July 13, 2008 CSCLUG meeting was held at Muddy Waters Coffeehouse at 1331 Ashley River Road.

Old Business

Commercial

Overall, interest in the commercial is lacking for a few reasons. First, the group isn't sure it's the best way to get the group's name out. Second, no one has the experience/equipment/time to dedicate to the project. Therefore, the group would like to look into contacting the creators of some of the professional Linux commercials out there on various media sharing sites to ask about displaying one or more of the commercials on our site.

Presentations

Josh West gave a presentation of Linux MCE. He will post information about his experience with Linux MCE on the website.

New Business

Demonstration Day

The group is interested in sponsoring demonstration days of Linux distributions and applications to the public. The group has inquired with Muddy Waters Coffee House to have an event Sunday, September 14 from roughly 1PM-4PM to demonstrate Linux and open source software. In addition, we will have Live CDs of the popular distributions to pass out.

In addition to the Muddy Waters event, the group would like to host an event at the College of Charleston in October. Semmy Purewal will contact CofC in late August and get back to the group about a date and location. Again, the goal is to have Linux with hands-on demonstrations for users to interact with, and brief presentations by group members.

Anyone interested in presenting/demonstrating at either demonstration day, please bring your information and ideas to the August 10, 2008 CSCLUG meeting so we can finalize a final program. Further discussion of the demonstration days will be in the forum under Events.

Website/Mail Server

There was a discussion about how the group would like to balance future communication between the mail server and website. We would like members to make a concerted effort to post troubleshooting information, and discussion about events etc. in the website forums or as book content on the website. The goal is for the website to provide a more public face for members and non-members to access information about Linux and the LUG, and use our site as a resource. For those wishing to keep updated through email about the website, we now have RSS feed capability in the footer of the website.

The mail server could be used for less public, behind-the-scenes communication between group members/leaders. There has been a request to make the mail server more private to protect the private email addresses of the group members since the website offers a way for communication with individual members, without releasing personal email accounts for spammers.

Website Profiles

Currently, the three fields for user profiles on the website is public information. Josh West will add a private area of user profiles, only viewable by members. This will allow the group to draft a phone list etc. for events and other appropriate uses. In addition, registration requirements will improve to make sure humans are joining our groups' website community.

Meeting Demonstration Wish List/Volunteer List

The forums will have a new section added titled "Meeting Feedback" and included will be a place for group members to suggest topic ideas for demonstrations at meetings. Also, there will be a location for members to volunteer to present or demonstrate new or technical open source applications.

By Laws

Since the CSCLUG is now growing with new members each meeting, and a general desire for more focused meeting/group administration, the group needs to begin discussing official By-laws. Matthew Gregg and Elizabeth Ann WEst will work on drafting something for the group to consider and vote on at an upcoming meeting. The need for this document includes:

To create some type of centralized executive board, or group of leaders to maintain meeting structure, group communication, and events so the group is not reliant upon a single individual for functionality.

To protect the content generated by members under the appropriate open source license or copyright.

To foster more participation and spread out responsibility so no one is burned out, or overly taxed with group responsibility.

Please see the forums for more discussion and information.

Upcoming Events

Charles Mason has secured the TEK Systems recruiting event July 25. Please see the calender and forums for more information.

The next CSCLUG meeting will be August 10, 1PM-3PM at Muddy Waters Coffeehouse, at 1311 Rivers Avenue in Charleston. The main topic for the meeting will be formalizing plans for the first demonstration day at Muddy Waters in September, and presentations on more in-depth information about keyservers, and Identi.ca. Homework for those interested is to make an account at Identi.ca to formulate questions and discussion August 10. :)

Charles Mason has also made contact with the Association of IT Professionals, who might have an event Aug. 21st. More information about this is to come.

Possible GeekiQue in August or September to celebrate the group's progress and time for fun.

Tentatively September 14 will be Linux demonstration day at Muddy Waters.

Some date in October, probably a weekday, will be Linux demonstration day at College of Charleston.

Attendees

Joshua West, Elizabeth Ann West, Eugene Mah, Adrian Nida, Matthew Gregg, Charles Mason, Semy Purewal, Trammell Hudson, Holly Hudson

Thank you to everyone who was able to join us, and a hearty welcome to our new members. Look forward to seeing everyone July 25, and at the August meeting.

Always Smiling,
Elizabeth Ann West