DrWho? wrote:
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Greig McGill wrote: | Greetings all. | | Several matters have arisen at tonight's committee meeting which require | some input from the WLUG in general. | | PLEASE read this email, and offer your input - preferably offlist, but | onlist if you'd like feedback from other WLUG members. | | 1. WLUG Funding | | Last year, the committee attempted to raise funds for the purchase of a | mobile test rig/demo lab consisting of a server, a workstation, and | several peripherals for use in presentations, training, and perhaps | community education. | | We were declined on all three attempts, but will be trying again this | year. What we need to know is: Is this a good goal for funding? Do | you have a better idea? Is there a service you would like to see the | WLUG provide that is currently unrealistic due to funding restrictions? | Keep in mind that funding must be applied for with a specific project in | mind, as funding cannot be used to meet ongoing running costs, or allow | for events that may not happen.
Trying to get funding for anything that does not involve sport or community interests is very hard.
How about members donating old equipment? this may mean getting not so modern equipment but at least it will cost nothing and be no great loss if damaged.
| | 2. New and Inexperienced Users | | As mentioned at the AGM, the WLUG has been accused of being unsupportive | of new or inexperienced users. It was explained that the *active* | members of the WLUG, ie. the ones who do all the work, are experienced | users, and are thus unlikely to arrange meetings on beginner topics, or | arrange installfests, which they have little desire to attend.
The wiki has lots of useful information, but in saying that it is very generic and does not really cover any specific distro and since each one is different it does get very confusing.
How about just remembering to mention a specific distro the information has been tested with.
| | We don't wish to alienate the new or inexperienced users however, but we | need some of them to step up, and volunteer to present some beginner | topics, arrange workshops, and perhaps start a "beginner stream". You | will have the full backing, and support of the "old hands" - just tell | us what you need. I repeat TELL US WHAT YOU NEED! Nothing is more | demoralising than being complained at for not providing something which | no one has ever told us they wanted.
People do not know what they need until they find it or experience a problem.
How about some more HowTos on the wiki, and not just generic but distro specific.
We have some distro specific ones: * http://www.wlug.org.nz/CategoryDistro We have some that require slightly different configuration based on various distros/OS's where the main page covers the topic and then there are paragraphs on how this differs per OS/Distro eg: http://www.wlug.org.nz/IPv6Setup covers Linux, FreeBSD and two flavours of windows. Another example is http://www.wlug.org.nz/LDAPNotes which has a paragraph for redhat and another one for Debian. Note we don't have much mandrake content because none of the people who regularly write content use Mandrake, or the mandrake content is very similar to the redhat content. Where the information is available it's been added to the wiki eg, http://www.wlug.org.nz/KDENotes If you want information about your distro added to the wiki, take the notes that are there and add whatever extra information is needed for your distribution.