SPUG: New Meeting Place REVEALED!

[Tim Maher/CONSULTIX]

SPUG-sters,

Here's a summary of recent developments in our search for SPUG
meeting places:

1) The HUTCH (our meeting place for the last year) has kicked us out
   It's been great, thanks for having us! 8-}

* In gratitude, I feel we should all pledge to return to the Hutch
  if/when we get cancer, to give them the benefit of our business.  8-}

2) I finally found time to inspect the SpeakEasy's "backroom",
and concluded it's totally inadequate for our needs.  It has
theater-style seating from 1923, no tables, very dim lighting,
no white-board, looks dingy and depressing, and like it might
burst into flames at any second.  In this room, attendees could
not easily manage reference books or take notes, and we'd have to
bring in our own projection equipment, white-boards, you name it.

I have been in one very similar room in my life, when my wife and
I went to see a movie in the tiny town of Berastagi, Indonesia last
year (just North of the famous Lake Toba on the island of Sumatra).
Unfortunately, we had to leave after about 15 minutes, for fear of
being plunged into lifelong feelings of depression. (The crew of
Red Dwarf had a similar reaction to the "Despair Squid.)  However,
in defense of the SpeakEasy, I'd have to say their room had a
significantly better odor than the Indonesian movie theater.

I can see now why this room is primarily used for poetry readings!

By the power invested in me by myself for the benefit of SPUG, I
hereby veto this location!  (And I didn't even mention the parking
problems! 8-}) Sorry Jennifer . . .

3) On further exploration, the complimentary North-end options
(Fluke and ATL) turned out to be unworkable, due to their concerns
about insufficient staffing for after-hours security that cropped
up when we talked further.

4) Despite my recent invitation for aspiring leaders of E-SPUG
(Eastside SPUG) to come forward, NO ONE has responded!  (They "lurk"
well, but can those East-siders do anything more? 8-}).

I've got enough on my plate with the original SPUG, so until someone
emerges to take charge of E-SPUG, and set up a meeting schedule,
etc., the original (one and only) SPUG will continue meeting in
Seattle (see below), and Eastsiders will either join us or be
left out.

(Remember: we've got two solid offerings for meeting rooms on the
East-side, from Maxim and Lucent!  Would be a shame to waste those!)

				CONCLUSIONS
THE GOOD NEWS:

No need to worry about voting for the new meeting location!  For the
original (and still one and only) SPUG, it's going to have to be
N2H2's space at the "Union Bank of California" building in downtown
Seattle, since that's the best of the viable options we have left
(the other being Exodus Communications, which has a smaller meeting
room and all the same downtown problems).

Unlike the case for our earlier meetings at N2H2, we won't need to
be escorted from the elevators to an upper floor.

In addition, the N2H2 folks can supply a laptop with ricochet modem
and data projector, which is technology that we can put to very
good use.

Furthermore, this location will undoubtedly increase our attendance
from the sharp and colorful pool of N2H2 Perl programmers, whom we
might as well get to know better, since they seem set on a mission
of assimilating all (contractually-) free SPUGsters anyway!

THE NOT-SO-GOOD NEWS:

The exterior doors of the building lock at a certain time, perhaps
before our meeting time (still checking on this), so some folks
might need to wait a bit until those inside can be summoned buy
cell-phones to let them in.

Also, parking won't be as convenient or inexpensive as it was at
the Hutch, but those are the breaks!

That's the news!  SPUG is now set to endure into the next
millennium!

*==================================================================*
| Tim Maher, PhD  Consultix &        (206) 781-UNIX/8649           |
|  Pacific Software Gurus, Inc       Email: tim at consultix-inc.com  |
|  UNIX/Linux & Perl Training        http://www.consultix-inc.com  |
| Classes: 12/13 Perl; 12/17 Adv. Pattern Matching; 1/18 Int. Perl |
*==================================================================*

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