[AUUG-Talk]: Constructive Ideas for AUUG

[Raymond Smith]

Hi Steve,

On Fri, Sep 22, 2006 at 08:00:25AM +1000, steve jenkin wrote:
> This was thrown out by David (?) so why don't we respond :-)
> The Collective Wisdom of the Group should be worth something - and it
> may take the load of the Board who are quite overloaded...
> 
> 1. Leverage what *is* working.
>    - There are 2 or 3 working chapters.
>      Like SAGE-AU used to do, take simple videos of the presentations
> and make available on the web.  David Conran's talks provided more than
> one talk for CBR.

I like the idea of recording and distributing presentations.
This would also give us more content for the DVDs when start
shipping them once more.

> 2. Leverage the conference.
>    + AUUG *always* gets world-class speakers to the conference.
>      Schedule them for more than one speaking engagement - it's a great
> focus for another chapter to hold a metting and their organisers to put
> in a special effort...

This is definitely worthwhile. I remember I first met Richard Stallman
when AUUG brought him to a few different Capital Cities. Was a very
interesting evening.

>    + and my favourite: Video all or some of the talks and make them
> available *after* the event.  For the first 6 months, at a cost, then
> free...  The production values don't have to be "perfect" - just good
> enough.  After all, it's not a soapie.  The content is what's important.
>    + I'm sure there are a number of academics who'd appreciate some of
> these talks being available to show their students... Ask Dr Toomey.

These are all good ideas too. Given the sprint to the conference,
probably we won't do it this year. :-) But definitely something 
for next year. I believe that the linux.conf.au folks have done 
similar things for their conference.
 
> 3. Profit!  (oops.  That's Mikals' 3 step formula)

:-)

> 4. Limit the amount of work volunteer organisers undertake.
>    + I tried this with the CBR group - one longer, multi-speaker event
> every quarter
>    + and take on limited commitments. Far better to do *2* things
> brilliantly, than attempt 5, not do 2 and foul-up the others...
 
Agreed. A big challenge for this years board is Liz's abscence. 
We definitely do not have the time to do everything we'd like 
to do for AUUG.

Cheers,

Raymond
-- 
raymond at humbug.org.au