State of KLUG -- Part III, the Future

["Robert G. Brown" <bob@xxxxxxx>]

About three weeks ago, I promised to wrap up this series of messages about
KLUG by taking a look at what the future holds for our group. When I wrote
that message, I was hoping to get the last message out in a few days time, 
but many events have taken place that prevented my sitting down and calmly
writing about what is possible here.

This has been a very eventful three weeks, indeed! Any of you who have been
watching Linux-related newsgroups, websites, or mailing lists can't help but
see that a considerable amount of corporate support is lining up behind the
use of Linux; the investments in Red Hat by Intel, Netscape, and others is
only the tip of the iceberg, as Linux growth surges to new heights and levels
of respectability. Ours is no longer thought of as a "hobby OS"; if you read
the trade press, Linux has grown up.

Similarly, KLUG has grown up. We are staging weekly meetings with good quality 
presentations, and although we do not publish minutes, our average attendance
at meetings continues to grow. We've just done a survey, and you'll see another
one shortly, formulated in part by your responses to what we got from the first
one. We're looking at a couple of ways to provide some community service, and
we're moving towards becoming a true non-profit organization in the legal sense
as well.  We have a growing group of active members, and we want to continue 
that trend.  Let's take a look at some possible paths into our own future:

1. Teaching others. This is a great way to reach out into the larger community,
   and get the word out about Linux. There are several ways to accomplish this 
   goal; they all require some effort. Would you be willing to teach something
   one evening per month? If enough of you say "yes" (Write me!) we may have
   a cadre ready to do outreach. We're looking at a possible teaching ooportu-
   nity right now.

2. Teaching ourselves. What do we want to learn? Programming? Networking?
   Can we form study groups, perhaps meeting once or twice a month, in addi-
   tion to our weekly meetings? Do you want to learn Java, or work with others
   on a joint project? There are exciting things going on in array-oriented 
   programming and parallel processing; would you like to learn more about 
   that? The array-oriented community has almost no exposure to Linux; they've
   been off in the corner for years... how about helping them get software
   out to the Linux community?

   All of these -- and others -- are good opportunities to form smaller groups,
   each of which focus on particular aspects of the environment made possible
   by Linux.  What's YOUR preference? If there are enough people interested in
   a common topic, project, or goal, we can form a group to focus on it.

3. Spreading the word... and the software....  Our continued presence at com-
   puter sales, on the Internet, and an occasional installfest keeps Linux
   in front of the public locally, and helps the global trend towards open
   source and free software.  People are needed to help with these efforts;
   it is YOUR participation that is fueling this trend.

4. Building our group to deliver services better.  We've had some bang-up 
   meetings in the last few weeks, but if you weren't there, you don't know 
   about them. Why? No one took minutes! We did have 22 people at Iserv in
   Grand Rapids, and toured their facility. Outstanding! With no meeting
   notes, there are almost 40 people who don't get this news. Filling this
   position is vital to keeping all of us informed about events.

5. Money.  Yes, some may think its the root of all evil, but its no good to
   have NONE around. KLUG has some minor expenses at present, but they are
   being borne in small amounts by a few people. However, its hard to see
   this expanding much without more involvement from others. We will not 
   charge dues or membership fees, but we do require something for activities.
   We are also starting to raise funds for the future, where not everything
   can be provided free of charge. Are there items we'll have to pay for? 
   You bet! Most meeting space needs payment, even if it's small change, it
   adds up. Having some money for this improves our flexibility, both in the 
   time and place of our meetings. We're going to need signs for our presence
   at public events, and they aren't free. If we want our own domain name 
   (useful for many reasons, not merely to make our website address nice),
   we're going to have to pay some fees. 

   We've started to put out a cup at meetings, into which you can place a few
   coins, small bills, (or large ones! :), or nothing for that matter, as you
   can afford it and feel the need. We're also conducting a "50/50" raffle to
   raise funds, winner gets half, or 50% of what we can collect from ticket
   sales. It also looks like we're going to be raffling off some other items,
   from Linux distributors; anything from Linux distributions to T-shirts.
   The idea behind all of this is the same, build up some funds, so we are not
   completely destitute, begging for some of the simplest things nesseary for
   any organization.

6. As we grow, we may also want to pick up sponsorships. While we have no
   specific plans to do this at the moment, we are setting the stage for this
   by moving towards legal non-profit status. A business that wouldn't look
   at us twice now will be very cooperative with a tax-exempt non-profit
   group who says and does the same things we're doing.  What will sponsor-
   ships give us? There's a chance for additional funding, perhaps access to
   facilities for our group, surely a chance for our ideas to reach a larger 
   audience. For our sponsors there would be numerous benefits, from joining
   their name with the open/free software movement to a more charitable and
   civic image.

No, this isn't a detailed image of the future, perhaps not even a sketch. 
Perhaps I close out these three messages with only an outline, some directions
for our group to take. We can decide on, and work towards some or all of these.
Impossible, you say? I would have said the same only three weeks ago about the 
backing Linux has picked up in only that short time.  If you don't like the 
above directions, please supply YOUR vision, and YOUR energy; we can work 
together to build a better group, a more active and worthwhile group than what 
we've got today. I look forward to your reactions, responses, and most of all, 
your help and support.

                                                          Regards,
                                                          ---> RGB <---a