Propsal & RF2nd- Let's meet in Si Valley for Jan (& permanently)

[tluxt]

Props to those who have recently been proposing on this list places &
times to meet for Jan BAD.  :)

With all due respects to the efforts put forth, and the idea of having
Jan BAD on 2nd Wed in Berkeley (or perhaps SF) I strongly suggest we
instead do the following (reasons below):

PROPOSAL:
Jan Bay Area Debian meeting should be 2nd Wed, Jan 9th, 7 PM informal get
together starting time, at a Si Valley location (probably Carl's Jr in
San Jose, on N First street, intersection of Trimble Rd.). There should
also be a specific talk presented starting at 8 PM sharp, for aprox 20 to
60 minutes. (Also, all BAD meetings for at least the next 6 mos should be
at this (or at least a Si Valley) location, day (2nd Wed) of month
and time, and have an invited talk/speaker.)

For this meeting's official talk I strongly suggest we have someone come
talk about the upcomming Woody / 3.0 release.  Perhaps specfically about
the installer.  And perhaps even more specifically, if at all possible,
(this is something specific I would very much like to ensure is in place
by the time 3.0 is released) what must be done to ensure that this
release's install sw ensures that sound (and audio &or video playing sw)
is working properly once a workstation install is done. (ie, the
installer should make an effort to elicit from the person doing the
install all info necessary so that sound, (& perhaps also audio & video
player sw) will be installed properly by the installer program.)

If it is not possible to get a knowledgeable speaker on the above general
topic(s) in time for this meeting (and I have _no_ idea on who that would
be. If _you_ know of someone who could come talk on that topic, would you
please reply here now?!), I propose as alternatives:

1) A talk about what a .deb package is, and how to package a simple
program (ex: hello_world). (Again, who could give this talk?)

2) Ben Pfaff should talk about one of his packages, perhaps autoconf.
(What the sw is, where & why it is used, how to use it, what were the
relevant concerns to packaging this specific sw, what tradeoffs (if any)
were made in packaging it, or whatever else he wants to talk about.)

3) If anyone else wishes to propose a talk for this meeting, please do so.
But, given the current (short) amount of time before the meeting, I'd
suggest  we try to do one of the above, and leave further suggestions to
the many upcomming months.

RATIONALE:
At the December meeting I proposed we have the Jan meeting in Berkeley (since
there was no SF resident present to take charge of arranging the meeting for
there in Jan, and Berkeley would be the next place in the current rotational
schedule.)  But, the more I thought about where to have the meetings, the
more I came to think that the best thing for the Debian community as a
whole would be to have the meeting at a fixed location for a number of
months.  This is because I think we could get a larger turnout of
attendees if that was done.

Specifically, I think having the meeting routinely at a fixed location
will mean that more people will attend because it means less for people to
think about: noone has to plan where to have the meetings, the location
is known months in advance, and people can use this knowledge to plan
their schedules further in advance.

Also, I think haveing the meeting in a central Si Valley location is
likely to consistently draw a larger attendance than having it at
locations further from the mean location of likely meeting attendees.

I know this proposal lacks some positives of the rotational meetings:
more novelty, occasionally more convenient for people in different
locales.  But, I think the replacement positives are substantially better
for helping the Debian community as a whole:  I think it will produce a
much larger meeting attendance, and thereby provide more, & more rapid,
interchange of information, and help Debian, and Debian users, progress
more quickly.

OTHER COMMENTS:
I could say more about why I think this would be good to do, but, I think
the above covers the main points.

To confirm my suspicion that the above would be a good thing to do, at
this evening's SVLUG meeting I took a minute of the group's time at the
beginnning of the meeting, mentioned BAD, told everyone about our past
rotating meetings, mentioned I'd like to do something to ensure a larger
turnout, asked (about 80 people at the time I asked) if anyone there was
interested in attending monthly Debian meetings (about 25-30 hands
raised), mentioned rotation vs a fixed Si Valley location, and asked
where people would prefer the meetings. Again about 30 hands raised for a
Si Valley location, and, interestingly, none for a rotating location.

So, it would seem we might, by tonight's SVLUG attendees alone, be able to
about triple our attendance at future meetings (over the attendance of the
past few meetings), if they were in Si Valley.

All in all, I think this is definitely worth trying out for a while (say 3
- 6 months).  After that time, a vote could be taken to see if attendees
would prefer something else.  I suspect the concept of a constant Si
Valley location will result in the largest potential attendance.

===
ASIDE:
Would whoever updateS the http://bad.debian.net/ page please update it now
to show that we will have a meeting on Jan 9, location soon to be
determined, so that visitors to that page won't think there is no Jan
meeting planned.? Thanks! :)

===
So, I spose we could debate this idea, or take a vote.  Instead, because
time is of the essence, I propose that for the Jan meeting, 6 days from
today, that if _you_ are amenable to meeting in SiV _this month_, _you_
reply to this list and 2nd or 3rd my motion.  I propose that if we get 2
2nds, (or a 2nd & 3rd), by within two days, then (irrespective of any # of
nays) the plan to meet this month in SJ should be adopted.  -  (We can
always have a longer debate on this list over the next month, if the idea
of a fixed SiV location is not what BAD members want for future meetings.)

I will call Carl's Jr later today & find out if their room is avail next
Wed for our meeting, & inform the list of my findings.

So: If _you_ are amenable to meeting in SiV _this month_, please reply to
this message now saying so.  :)

(I'll also email SVLUG, BAYLUG, (& debian-user ?) with the info that BAD
will meet next week, location soon to be determined.  If you know other
lists to announce to, or people to invite to the meeting, please inform
them.  :)


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