WPLUGBoard/Meeting-20120403

Venue Info

Meeting to be held at The Coffee Tree Roasters at 5524 Walnut Street in Shadyside, Pittsburgh, PA 15232. 6:00pm, Tuesday, April 3, 2012.

Agenda

• Approve minutes of March 6 board meeting
• The book I was considering readng
• Applying for a Sprout Fund Grant for the banner(s)
• List your item here

Minutes

The regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the Western Pennsylvania Linux Users Group was held on Tuesday, April 3, 2012, at 6:11 PM, at Coffee Tree Roasters in Shadyside. The regular presiding officer was in the Chair and the Secretary was present. The minutes of the March 6, 2012 meeting were approved as read.

The Chair reported the he did get in touch with Brian Seklecki and that he will arrange with his former boss to evaluate the Wilkins School networking situation. Also, the upcoming WPLUG general meeting will feature Pat Barron speaking about KVM. Perhaps in the future, Ted Rodgers could give a sysadmin talk, and maybe somebody from LOPSA could explain the basics of firewalling. A general talk like the basics of Linux security would make a great topic.

The Vice Chair has nothing to report.

The Secretary reported that there is currently 17 dues-paying members. He also mentioned that nothing was new on the O'Reilly front, as they never sent correspondence about acceptance into their program. The Secretary will follow up with them to see where the state of the application review is. Discussion then followed about ways to increase membership and help promote the group. WPLUG needs to talk to Martin from SNAP Pittsburgh and to Nick Pinkston of the Pittsburgh Tech to make sure events get published on those sites. The group should also write a press release and look into getting that put into the local papers, as well as having a PSA sent out to local radio stations. The Vice Chair will take on this responsibility and report back.

The Treasurer reported that he checked the WPLUG PO Box, but there was no new bank statement. The bank balance is the same as reported at the last board meeting, minus 94 dollars for the PO Box renewal. Due to there being a new member of WPLUG, 20 dollars was deposited into the account. The Treasurer also mentioned the financial projections he sent out to the board, and said that the board needs to seriously consider the implications and try to find a way to increase incoming money, whether that is by increased membership, or by other avenues such as donations. The Treasurer also mentioned that some feedback he got about declining membership numbers was that there definitely needs to be advanced topics done for presentations to the group. The Treasurer mentioned that his upcoming KVM talk will be advanced, as will Vance Kochenderfer upcoming follow-up talk about secure shell. On the non-financial front, there was an invitation from the Ubuntu Pennsylvania team to use their forum to promote our events. Their website is http://ubuntupennsylvania.org. Lastly, the Treasurer mentioned that the group probably shouldn't have a business meeting at every general meeting, which resulted in the following motion:

MOTION to have the next WPLUG business meeting at the May meeting; seconded and passed.

The Director-at-Large reported back about the book she was reviewing, called "Design in Nature" by Adrian Bejan. She reported that the book was not very well written, nor did it provide much value. Therefore, she suggested that no further action be taken regarding this book and its principles. She also wrote Johnny Q. congratulating Goodwill on the grant they received. She then reported that she would be attending a Sprout Fund meeting on Thursday, April 5th to gather more information about the process involved. She would like to decide on what size and how many banners to get, as well as anything else WPLUG could ask for via the proposal. Other things to consider at this time are getting a projector and sound system that can be utilized by Wilkins School. The Chair mentioned that he would get in touch with Patty from Wilkins School and get feedback from her. The banner(s) would be great to have if WPLUG was a part of an event like the Pittsburgh Arts Festival in June. The banner would also help attendees at events like Software Freedom Day much easier find the WPLUG table. She mentioned that she would like to get pricing done for designing and printing vinyl banners for WPLUG, which resulted in the following motion:

MOTION to have the Director at Large explore costs for banner design and printing; seconded and passed.

The Internet Committee had nothing to report.

The Program Committee reported that Pat Barron will speak in April on the topic of KVM, yet there is no speaker currently lined up for May. Perhaps a topic like open source software in the classroom could be a potential topic. Another idea would be discussion about the Raspberry Pi.

The Investigating Committee had nothing to report.

The Newsletter Committee had nothing to report.

The Public Relations Committee had nothing to report.

The Wilkins School Networking Committee reports that Brian Seklecki and the electrician will be meeting at the Wilkins School shortly to evaluate the wiring situation and give guidance.

There are no Special Orders that need to be addressed.

There is no unfinished Business that needs to be addressed.

With respect to new business, The Treasurer brought up the need for a membership credential such as plastic membership cards. Not only can this be used to easily identify members, but if WPLUG partners with retailers, this can be utilized for discounts and the like. The Chair suggested this option be explored for feasibility based on cost. Membership cards should also be put into theo Sprout Fund proposal, alongside the banner and other items.

In the last piece of new business, the Chair mentioned that due to Ubuntu apparently not giving out free, official live DVDs anymore, perhaps making DVDs for WPLUG events utilizing a technology such as Lightscribe should be explored. This would be much cleaner than hand-writing labels, and also more cost-effective than printing and applying labels to the media directly.

The meeting adjourned at 7:57 PM.

Joseph Prostko
Secretary, Western Pennsylvania Linux Users Group

(Approved on May 1, 2012 - JP)