I don't know if this is an issue of attracting interest in new members.. Evan said that at times 50 people show up at install fests to have their machine installed.
Yes, perhaps we do need to promote the fact that we heavily encourage Linux and FreeBSD usage. But there are ways to promote the club other than changing the name. Heck, if we wanted to draw attention, why don't we change the name to: Peace, Love and Linux Club Hackers United Club Free (As in Beer) Software club I'm sure any of the above would prompt a Daily Universe article. Then were would we be? For example: what ever happened to the "[Root] Beer and Golf Club" It was big several years back.. cool name for a BYU group... sure. The problem should be attacked at its roots. Perhaps more planning of both fun and educational activities. We need to get the word out at the booth and all recruiting events that Linux and Unix are fun. The more people realize this the more they will be willing to "share the love" by helping others and serving at club events. The current club presidency has been doing a great job at promoting activities and so forth.. They do need support though. We have been a club for quite a few years. We can use our reputation to ask interesting people to come speak to the group such at: 1) CEOs/CTOs/CIOs of large technology companys in the area. 2) Eric Denna the CIO of BYU & Church IT folks (to grill them on Linux) :) 3) Visiting open source advocates such as ESR (we had a few years back) If we promote these activies via fliers all over the Engineering and PHMS Colleges then we are bound to get great turn outs. That combined with a nice Home-comming float (which I hope we are planning for (I'll help out)), we should be able to attract alot of diverse new people. -matt On Tue, 9 Sep 2003, Michael Halcrow wrote: > Hmmm. Maybe people are having a hard time getting motivated about > this whole ``UNIX'' thing. Maybe if we changed the club name to > something that people might actually recognize; you know, something > that is regularly in the mainstream press, something new and cool, > something for which large corporations are spending millions of > dollars in advertising revenues on national television, like ... uh, > well, Linux. > > I *guarantee* you that if the Daily Universe were to run a story on > the newly reorganized ``BYU Linux Users Group'' that it would get a > nice infusion of motivated members, to do stuff like booths and > install fests. They run stories on new groups on campus all the time > (anyone remember the 100% Modest Belly Dancing Club?) > > UNIX used to be about community, back in the late 70's and early > 80's. ``Proprietarization'' of UNIX did much to kill that community > spirit as various organization closed up all the code and > commercialized the heck out of it. Richard Stallman recognized the > root of the problem and attacked it by forming the Free Software > Foundation in an attempt to preserve that community. He made the GPL > and doggedly stuck to his values. Eventually, the Linux kernel came > along and, together with the GNU (GNU is Not UNIX) tools, this hacker > community sprang back to life in a way that very few people > anticipated (I admit that I'm glazing over the whole BSD thing too, > which deserves better mention than I feel I can give it, but GNU is > admittedly bigger and more influential today). > > UNIX is now a proprietary relic of an earth-scorched past. The > worldwide community has since regrouped about the license and the > software that is amenable to cooporation, sharing, and mutual > benefit. The hacker ethic lives on in GNU, BSD, and Linux. It > doesn't make much sense any more to have a ``UNIX Users Group''; > that's almost an oxymoron. > > I'm not around any more, so I suppose I can't say a lot about it; I > can only offer my opinion on the matter (again). If the group prefers > to keep the image of an esoteric group of old fogey computer nerds > doing its own thing, then by all means don't bother changing the name. > Just don't be surprised when you find difficulty attracting new > blood. > > Mike > > P.S. - These comments are my own and not my employer's. > > On Tue, Sep 09, 2003 at 12:08:15PM -0600, Evan McNabb wrote: > <lamantations about the old guys moving on and the new guys dragging > their feet> > > -- > ------------------------------------------- | --------------------- > Michael Halcrow | [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Developer, IBM Linux Technology Center | > | > What's another word for synonym? | > ------------------------------------------- | --------------------- > GnuPG Keyprint: 05B5 08A8 713A 64C1 D35D 2371 2D3C FDDA 3EB6 601D > ____________________ BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
