Meeting-20101113

WPLUG will have a General User Meeting and presentation on Saturday, November 13th, 2010, starting at 2pm at the Panera Bread Galleria.

Schedule for the Day

2pm - Doors open, setup
2:15pm - Business Meeting/Election starts
2:45pm - First Featured Presentation
3:45pm - Second Featured Presentation
5pm - Meeting ends, everyone out.

Election

At this meeting, we will elect the WPLUG Board of Directors for 2010-2011.

Download the ballot from here.

Votes may be cast by mail or in person at the meeting. Your vote must be received before the polls close to be counted, so show up by 2:15pm to be sure you get to cast yours.

Candidate Statements

Candidates for the WPLUG 2010/2011 Board of Directors are invited to enter a statement. You are also welcome to view the log of the "Meet the Candidates" IRC session.

Beth Lynn Eicher

My platform is simple. Less WPLUG meetings.

I've been involved with Western PA Linux User Group since 1999. In this time, the GNU/Linux operating system, Free Software, and the gift culture have become ubiquitous. The role of the user group in 2011 needs to keep pace by holding *less* meetings of its own. Instead, as a community, WPLUG needs to promote the activities done by other organizations to give the member more options for participation. When WPLUG holds an event, it will be more special, open, accessible, and relevant.

The schedule I propose goes as follows:

• General users meetings four times a year - each has a scheduled topic at least 30 days in advance. Two of these meetings are the nominations and the election
• Installfests four times a year - each holding intro classes with registered students in advance.
• Software Freedom day - observed in September in a venue where it is socially acceptable to solicit, ie a flea market
• Annual picnic - held in the summer
• Evening time table topics two times a year - under the direction of a discussion leader, we will chat about a subject that is certain to generate opinion. A scribe will be appointed to capture the resources of interest.

In order for WPLUG to hold less meetings in a successful fashion, members will have to own the work of running these functions. The board will focus on providing the resources and networking with other organizations to increase the availability. Increased partipication is both a prerequisite and a positive consequence.

Vote for me if you want less meetings.

Terence Golightly

Greetings fellow WPUGer's,

Linux was brand new when I first heard of it way back in 1993. I didn't try it though until 1997. My Windows 95 box kept crashing and corrupting my hard drive. I installed Mandrake in 1997. I switched to Ubuntu in 2005. As a member of our board I would like to work with other board members to find ways to expand WPLUG's exposure in S.W.P.A. Perhaps through links to local search engines and or neighborhood newsletters when we have a meeting in an area. I hope I can count on your support. See you all on Saturday November 13th at the Panera Bread in Mt. Lebanon!

Vance Kochenderfer

If you look back at my statement from last year, you'll see that I had not planned to run again after this past term. I still strongly believe that turnover on the board is important to prevent an organization from stagnating. However, I feel that WPLUG is in a state of relative weakness, and I am not comfortable with walking away from the board while there is some heavy lifting to be done.

First, the good news - WPLUG has a stable meeting place, a consistent meeting schedule, and functional online services. The bad news is we have been doing poorly at recruiting and announcing speakers with sufficient lead time, and attendance has suffered because of this. Also, I consider membership participation to be extremely important, and we have not been consistently holding member meetings or effectively encouraging member involvement. These will be my major goals should I be elected. Whether you agree or disagree, please come out and participate and cast your vote!

Stanley Slomberg

To whom it may concern,

I am fairly new to WPLUG and am learning the OS one day at a time. I have time to commit to meetings and would be glad to serve. I have never been on any Board or have been an elected official in my entire life. So if I am elected for the position, I will be learning this also. If I am not then its ok with me. I love WPLUG and want to learn as much as I can.

Thanks Stanley C Slomberg

Speaker/Presentation

Robert Blackwell will be speaking about the Arduino, a microcontroller-based embedded device which can be interfaced with a number of sensors and controllers. He'll talk about communicating with the Arduino, as well as programming the device itself.

Objective-C is the principal language for programming Macs and iPhones. You can use Objective-C on Linux and Windows too. Mark Dalrymple, principal author of Learn Objective-C on the Mac, will talk about the language and programming patterns.

Meeting Minutes

The regular monthly meeting of the Western Pennsylvania Linux Users Group was held on Saturday, November 13, 2010, at 2:30 PM, at the Panera Bread Galleria at 1500 Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon, the regular presiding officer being in the chair and the Secretary being present.

The Chair announced that the Board of Directors selected Beth Lynn Eicher as the Member of the Year.

Michael Loomis and Craig Lang were appointed as election tellers. Once all members present had the opportunity to cast a ballot, the Chair declared the polls closed.

Upon completing their count, the tellers committee reported the results of the vote:

Number of ballots cast          11
Received majority consent
   Jim Harris received          32 points
   Vance Kochenderfer received  31 points
   Terry Golightly received     30 points
   Beth Lynn Eicher received    27 points
   Stanley Slomberg received    21 points
   Bob Turley received          17 points

Accordingly, the Chair declared Jim Harris, Vance Kochenderfer, Terry Golightly, Beth Lynn Eicher, and Stanley Slomberg elected.

The meeting adjourned at 5:00 PM.

(Approved on December 11, 2010 - VK)

Meeting Staff

If you would like to volunteer to assist with this meeting, please add your name to one or more of the categories below.

• Host: David Kraus
• Co-Host: Your name here
• Donuts/Bagels: WPLUG Board
• Setup: David Kraus, Your name here
• Clean Up: David Kraus, Your name here

Carpooling

Unfortunately, this venue has poor transit options. Please sign up below if you are available to transport people to the venue or need a ride.

• Vance Kochenderfer can provide rides from the Castle Shannon area. I can also pick up people from the Castle Shannon or Willow Avenue "T" stations. Please e-mail me if interested.