Notes from Wednesday's meeting

[jabr at necx.com (John Abreau)]

We held one of our volunteers meetings on Wed, Sep 25, at Pioneer
Global in Boston. The next one will be Wed, Oct 2.  Same place, 
same time: Pioneer Global, 811 Boylston Street, Boston, 7:00 p.m.

Attendees at the Sep 25 meeting:

* John Abreau
* Rich Braun
* Robert Luoma
* Blake Parker
* Norbert Slack
* Mark Soule



We discussed the activities of some of the other former BCS groups.
A number of people have independently begun efforts to form a "new"
BCS central umbrella group. It was my feeling that while such an
effort has merit, our group must be able to survive on its own first,
and it would be premature to expend our initial efforts on creating
such a group. An umbrella organization can potentially ease some of 
the resource constraints of a small group, but if the group's survival
depends on the umbrella organization, I don't see much chance of 
the group lasting long.


How did the BCS central organization facilitate our group's activities?


* BCS name

The BCS trademark gave us tremendous name recognition in the industry.


* Publicity via BCS Calendar and BCS Journal

Our meetings were regularly listed in a publication with a circulation
of roughly 18,000 members, which gave us considerable visibility.
Our listings were occasionally lost, and it's an observed fact that
each time our listing was screwed up, that month was one of our 
lowest attanded meetings.


* Signs and flyers

I regularly used the Resource Center in Waltham to prepare flyers and 
signs for our meetings. I'm not sure what this would have cost, had I
done it at a print shop.


* Equipment

Each month I'd sign out an LCD panel and an overhead projector to use
at our meetings. I also borrowed a number of other items, such as a
PA system, various power strips/extension cords/networking cables/etc.


* Meeting space

MIT has provided BCS with free meeting space. As I understand it, our
sponsors at MIT justified the BCS presence on campus as being of great 
benefit to the MIT community. I'm not sure how this will translate down
into the individual groups, now that BCS central is gone.


* Administrative overhead

Running a group incurs a certain amount of administrative overhead.
BCS central handled the administrative functions, freeing us to
focus our efforts on the fun activities like meetings, Linux Cafes
and BBQs, etc.


We discussed the need for revenue, and some possible ways to raise it.
We'd may soon need revenue for such things as printing costs, equipment 
rental, and meeting space rental, to name the most obvious.

Some possible ways to raise revenue:

- Classes
We could offer courses at a reasonable cost; one obvious topic that
came up is "How To Install Linux". A number of people have expressed
a strong desire for this topic. With a classroom setting, we could
possibly do a hands-on seminar where people bring their machines, and
wthe volunteer instructors would help the attendees install Linux on
their systems.

- Membership dues
I'd liek to hold off on this one for now; the feeling at the meeting
was that classes such as the Installation Seminar could provide much
if not all of the revenue we'd need to keep functioning.

- Charge admission at meetings
We felt that this would only serve to hurt attendance, and thus would
threaten the group's existence. Also, MIT's policy is that money cannot
change hands on their campus. If we were to charge admission, we'd lose
the meeting space at MIT. Again, this would probably cost us more that
we'd take in by charging admission.

- Corporate sponsorships
We could find companies that are willing to sponsor the group, whether
by
donating money, or by donating meeting space, projection equipment,
free publicity, door prizes, etc.


Above all, we have a clear need for more volunteers to be involved in
the group's activities between meetings. I encourage everyone who's
interested in keeping the group alive to come to the next few volunteer
meetings.

--
John Abreau :: Unix Systems Administrator :: jabr at necx.com
NECX :: 4 Technology Drive :: Peabody, MA 01960
Voice: (508) 538-8425