And now, a few words about where we are going

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

In this happy season of celebration and festive times, there are a
a couple of developments and issues that we face as the end of the year 
approaches. I'd like to touch on them here, then see what your reactions
are, either by direct reply, or by threads of comment and discussion on
this mailing list:

 1. Meeting Space
    We do not have much time left in our present meeting space at P&U;
    our welcome runs out at the end of 1998. Several attempts to find
    meeting space have not been successful.  

    Please consider the following:

    - We can pay to meet at any one of a number of places.
      Our investigation has found several places to meet in exchange for
      modest fees. However, the KLUG treasury is also quite modest, and 
      would be exhausted in only a few weeks if we move to a location
      that requires fees for us to meet.

      There are several solutions here; such as splitting the cost of meeting 
      among those present, or imposing dues on everyone who attends regular 
      meetings. I am open to other ideas; donations (sponsoring a meeting)
      would always be welcome. Are all of these acceptable alternatives?
      Are there others?

    - Some more of our members can ask around for meeting places.
      At the moment we've had about four people (some of the KLUG officers
      and volunteers) trying to find places to meet.  We have a mailing list
      of over 100 people now, and sending out a call for help is a good idea...

      *** If you think having meetings, where we can all help each other, see
      *** presentations on technical subjects, install Linux, and otherwise
      *** ensure the health and growth of Linux, as well as the satisfaction
      *** and fun people get from using Linux, YOUR HELP IS NEEDED NOW.

      Run-on sentence? Sorry, I get that way sometimes. But PLEASE:

      *** CONSIDER any place you know of for meeting space.
      *** ASK the owners of that space about using it for our meetings.
      *** COMMUNICATE to me the availability of this space, and the terms.

      KLUG is based on our members being ACTIVE, not on being mere CONSUMERS.
      We need the activity and energy required to find a new place to meet,
      as wwell as other projects.

      This is YOUR chance to contribute, to help the group.

    - We can become a virtual group
      Why not stop meeting COMPLETELY? If we have no place to meet, and no
      one looks, that's a natural consequence.

      Do we find that acceptable?

We don't need one space, EVERY WEEK. We can have meetings at one of a couple
of places, if need be. We can hold them in a number of places, for a while.
But it's hard to meet we have NO MEETING PLACE.

 2. Upcoming Elections.

    According to the rules passed last July, the current term of Officers 
    expires at the end of January, 1999. We are thus opening the period for
    volunteers to step forward, and nominations to be made for elected 
    positions on December 15th, 1998.  Please read more about this at:

        http://klug.armintl.com/organize

    Any of the exisiting KLUG officers can answer questions regarding these 
    positions.

    The nominating commitee consists of Adam Williams (chairman, and current
    property master of KLUG), and Bruce Smith (asistant, and current Vice-Chair
    of KLUG). You can find addresses for these two gentlemen on the KLUG of-
    ficers page: http://klug.armintl.com/officers

 3. New motions: Membership and Meeting definitions
    On membership, please read:
               http://klug.armintl.com/organize/member-def.html
    About meetings:
               http://klug.armintl.com/organize/meeting-def.html

    I shall call for a vote on these motions on January 19th, 1998.

    I welcome commentary or debate on these motions, directed either to me, or
    to the mailing list as a whole.

We continue to see growth and increased participation in our mailing list.
The coming year will see new projects, new possibilities, and more challenges
as interest in Linux continues to grow at an astonishing pace. We can become
a vital resource in this area to feed and fuel this growth, and we face very
few limits on what we can accomplish if we set our minds and energies to some
goals.

I shall shortly have a couple of new announcements about new additons to our 
group of volunteers, and I look forward to a level of discussion and action
surrounding the points I have brought to your attention.

                                                       Thanks and Regards,
                                                             ---> RGB <---