July Meeting Followup

[Jess Hires]

Greetings!

On Wednesday, we had our annual elections, as well as an outstanding presentation by Brad House from MainStreet Softworks on Proxmox with Ceph and High Availability Virtualization.

We started with Introductions about 6:45, and at 7pm held elections. 

Jess nominated himself for another year as president, and there were no other nominations for president, so with no objections, he has another term.

For Vice President there were 2 nominations: Dan Bidleman and Travis Phillips. Travis won by a slim 5-3 margin.

Secretary also had 2 nominations: Rob McKennon and Gene Cronk. Rob won by a 10-3 count.

After the presentation there were several group discussions on future venues and funding possibilities. 

So we would like your thoughts on the following items:

1. membership dues

2. corporate sponsors

3. Possible future venues

A. Sneakers

B. Mudville

C. AT&T building (downtown 2nd floor auditorium, we were there for about a year)

D. JaxHax (also downtown)

E. Bank of America

F. Conference room at The Sheraton (dependent on funding)

Next month's topic should be: IPv6 by Johannes Ullrich. We have several potential speakers for September as well, that will be posted as soon as we have more info.

Huge thanks to Rob McKennon for taking notes, and generally being awesome. :)

If you have any recommendations for future topics, long or short, please let us know!

[Mike Rathburn]

We can also use the new CxP Data Center as a possible venue.

[JaxSmart Admin]

CxP Sounds like a good place. Can you 'book it' for August?

 http://www.cxpdatacenter.com/data-centers/facilities-overview/southeast-regional/southeast-regional-virtual-tour/nggallery/thumbnails

MJB

On Sun, Jul 20, 2014 at 9:18 PM, Mike Rathburn <mi...@rathburn.org> wrote:

We can also use the new CxP Data Center as a possible venue.

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[Jess Hires]

Let's not get too ahead of ourselves, it's just a possible location. Let me point out a few things:

• They say that their conference rooms are for customers, so we'd need to talk with them first about using their space as a meeting location, unless any of us are customers? In that case, we need to make sure that we always have members attending who are customers so we don't end up in a situation like we're in with Enterprise Integration.
  
• This appears to be a secure facility. We are somewhat likely to face the same issues which drove us away from Peak10.
  
• Most importantly, we need to make this decision as a group. Everyone should be part of the decision-making process.
  

I'd like to get everyone's opinion on the venue subject. I want to know things like which location you would prefer (out of all possibilities), if a specific part of town would prevent you coming to meetings, good/bad experiences at any of the places we mentioned, etc..

Finally, let's not worry about finding a venue for August. We'll book a conference room at a hotel like we did for July, so we have a solid 2 months to make a decision, contact the venue, and lock everything down.

[Dan Bidleman]

There seemed to be a lot of want/support for going to JaxHax as a venue for the LUG last week when I was talking to people, as well as during the linux networking class down at JaxHax on Thursday.

Advantages:

Free for LUG meetings.

Near limitless free parking on both sides of the building, because of the acquisition of the downstairs facility, both sides of the building are able to be parked on

Free internet access via wireless and wired connections with power jacks if you so require

Local linux mirrors on a gigabit network with pxe boot to allow users to try/install locally and quickly

Fostering Makerspace/Hackerspace community that are already heavily engaged in linux, most machines in the space run linux.

No need to have an employee at the facility to open it (any member can open the door for the event, several members of the LUG are members of JaxHax)

Fully set up classroom with AC/Projector/Sound, seats up to 35 people comfortably, also have large electronics lab for break off sessions if need be.

Centralized location (downtown) to allow for people on the north, west, and east sides of Jacksonville to have equal access (this is marked as a possible disadvantage for people in south jax)
Many LUG members are members at JaxHax

Would bring more people to the lug regularly (JaxHax members would be more apt to join the LUG and attend)

Food prep areas (toaster/microwave/fridge (soon to have a full kitchen downstairs))

You do not have to show ID/get a badge (one reason why some people do not want Peak 10)

Possible Disadvantages:
Its downtown (also listed as an advantage)

Its near springfield (we've never had any issues) (the police/firefighter boxing training facility is inside our building, so the police are almost always there anyway)

[Rajesh Verma]

JaxHax would be my first choice. ATT or BOA sound good, but wonder about finding parking, especially if there is an event downtown. I am not sure about Mudville or Sneakers, seems they won't have a good setup for presentations.

Rajesh Verma

[Jess Hires]

I would also like to vote for JaxHax. I know we will never have issues meeting at JaxHax, short of them closing their doors permanently. I am worried about losing some of regular attendees due to possibly being inconvenient to get to (distance, traffic, etc.). Inversely, it may attract new members who are closer to the downtown area. I'd still like to see what everyone has to say, but I think JaxHax would be a great meeting location.

We can certainly still explore places like Sneakers or Mudville (though it looks like Mudville isn't anywhere close to our normal location). I don't mind dropping in, checking out the place, and speaking with the management about having a recurring meeting.

[Gene Cronk]

Another vote for JaxHax.

[Jess Hires]

Dan, do you have an estimate of how many people can be seated in the JaxHax classroom?

I also wanted to remind everyone that Peak10 is still a venue candidate. They will still be required to check IDs due to their security policy, but they have a new, large conference room that can accommodate more than 50 people. Keep that in mind as a possibility!

[Gene Cronk]

[quote]

Fully set up classroom with AC/Projector/Sound, seats up to 35 people comfortably, also have large electronics lab for break off sessions if need be.

[/quote]

[Jess Hires]

Lol, thanks Gene! :)

[Chuck Boyer]

Not to sound too off, but what is the objection to ID check and what would it consist of? 

[Robert Mckennon]

It wasn't just ID checks, it was proof of drivers license and they took a picture of you.

[Chuck Boyer]

I might be missing the point. Is it a background or credit check? Would anyone be turned away? Am I missing something? I know I can be quite thick at times. 

[Jess Hires]

Nobody would be turned away, but many people were uncomfortable with having their photo taken, and both sides of their ID scanned and saved. A handful of people just walked out when they started doing this. Of course we understand the need for Peak10 to do this, but we don't want our venue to drive away attendees.

[Dan Bidleman]

I don't think we're gonna have too much of an issue with seating, 35 people is just the largest class we had in there.  The space has some more chairs, and couches if we need them.  I estimate we could get as many as ~45 in the classroom without too much trouble and if we are up to that count, there are other options we can work on.

[Gene Cronk]

I think the issue with the IDs is:

1.  Many of us are privacy advocates, and there really wasn't a need for Peak10 to have that information.
2.  We have no idea what is being done with that info.  Personally, I figure my info is in enough insecure databases.

[Mike Rathburn]

We have data and offices in CxP with approval, so no worries there.  There are several conference/training rooms and a gigantic lobby.  Very nice facility.  Let’s keep it on the list.

 

But, I actually vote for JaxHax also as it fits the LUG.

 

My ultimate preference for the group though would be to roam around the city on a regular basis, so as to entice more involvement.  One month on the northside, one at the beaches, one in OP, etc.  With a little creativity I think we can find appropriate corporate sponsors to avoid member “dues”.

 

 

From: jax...@googlegroups.com [mailto:jax...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Jess Hires
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2014 10:07 AM
To: jax...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [JaxLUG] July Meeting Followup

 

Let's not get too ahead of ourselves, it's just a possible location. Let me point out a few things:

• They say that their conference rooms are for customers, so we'd need to talk with them first about using their space as a meeting location, unless any of us are customers? In that case, we need to make sure that we always have members attending who are customers so we don't end up in a situation like we're in with Enterprise Integration.
• This appears to be a secure facility. We are somewhat likely to face the same issues which drove us away from Peak10.
• Most importantly, we need to make this decision as a group. Everyone should be part of the decision-making process.

I'd like to get everyone's opinion on the venue subject. I want to know things like which location you would prefer (out of all possibilities), if a specific part of town would prevent you coming to meetings, good/bad experiences at any of the places we mentioned, etc..

 

Finally, let's not worry about finding a venue for August. We'll book a conference room at a hotel like we did for July, so we have a solid 2 months to make a decision, contact the venue, and lock everything down.

On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 6:51 AM, JaxSmart Admin <jaxs...@gmail.com> wrote:

CxP Sounds like a good place. Can you 'book it' for August?

 http://www.cxpdatacenter.com/data-centers/facilities-overview/southeast-regional/southeast-regional-virtual-tour/nggallery/thumbnails

MJB

On Sun, Jul 20, 2014 at 9:18 PM, Mike Rathburn <mi...@rathburn.org> wrote:

[JaxSmart Admin]

Jess, did you mean "Players Grille" at 4456 Hendricks Ave? Instead of "Sneakers"? That's Mudville's 'Sister' Restaurant in St. Nicholas at 3105 Beach Blvd.

And G. CxP Data Center 8324 Baymeadows Way

MJB

--

[William Lindley]

I could give a talk on "Modern Perl: The Language and the *NIX Community" (yes Perl 5 is alive and thriving, versus the stillborn Perl 6) in September or October.

JaxHax has my vote for at least a few meetings. 

\\/

[Jess Hires]

MJB, I'm talking about "Sneakers Sports Grille", near Baymeadows Rd and 295. https://plus.google.com/101801642914059662508/about?hl=en&gl=us

William, that sounds great! You're in for September. :)

--

[JaxSmart Admin]

Ok, I was wondering because Keith mentioned 'Players'. Looks like there are plenty of places.

MJB

[Ligaya Turmelle]

Why not just try a couple of the proposed options and then make a decision?

After all - we may not know of a problem or simply dislike something
(security/traffic/parking/room layout/reserving the space/wireless/etc.)
until we actually try it.

Lig

--
Respectfully,
Jason and Ligaya Turmelle

[Michael Potts]

Moving the venue every month will cause problems with those who attend without actively following the list. People seem to have a hard enough time getting to the LUG anyways...

I would really like to narrow the options down to a couple good places and then we can all go look at them, for the exact reasons you mention Lig. 

Chuck, one of the other issues with the ID checks (and secure facilities in general) is the hassle it was to get people credentialed and into the conference room. For Peak 10's PCI compliance rules, they had to take our pic (On an iPad), scan our ID, then go to the NOC and retrieve a printed out sticker with our picture and name. This took an enormous amount of time when you take in to account the number of people that we have. 3 visitors taking a tour is fine, 25 people walking in at once delayed the meeting start by 20+ minutes.

Enterprise Integration's issue is directly related to their security needs as well. While we don't have anyone being IDed there (yet) we do have to have an Enterprise Integration employee at the door to open it when someone walks up and then direct the person through a potential maze of hallways and elevators to the conference room. Not only does this take someone away from watching the presentation, but puts a security risk to the company as well (unescorted individuals). Only way around that is to make everyone wait outside and come get them in waves, which is not ideal either.

Michael Potts
GV: (904) 638-2914 | Gtalk: H...@HMStudios.net

@HMHackMaster | http://about.me/MichaelPotts

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