Admin note on meeting up
Jason Davies
I have not made efforts to stimulate meeting up, in fact I fought an annoying battle with UK MUG HQ to be permitted not to. So, just to make the position transparent:
1) I am very happy for the list to be the place where such a meeting(s) is organised: there is no 'ban' on SMUG having face-to-face meetings.
2) I don't encourage it, in the sense that the list does not need to become a place for endless discussion of venue etc.
3) UK MUG wanted all groups to have monthly meetings, with show-and-tell and possibly talks by software developers (with the incentive of discounts etc). In order to do this, we would have to have a membership fee, probably modest but a fee.
I refused (in fact I said I would resign if this was forced on me) because the time spent, and the distortion produced, by having fees (collecting, keeping records, handling complaints, troubleshooting paypal, having an 'appeal' process for late payments blah blah) was going to put the time needed through the roof for a group that didn't actually show much inclination for meeting up and even less for paying annually for something that only needed paying for if we had meetings (you see the circle?).
Now, as a refugee from what was a completely insane list for London MUG, I know that you can have really good monthly meetings (they did) and a list that makes you want to remove people's eyeballs and stuff them in their mouths -- and presumably vice versa so maybe meeting in person would actually be terrible.
So if there is interest in direct response to someone saying 'shall we meet up?' I'm fine with that. If anyone wants
1) organised regular meetings
2) talks by SMUG members and/or outsiders/developers
I'm fine with that but they have to organise it and as admin, anything that involves commercial endorsement, organising discounts (and checking membership lists, which means collecting fees etc) is not going to happen (unless someone else wants to be admin, which I'm perfectly open to).
I actually think the best thing to do is start by saying "I will be at X pub/location wearing a faded BBEdit t-shirtfootnote 1 at X time on X day. I'd love people to drop in." Then if a critical mass forms over time, it can become a regular thing.
Alternatively, if someone wants to organise a very silly event like 'SMUG goes to the seaside' or a Xmas dinner, then that might be fun.
[1] I can probably provide a faded BBEdit t-shirt if I look hard enough in my cupboard. I met Rich Siegel once…("I'm not worthy")
Graham Perrin
… start by saying "I will be at X pub/location wearing a faded BBEdit t-shirt … at X time on X day. I'd love people to drop in." …