Thank you to those that participated in this discussion. Unfortunately we do not have a consensus on this issue yet. One down side to healthy list discussion is that the list's daily volume increases, sometimes becoming overwhelming.
I have just finished major editing of the Groups wiki page. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CaliforniaTeam/Projects/UserGroupContacts/Groups lists the groups and has links at the bottom to other user group lists such as the one by svlug.org mentioned by Larry which I just added. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CaliforniaTeam/Projects/UserGroupContacts/ (remove Groups from above link) explains the project and encourages others to help out by being a contact/liaison with a group that is local. To help clarify for everyone I have attached a .jpg of what we are talking about. The .jpg shows currently what the wiki page https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CaliforniaTeam/Menu looks like when included at the top of almost all the wiki pages used by the California team. The "User Group" link was in the Get Involved section with a link from the text "Local Meetings" to the list of groups at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CaliforniaTeam/Projects/UserGroupContacts/Groups The link text "Local Meetings" was used previously but "User Groups" or an alternative link text might be more appropriate. I mentioned a few in my last email. [1] I welcome suggestions. Why every page? People often find a web page (wiki or otherwise) through search results. Having the link on only one or a hand full of pages would limit the exposure of Ubuntu users to other (hopefully close by) Ubuntu users. I do not find this particular link or it's placement "arbitrary" in any way as I hope has become evident. The "Get Involved" section is very purposeful - to direct less active members, first timers and/or "the public" to take action to "Get Involved" in the broader Open Source or specifically our LoCo activities. That section is intentionally "outward facing," inviting action and greater involvement. As the Groups page is intended to be crowd sourced by (hopefully) active LoCo members and other contributors and because it directly links (at the bottom) to similar user group lists it should not be difficult to keep updated, especially as more active LoCo members step forward to act as "Contacts." This also raises the visibility of the LoCo without requiring additional organized LoCo activities and gives a tangible way for new members to become more active. Many of these benefits were outlined in the quotations from my previous email. [1] My hope is this additional exposure to motivated Linux enthusiasts will increase the rate of recruiting for LoCo activities. Every volunteer group must address recruitment somehow, either actively or passively. To those that don't live near any established User Groups, I would invite them to create a simple User Group as a "meetup" at www.meetup.com. All it takes to begin is showing up consistently. This is the route Robert, Phil and I are taking in Walnut Creek with http://www.dvlug.org for our weekly Friday night 6:00 meeting. It has been small but quite rewarding with a new person showing up each week and fascinating discussions. Organized monthly speakers are nice but not an absolute requirement for a user group. In areas with more active groups this high standard makes it seem a requirement but it is not. In fact, creating physical subgroup LoCo meetings is formally encouraged for all LoCos. [2] Recommending "appropriate" placement on "appropriate" pages without concrete recommendations seems intended to redirect and/or bury the issue entirely. Specific suggestions would be helpful. Some have mentioned that the purpose of the wiki differs from the purpose of our LoCo. I don't know of any reasons why an artificial distinction might be useful or helpful. This exercise to get our group as Open Source Software advocates to help other OSS advocates feels "a little absurd" as Jack mentioned and overly complex for "ONE SINGLE LINK" as Paul mentioned (his emphasis), especially as there is ample space for the link. The specific link in the Menu wiki page costs us almost nothing and could yield great benefits. I welcome discussion. Grant Bowman https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CaliforniaTeam P.S. I welcome discussion, however please start a different email thread to discuss different, unrelated topics. [1] https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-us-ca/2009-June/000650.html cites parts of https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoFAQ https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeamHowto https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoWorkingWithOtherGroups https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeams [2] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoFAQ#My%20country%20is%20too%20big%20to%20have%20single%20meet-ups.%20What%20do%20I%20do? My country is too big to have single meet-ups. What do I do? We recommend that you encourage localised groups to meet up. So, as an example, in the UK LoCo team, there are proposed meet-ups in the West Midlands, Northwest, South etc. This allows local Ubuntu users to meet together. We always recommend that these local teams are part of the country or state wide LoCo team. So, in the example of the UK local groups, they are all part of ubuntu-uk. More details on this are in the LoCoTeamHowto. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeamHowto#Regional%20Meetings Regional Meetings In the vast majority of countries the country is geographically too large for there to be a single meeting that everyone can attend. With this in mind, we really recommend that regional meetings are organised. These regional sub-groups are organised so that it is geographically easier for people to attend the meetings. These sub-groups can also advocate Ubuntu to people in that specific area. Importantly, all regional groups should be a part of the bigger Loco team. So as an example, the Northwest regional team in the UK team should be part of ubuntu-uk. As such, everyone is in the same larger LoCo team (e.g. ubuntu-uk) but certain groups of members are in regional sub-groups. It is recommended that you have a 'Meetings' page on your wiki pages in which members can create regional meeting pages with details of where and when people will meet.
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