[pm-h] Gauging Interesting In A Potential 'Activity' Social Meeting

[G. Wade Johnson]

On Sat, 6 Jun 2015 00:08:36 -0500
Russell Harris via Houston <houston at pm.org> wrote:

> On Fri, June 5, 2015 10:26 am, Robert Stone via Houston wrote:
> > How much interest would there be in doing an "activity" social
> > meeting ...
> 
> 
> Nowadays almost everyone is over-obligated to the extent that
> attendance of even a "regular" PM meeting entails neglect of
> responsibilities or other sacrifice.  And some may be unable to
> justify the luxury of a purely social PM meeting which provides no
> opportunity for learning Perl resources and technique.
> 
> But, with a bit of advertising, some PM meetings might be used as a
> platform for both useful service and recruiting.

We did do a "hackathon" several months back that was sort of used this
way. The turnout was reasonable and a few people asked questions and
got answers.

When the group was newer, we used to make a point of saying that some
time in the meeting is always devoted to helping people with problems.
I, for one, have always assumed that, but I haven't pointed it out
recently.

G. Wade

> In the early days of Linux, the task of installing Linux and
> configuring a complement of applications and utilities to work
> together as a system could be difficult and frustrating for the
> novice.  To address the problem, the Linux User Groups at Rice and U.
> of H. hosted at the beginning of each semester an Installfest to
> which were invited both students and the general public.  This was
> back before everyone had a high-speed Internet connection and an LCD
> monitor.  A novice to Linux could bring his system (complete with CRT
> monitor and printer) to the Installfest and walk away with a
> properly-configured Linux system, with whatever applications he
> desired loaded, configured, and functioning as a system.  While
> providing opportunity for association between members of the LUG, the
> Installfest served to encourage fellow students and members of the
> community to join the LUG.
> 
> Perhaps PM could advertise an occasional "bring your problem to PM
> and let the Perl experts get you pointed in the right direction"
> night.
> 
> RH
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Houston mailing list
> Houston at pm.org
> http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/houston
> Website: http://houston.pm.org/


-- 
Computer languages differ not so much in what they make possible, but in
what they make easy.                                  -- Larry Wall