* From: Mark J Ray h089@uea.ac.uk

WARNING: LONGISH MESSAGE FOLLOWS.

SUMMARY: There is a LUG HOWTO; We've nearly done the setting-up tasks suggested; Request comments on: The ALUG web site: a WWWVL-ish model? http://www.mth.uea.ac.uk/~h089/alug/template.html Intentional lack of a committee Limitation of the use of the ALUG name/voice Recognition of donations I've emailed Northants and Cambs.

MESSAGE FOLLOWS

Hi all

I've just been looking through the LUG HOWTO (yes, it does exist! What was I saying on uk.comp.os.linux about the excellent documentation for Linux?) and I came across the following to-do list for setting up a LUG. Thought you may like to review it with me:

DONE * Determine the nearest pre-existing LUG (Cambridge and Northants) DONE * Announce your intentions on comp.os.linux.announce and on an appropriate regional hierarchy (Well, uk.comp.os.linux and uk.local.east-anglia) * Announce your intention wherever computer users are in your area: bookstores, swap meets, cybercafes, colleges and universities, corporations, Internet service providers, etc. * Find Linux-friendly businesses or institutions in your area that may be willing to help you form the LUG Would people be interested in helping in these two? As soon as we've got some meeting details, someone with artistic ability could make a PostScript file of a poster available for the first. I guess the second is happening a bit already, with the nice support people are giving us ;)

DONE * Form a mailing list or some means of communication between the people who express an interest in forming a LUG * Ask key people specifically for help in spreading the word about your intention to form a LUG Who do you think they mean?

DONE * Solicit space on a Web server to put a few HTML pages together about the group We've more than enough places being offered. More about this a bit later.

DONE * Begin looking for a meeting place NEAR * Schedule an initial meeting * Discuss at the initial meeting the goals for the LUG One for the meeting, Andrew!

So, as you can see, we're pretty close to target already.

The next bit of the list you can go read for yourself. Whereas some goes without saying ("Install Linux for anyone who wants it" etc) and some are really good ideas ("Meet in conjunction with computer shows"), there are some I completely disagree with. See what you think of: * Secure dedicated leadership * Elect formal leadership for the LUG as soon as is practical: some helpful officers might include President, Treasurer, Secretary, [...]

Now, I've done this before, in various forms, and most of the time it follows the same predictable route: 25% of the time you get a really good committee and it's a blast for all involved; 25% you get a diabolical committee and it stands a chance of dying; half the time you get an average committee and it continues as it was before. The whole "committee" idea has some fairly major pitfalls to avoid: cliques, irrelevance and legality to name but three.

What we're doing at the moment, with the mailing list as the "supreme body" of ALUG, looks like it may work. OK, we have the alug/alug-announce distinction between those people who are actually a working part of the group and those who just want to be kept informed about us, but it allows us to become more or less involved as time permits. We now have a de facto "hostmaster" for our domain, Martyn Drake, and Andrew Savory has agreed to co-ordinate the first meeting. The rest of us are donating things as needed: support, time, ideas, resources.

If that's going to continue (I hope so!) and we think that most new members are likely to participate in a similar spirit, then I think we should NOT form a committee. After all, to quote the LUG HOWTO again for what makes Linux unique: This loose structure is not likely to change with regard to Linux as a software project. And it's a good thing, too. Linux works precisely because people are free to come and go as they please

I am well aware that not having an organising committee has its weaknesses too. (No-one having time to organise a meeting is actually less of an issue, as there is a bigger pool of potential meetings co-ordinators to draw from.) The main among them are a higher list traffic, as everything is open for discussion by all members, less ability to resolve contentious decisions (as a clear on-list majority is required, else things will fail) and no-one being able to speak on behalf of the group apart from in limited capacities. (Linux avoids this because Linus can speak for it as a whole. We have no "benevolent dictator" and nor should we.)

Following on from that last point, I'd like to suggest that regardless of who actually writes and orchestrates the press release announcing our formation, Andrew has to agree to (and put his name to) it, as our "First ALUG Meeting Coordinator". I also propose that anyone who donates anything to ALUG is mentioned on the appropriate bit of the website. Laurie, Martyn, Andrew and Net Communications have also made/are making major contributions to the group so far. I've probably missed someone out there.

Right, the website: we seem to be blessed with a number of people willing to create websites, so rather than have to assign the management of the whole site to any one person, I'd like it if _everyone_ who wants to creates a page (or more) about something useful to ALUG. The main website then becomes an index for members own sites, in a WWWVL sort of way. (If you haven't seen the WWWVL, the UK mirror is at http://www.mth.uea.ac.uk/VL/ oddly enough.) Just please keep us informed about what you're doing so that we don't duplicate too much work. I've a suggested template available at http://www.mth.uea.ac.uk/~h089/alug/template.html -- download it (and alug_bar.gif and alug_logo.jpg) to your own site and use it as a base for your pages. I doubt anyone will care much how much you change, as long as you link back to the ALUG index near the top of each page.

So, Andrew, can you change www.cpc.uea.ac.uk/alug/ into the index site for the time being (and keep the list info page and put up a first meeting info page). As soon as www.anglian.lug.org.uk is up, bounce people there and I'll change the template.

And finally (at last!), as no-one else told me they have, I'm just emailing Northants and Cambridge LUGs about our first meeting. Now to get some proper work done...

Hope you agree with all that ;)