Meeting-20120211

Order of business:

1:30pm to ~2:00pm Setup
2:00pm to ~2:30pm General User Meeting
2:30pm to ~5:15pm InstallFest activities
5:15pm to ~5:30pm break down and stow gear

Curious about Free Software/Linux? Tired of spending good coin on a new rig to "upgrade" to the latest and or "greatest" that Cupertino or Redmond have to offer? Then you have come to the right place.

At an InstallFest, bring your aging/new rig and test drive a linux distribution (distro) live (run from you optical/usb drive or just install on a separate partition on your had drive and dual boot oooorrr just wipe that old Redmond install and take the plunge. Go completely Redmond free. (We understand that that is not always possible but we at WPLUG like to think positively).

Several flavors of Linux will be on hand to for you to check out. *Vendors such as Fedora, Kubuntu, Arch or Linux Mint. On hand will be knowledgeable professionals there to help your install go smoothly or help out should something should go awry.

As for hardware, WPLUG recommends hardware not older than 5 years. Keep in mind that there are distributions of Linux that can run and run well on older hardware 586/686. We may not have them on media onsite, but can in most cases be downloaded over our network. However, if this is the case, you might want to post to our mailing list requesting assistance:

http://www.wplug.org/mailman/listinfo/wplug

• WPLUG does not endorse any particular Linux distribution.

Meeting Minutes

The regular meeting of the Western Pennsylvania Linux Users Group was held on Saturday, February 11, 2012, at 2:17 PM, at the Wilkins School Community Center, the regular presiding officer being in the chair and the secretary being present. The minutes of the November 11, 2011 meeting were approved as read.

The Chair reported that he's looking for speakers. There are a couple planned for the March/April time frame. Also, he reported that more volunteers for committees is welcome, particularly for the Program Committee.

The Vice-Chair was not present and had nothing to report.

The Secretary reported that WPLUG currently has 16 members.

The Treasurer reported that current finances as of end of January are $835.67. Recent deposits of 40 dollars, plus there are some dues that are being held. With those, the total funds available are $925.67. The process of getting the signature cards done has not been completed yet, as still have to work with Beth Lynn Eicher to make this happen. Also, as of 2/2 there is a bill for the PO box. It costs $94.00 for year, and is due by 2/29.

The Director-at-Large reported that she's working with ComputeReach and the Homeless Children's Education Fund. She also talked to a recruiter from E-Safe Consulting and told him to send employment opportunities to the wplug-jobs email list. He would also like to give a talk sometime, and WPLUG is alright with that as long as it's a soft sell. She also reported that lots of people asking for volunteers to teach. Currently WPLUG is thinking about having Linux classes at Goodwill, but this being actualized is currently not certain.

The Internet Committee has nothing to report.

The Program Committee reported that it is looking for speakers and is interested in ideas about how to attract speakers. The speaker in March will be Vance Kochenderfer, and the talk will be about secure shell. The committee is also looking to have more users join the group and come to Installfests. It was mentioned that Hack Pittsburgh possibly wants to work with WPLUG to have an Installfest in the near future. Lastly, there was mention about trying to update online calendars to post our events.

The Investigating Committee has nothing to report.

The Newsletter Committee has nothing to report.

The Public Relations Committee has nothing to report.

The Wilkins School Network Committee reports that the third floor needs finished, as well as a room on second floor. Member Nick Schembri wants to discuss this outside of the meeting, as a leader is needed to to finish this. That said, Brian Seklecki will volunteer for this role as he used to be an electrician. Brian and Nick will discuss this further.

With respect to New Business, there was a variety of discussion. One thing mentioned was that the WPLUG.org site could potentially be redone using a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, et cetera. Another topic discussed was that perhaps a local company can host a WPLUG Linux repository, and that the feasibility should be discussed in the future. Member John Lewis also expressed his interest to head the Program Committee or at least take on a large role, as well as update the WPLUG calendar and Twitter account.

The final piece of New Business was a motion made by the secretary:

MOTION to destroy old ballots as per the bylaws; seconded and passed.

The meeting adjourned at 2:43 PM.

(Approved on March 10, 2012 - JP)

How to help - Sign up here

LAN setup - move equipment into the building, turn on switches, deploy power and ethernet cables in a responsible manner starting at 1:30pm.

• Pat Barron
• Your name here
• Your name here

LAN cleanup - turn off switches and pack up WPLUG equipment.

• Pat Barron
• Vance Kochenderfer
• Your name here

Technical support staff - these are people who are willing to field questions in your area of expertise. You will wear a name tag. Your name and area of expertise will be posted conspicuously inside the meeting space.

• Pat Barron. I can help with ... Basic installations - Fedora/Debian/CentOS
• Your name here. I can help with ... (distribution selection, mythtv, voip, open office and word processing)
• Your name here. I can help with ... (sound configuration, obscure hardware, graphics software, security)
• Your name here. I can help with ... (usb drive configuration, virtualization, programming tools, backups)
• Your name here. I can help with ... (<the name of your favorite distro>, Wine, printer/scanner setup)
• Your name here. I can help with ... (Linux gaming, disk partitioning, configuring a modem, dual display)
• Your name here. I can help with ... (Upgrading your hardware - memory, DVD drive, adding an additional card)
• Your name here. I can help with ... (Laptops, databases, Linux command line, networking, CD burning)

Refreshments - reimbursements will be provided with receipts. Note that we do not have access to refrigeration at this venue.

• Your name here, I am bringing ... Coffee, tea, hot chocolate
• Vance Kochenderfer ... Sodas, bottled water
• Judi Galardi. I am bringing ... 19 twinkies (in honor of "Zombieland") and a bag of pretzels.
• Your name here. I am bringing ... (afternoon snacks such as chips or popcorn)

General cleanup - make sure we don't make a mess. This entails cleaning up after the food and trash management.

• Pat Barron
• Your name here