[Steering Committee] JUG Updates

[Jason Lee]

This may be a long email, so be please be patient.

I haven't given up hope on restarting the JUG, but it has, no doubt, 
been a slow, up hill effort. Given that we're on the cusp of Christmas, 
not much more is going to happen this year. Next year, however, I'd like 
to get the ball fully rolling, which means settling topics of

  * How often to meet
  * Where to meet
  * Sponsorships
  * Presenters

It's hard to prioritize any of those as more important than the others, 
so I'll just start with one: the meeting place.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

As things stand now, we have two options: Francis Tuttle and Oklahoma 
Christian.

Francis Tuttle:

    Depending on which campus we get to use, FT might be a better
    location, but they also seem a bit more rigid about facilities
    reservations, etc. If it's the Reno location, it's right off of I-40
    for easy access from all over the city. If it's the Rockwell campus,
    then it's buried in far NW OKC. It's right off the turnpike, but
    that's a turnpike and pretty far north. There are other campuses
    that might be an option, but those are the two I've seen mentioned,
    IIRC.

    We also have a long-standing relationship with FT, so that /should/
    help grease some wheels, but they still have procedures to follow,
    so that's something to keep in mind.

Oklahoma Christian:

    David North, a professor at OC, has offered to host us on campus,
    but that's farther north than we typically meet, which makes things
    more difficult for some (Hobby Lobby, Norman, etc). It is "just" off
    Broadway Extension (and fairly close to I-35), so it's mostly
    highway getting there, but it's still pretty far north.

    Having it on a campus like that might actually help draw in a new
    crowd, as, /hopefully/, we'd be able to entice some of the comp sci
    students to attend (and even present). Side note: once/if we're back
    up full speed, I intend to reach out to local unis to try to get the
    word out to their comp sci depts and try to pull in some more students.

*Question 1:* Which of these options seems the most appealing/effective? 
Making other suggestions is also an option.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

How often to meet is, I think, a fairly easy question. We've done 
monthly, but we don't have to stick to that, necessarily. We would need 
a steady stream of presenters, of course, so that makes me think we aim 
for semi-monthly?

*Question 2:* Is semi-monthly an acceptable starting point, or should we 
push for monthly?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whether we go monthly or semi-monthly, we're going to need something to 
present. I can beat the bushes in my little circle of tech friends, and 
I have some presentations I'm working on for conferences, but the J in 
JUG is for "Java", not "Jason". Nobody's going to want to show up and 
here me yammer every time :P

*Question 3:* Does anyone have presentations ready (or that can be made 
ready) to present, or does anyone know someone willing to show and present?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sponsorship is always a tough one. Ryan applied for Techlahoma 
membership. He asked for $640 for food for 8 meetings, as well as venue 
and social media announcements. Hopefully that should cover us (and may 
take care of question 1). If that falls through or we were expecting too 
much, please be thinking about options for finding sponsors. The things 
that we need/would like are:

  * Lunch for attendees
  * Audio/video equipment for in the room
  * Streaming capabilities
  * Online RSVP
  * A physical location to meet

There are companies that offer these to JUGs. I have it on my list to 
contact them to fill in any gaps that we may have with Techlahoma 
membership. Any input/assist from the rest of the SC would be very much 
appreciated.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think that's it for now. Thanks for reading this far. I really hope we 
can get things back on track soon. I think Java User Groups are a great 
asset for everyone involved (I know I've benefited greatly), so I'd love 
to nurse ours back to health. :) I truly appreciate everyone's help as 
we try to (re)build the group, but if you feel you no longer want to be 
involved, there are no hard feelings. You can either lurk or unsubscribe.

Thanks, and I hope to talk again soon. :)


-- 
Jason Lee
OKC JUG President
https://jasondl.ee
https://twitter.com/jasondlee <https://twitter.com/jasondlee/twitter>
http://linkedin.com/in/jasondlee
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.okcjug.org/pipermail/sc-okcjug.org/attachments/20221214/5ba203d4/attachment.htm>