaming >>meeting location. To keep things fresh and entice new membership, we should >>be rotating our meeting locations, not settling on a single location for an >>indeterminate amount of time. Our locations should roam around the city so >>that each district can be represented at least once a year. That includes >>the always forgotten and underestimated northside and westsides! I've been >>a member for over a decade, and there have only been three meetings that I >>can recall that were NOT on the southside or downtown (meetings that I >>hosted in my office on the northside). >> >>I don't believe that we should think we're so blessed that such and such >>corporation has so kindly donated their meeting space for us. I think the >>opposite - we have some of the most impressive technical brain power this >>city has to offer, in addition to several who are decision makers, >>indirectly or otherwise or even in the near future, on what technical >>services or products to buy. Let's leverage that so that corporations and >>organizations (universities inclusive) are standing in line begging to host >>the next JaxLUG meeting location and feed us pizzas and sodas and rub our >>feet. Our conversations shouldn't be on us 'finding' a location, but rather >>us 'choosing' a location. >> >> >> >>--------------------------------------------------------------------- >>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] >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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]
