[tlug] Meeting Notes: TLUG Open Meeting: March 13, 2010

[Jim Grisanzio <Jim.Grisanzio@example.com>]

hey  ... I took some notes from the meeting on Saturday because I think 
some of the discussions can be continued on list.

TLUG Open Meeting: March 13, 2010
http://lists.tlug.jp/ML/1003/msg00021.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimgris/sets/72157623487045451/detail/

Discussion about where we've been and where we are going.

   * Content/structure for presentations
         o Clustering and more development talks
         o Want to add different types of talks as well, such as
           lightning talks, Tutorials, etc
         o Structure of talks:
               + Discussion about having different months be set aside
                 for different talks. One month for dev talks, next
                 month for lightning talks and tutorials, etc. Feeling
                 is that if we break up the meetings more and offer
                 shorter time slots we'll get more participation from
                 people wouldn't necessarily do a full hour technical
                 talk. All agree on that last point, but I don't think
                 there was a decision on alternating months (check me,
                 Edward).
               + Decision: Shooting for core development talks, if we
                 don't have enough of them to fill a meeting then we'll
                 add LTs and tutorials, if we don't have enough of them
                 then we'll open it up to a bazaar/barcamp style.
               + Decision: 2nd Sat of each month we'll do a tech
                 meeting/nomi, and 3rd Fri of each month we'll do a
                 nomi only.
               + LTs booked for next month:
                     # Edward: History of TLUG
                     # Karamoon: Origins of early computing
                     # Simon: Asterisk in Japan
                     # Alberto: Creating a 1st Amazon Cloud instance

   * Growing the community
         o Want to grow the group but there are issues to consider:
               + Who has time to focus on this and who would we reach
                 out to?
               + Language barriers with the Japanese community
                     # Invite Japanese speakers to present in Japanese
                       with Japanese slides and/or English slides.
                     # Get volunteers to help with translations if needed.
         o We could engage other groups (YLUG for example) and
           international Linux organizations (Linux foundation),
           companies in Tokyo, universities, etc.
               + Don't make this formal or anything. Just ping people,
                 invite to meetings, see how we can collaborate, etc.
                 Maybe hold some joint meetings? Events?
         o Do a TLUG booth at Tokyo FOSS conferences.
         o TLUG made up of (roughly):
               + Beginners: users
               + Intermediate: admins/developers
               + Advanced: admins/developers
         o Who do we want to reach out to in order to grow? Generally,
           it's up to everyone to talk about TLUG among their personal
           networks. Organic growth can occur that way, and that seems
           how TLUG was created and grew initially. But if some members
           want to reach out to other groups and orgs, they should do
           so. Jim G. will give this a shot.

   * Shirts
         o Need more shirts. Group probably has the money to order and
           then sell.
         o Current design/color ok?
         o Owner: TBD

   * Infrastructure
         o Physical meeting space: Thus far, Sun Japan has not
           integrated into Oracle Japan, but Oracle US is ok with us
           using the space. If anything changes with respect to Oracle
           Japan, Jim G. will let everyone know (but this is unlikely).
           Edward has a few additional options for meeting spaces
           should they be needed.
         o Website tools: Site seems ok at present.
               + There was a discussion about adding web forums to the
                 site. Some feel forums would enable us to reach new
                 people, some feel it's a spam trap, most agree a web
                 forum should not be tied to the core TLUG mailing list
                 via gateway (most developers prefer mailing lists to
                 forums, obviously).
               + Decision: As an experiment, we'd like to add a web
                 forum but NOT tie it to the list. Owner: TBD
               + Another possible addition is to add a source
                 repository to share tools among the group.

   * Organization
         o Discussion around whether we need more formal roles? Pres,
           VP, Treasurer, Sysadmin, Listmaster, etc.
         o No, we have enough formal roles. The emphasis should be for
           more volunteers to just do things as needed.

   * Activities to consider
         o Installfests, hacking sessions, workshops
         o Desktops, serves, LAMP systems, etc
               + These can be logistically intensive and time consuming
                 to organize and support, but they also may help grow
                 the community by reaching out to new people (users)
                 and more advanced people (admins, developers).
               + Going to universities to talk to students/professors.
         o Should create a page on the TLUG wiki to list ideas for
           activities.

   * Election for VP spot
         o Pres: Edward
         o VP: Jim Grisanzio
         o Treasurer: Tim Meggs