[clue-tech] Curious about decline in attendance at CLUE meetings

[Michael J. Hammel]

On Fri, 2006-07-21 at 21:20 -0600, Collins Richey wrote:
> Now that we're meeting at the Oracle building attendance is down to a
> steady couple of dozen stalwarts.  I can't comment on the North
> meetings since that's way too far for me to drive.

FWIW - comments from a long ago attendee, but continous long time list
lurker.

Couple of dozen sounds good to me.  When I stopped my involvement with
CLUE organizing and Lynn Danielson picked it up I think we were down to
about 5 or 6 people in his basement.  We had started with a couple of
dozen, if I remember correctly, back at Smokey Hill High School.  Life
is cyclical.  But alot has to do with the energy of the leadership and
even more by the involvement of the attendees.  It's hard to keep people
motivated to listen to tutorials or general ramblings.  As a volunteer
organizer you want to plan for things your membership is interested in.
But they have to be proactive in letting you know about those things.
You have to find a way to keep them involved.  It's not an easy task,
most especially to sustain over years at at time.  Lynn did well and
Jeff seems to be doing well too to keep it up at a couple of dozen.  

Down here in the Springs we're at about 8 or 10, a dozen on good nights,
all squeezed into a small room at Panera Bread (mostly because of it's
location, as I understand it).  But involvement by the attendees is
modest.  We need more people with ideas on reasons to meet.  Few people
need (or want) to sit through tutorials sessions anymore.  Linux is kind
of beyond that intro phase of life.  

I've been thinking of trying to add a little bit of Hacking Society
mentality into the LUG meetings, where we meet and work on projects once
in awhile.  This has logistical problems at Panera since there is only
one electrical outlet.  But there was some positive reaction to the idea
on the mailing list.  I just need to follow up on the idea and try to
move it forward.  The thought here is that people are beyond being
introduced to open source and now use Linux to solve real world
problems.  Sometimes it's nice to work on those problems in a room full
of knowledge and experience with some of the more esoteric issues.

> I remember at the meetings a few years back you couldn't get a seat
> unless you got there on time. I distinctly remember myself and others
> seated on the stair edges of the auditorium where we met.

I remember meetings like that myself, back in '99 or so.  Standing room
only for CLUE.  BLUG was like that for a while as well, though the
presentations tended to be more technical for that group and CLUE more
end user and business oriented.  Don't know if that's still the case.
It seemed like a good distribution of material at the time, at least it
did to me since I used to attend both.  Lynn was running CLUE back then.
Wayde Allen ran BLUG.  And Sean and Evelen ran NCLUG up in Ft. Collins,
which I believe they still do today (along with the Hacking Society).

> I also know there are lots  of regular correspondents on this list
> whom I've never met or even seen at a meeting or installfest. Some of
> you, of course, have moved away from the Denver area.

Away, and back again.  This time into Colorado Springs for a job.  But
there isn't time to get to Denver for the meetings, unfortunately.  Not
during the week.  I'm stuck in CS for the time being.  Maybe after my
daughter graduates in a few years I can get back to the Denver area.

Anyway, just some thoughts from an old timer.  :-)
-- 
Michael J. Hammel           |
mjhammel at graphics-muse.org  |   Chinese Proverb:
http://www.ximba.org        |       Man who leaps from tall building, jumps to
LFS Userid: 16857                 conclusion.