[NCLUG] advice about starting a LUG like NCLUG

[Mike Loseke]

On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 4:51 PM, thus spake S. Luke Jones <
slukejones at gmail.com>:

> I'm in California's high desert (halfway between Palm Springs and Las
> Vegas, i.e., Nowhere) and there's nothing like a LUG anywhere nearby.
> But I've been asking around at the local community college and some of
> the computer stores and I think there might be some interest if one
> were to be started. I was wondering if any of the NCLUG old-timers
> could give me tips about starting a LUG: how much to charge for dues,
> for example, and how to keep out the riff-raff, that sort of thing.
> :-)
>
> As a point of reference, I joined NCLUG in ~ 1997 during the Loeske
> Administration, when it was still meeting at that pizzeria across from
> the theater on Elizabeth west of CSU.
>
>
Ouch, no respect!

I don't know about charging dues, NCLUG was never really concerned with
that.

If you have access to a captive audience at the community college, you might
ask the teaching staff/faculty if you could have 5 minutes in front of some
of them to pitch the first couple meetings, maybe get some faculty to
sponsor you.  Flyers in the local stores may help as well.

When we got started, we had a newsgroup local to CSU where the announcements
for the first several meetings went out - csu.general and a couple other
CSU-specific newsgroups.  Here's an announcement I found on google from
pretty early on:

http://groups.google.com/group/csu.general/msg/d19cb0a65d89e1a8

You'll note the careful detail this one goes in to. :)  I think that word of
mouth picked up not long after, and the announcements were mostly kept on
csu.general and the list itself.

As to the riffraff - I think we kept all the riffraff and drove most of the
legitimate folks away.  :)  Make them give a presentation or two and they'll
most likely settle down or stop showing up though.

As to topics?  Don't keep them too narrow, let people present what they have
an interest in if it's almost anywhere near relevant.  An install-fest is a
good way to get people involved on all angles too.

Anyway, just some rusty advice, I'm sure there's some more good advice to be
had from the list.

Stay cool, Luke!


Mike *Loseke* <- note the correct arrangement of characters. ;)