[CMI.PM] Meetings

Milt Epstein mepstein at illinois.edu
Wed Jul 22 14:29:50 PDT 2009


On Tue, 21 Jul 2009, manchicken wrote:

> If somebody else would like to step up and do the midmonth reminders
> I don't think anybody would object.
>
> One thing I enjoy about our group is that we are very
> informal. There are no "officers" or "secretaries", and as such it
> is very simple and we can enjoy our time together discussing things
> that matter to the group assembled. One challenge this poses however
> is that there is nobody "officially" responsible for sending
> messages.
>
> I think we'd all love to see the group grow and attract other
> members of our community, and so I'd like to suggest that if you
> want to send a reminder, please do. If you'd like to suggest a
> meeting location or date, please do.
>
> Recently our group has been meeting because the same group of
> four-to-five people have been setting meetings. It's not that way
> because of design, we're just the ones who show up, and we've been
> the only ones offering opinions. If you'd like to share your opinion
> on anything about when or where to meet, I think all would welcome
> it.

Hey, informal is great.  Simple is great.  I have no problem with that
-- those actually are my preferences.

I just think that trying for a more central location (or locations)
and sending out reminders a few days ahead are things that are easy to
do and can potentially improve attendance at these meetings.

Also note that both Michael and I are people who have attended
meetings in the past, fairly regularly, actually, as I recall, we just
haven't made it to the recent ones.  Personally, for me, that's been
mostly a matter of location and schedule (I have young children, so
sometimes family events/constraints prevent me from attending; I may
be the only one in the group in this situation, I don't recall
exactly).  So this is even a matter of making things easier for known
people who have shown enough of an interest to actually attend
meetings.

As to specific locations, I'd say "close to campus" pretty much covers
it for me.  I often get around by bike or walking, so someplace I can
get to that way would be nice (I'd be able to bike to downtown
Champaign or Urbana if the weather isn't bad).  If wi-fi is a
requirement/plus, here is a list of local places with free wi-fi:

http://www.cuwin.net/hotspots

Note quite sure how up-to-date this list is (it still lists Pages),
but it includes lots of places in Campustown and/or the downtown
areas.  Does the new Panera in Campustown have wi-fi?  What about the
Atlanta Bread Co. down Neil St.?

Here's another list I found, from a little over a year ago:

http://www.champaign.org/resources/pdfs/guidetocuwireless.pdf

Do people want food and/or alcohol to be available at these meetings?
That would limit things more, but it still looks like there are number
of places that would qualify.

If some people find the SW Champaign location convenient, given that
there seem to be more meetings lately, maybe we can alternate meetings
between there and one (or more) of the places on the above list that
are in Campustown or one of the downtown areas.

Milt


> On Jul 21, 2009, at 15:27, Milt Epstein <mepstein at illinois.edu> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 21 Jul 2009, manchicken wrote:
>> 
>>> Yeah, we do try our best to give as close to a month notice as we can.
>> 
>> Well, a month is too far ahead, people will forget.  It's helpful to
>> also send a reminder a few days to a week before the meeting.
>> 
>> 
>>> On Jul 21, 2009, at 15:04, Michael Fuerst <mjerryfuerst at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> I only get digests, so unless announcement made a couple of days in 
>>>> advance, I will not know
>>>> Michael Fuerst
>>>> 802 N Broadway
>>>> Urbana IL 61801
>>>> 217-239-5844
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Champaign-Urbana mailing list
>>>> Champaign-Urbana at pm.org
>>>> http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/champaign-urbana
>> 
>> Milt Epstein
>> Applications Developer
>> Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS)
>> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
>> mepstein at illinois.edu
>> _______________________________________________
>> Champaign-Urbana mailing list
>> Champaign-Urbana at pm.org
>> http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/champaign-urbana

Milt Epstein
Applications Developer
Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
mepstein at illinois.edu


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