[buug] (forw) List owner needed for callug_discuss at lists.berkeley.edu

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Paul Ivanov (pi at berkeley.edu):

> I'm game. Should I contact CalMail directly, or go through you?
> 
> ditto for the -announce list.
>  
> > It would be nice if CalLUG could be revived, but first things first.
> 
> I'd be up for this, as well.

Good to hear.  To clarify, I'm just a subscriber and former attendee of
CalLUG's on-campus meetings.  (Gosh, it's been a while:  Their brief
revival ended in 2007.)

I gather from the announcement that you would write to CalMail Staff
<consult at berkeley.edu>, to step up and take over as listadmin.


We can and should talk about what's required to revive CalLUG.  I
watched the LUG die, get revived, and die a second time, so I think I
know the major pitfalls and can help you avoid them.  I've been thinking
of adding a section to the Linux User Group HOWTO[1] about the
particular problems of college LUGs.  Here's the short version:

1.  Maintaining accreditation.  In CalLUG's case, that would be through 
ASUC.  Accredited groups get access to Internet server resources, 
publicity, use of rooms, right to post flyers, sometimes modest funding, 
etc.  But you have to file timely paperwork.  Failure to do those
filings killed CCSF LUG.

2.  Continuity, especially over the summer break.  By that, I mean two
things:  CalLUG kept having a syndrome where the officers would get too
busy in May/June preparing for finals, nobody would have time to make
arrangements to ensure out-of-band means of communication in case the
CalLUG server went down, and nobody would have time to ensure
replacements for officers being graduated.  Some combination of those
two problems seems to have killed CalLUG, both times.

[1] http://tldp.org/HOWTO/User-Group-HOWTO.html
Also by the same author:  http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Linux_PR/newlug.html