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<p>This may be a long email, so be please be patient. <br>
</p>
<p>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</p>
<ul>
<li>How often to meet</li>
<li>Where to meet</li>
<li>Sponsorships</li>
<li>Presenters</li>
</ul>
<p>It's hard to prioritize any of those as more important than the
others, so I'll just start with one: the meeting place.</p>
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<p>As things stand now, we have two options: Francis Tuttle and
Oklahoma Christian. <br>
</p>
<p>Francis Tuttle:<br>
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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. <br>
</p>
<p>We also have a long-standing relationship with FT, so that <i>should</i>
help grease some wheels, but they still have procedures to
follow, so that's something to keep in mind.<br>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Oklahoma Christian:<br>
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Having it on a campus like that might actually help draw in a
new crowd, as, <i>hopefully</i>, 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.<br>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p><b>Question 1:</b> Which of these options seems the most
appealing/effective? Making other suggestions is also an option.</p>
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<p>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?</p>
<p><b>Question 2:</b> Is semi-monthly an acceptable starting point,
or should we push for monthly?</p>
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<p>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</p>
<p><b>Question 3:</b> Does anyone have presentations ready (or that
can be made ready) to present, or does anyone know someone willing
to show and present? <br>
</p>
<hr width="100%" size="2">
<p>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:</p>
<ul>
<li>Lunch for attendees</li>
<li>Audio/video equipment for in the room</li>
<li>Streaming capabilities</li>
<li>Online RSVP</li>
<li>A physical location to meet<br>
</li>
</ul>
<p>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.</p>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>Thanks, and I hope to talk again soon. :)<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Jason Lee<br>
OKC JUG President<br>
<a href="https://jasondl.ee" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://jasondl.ee</a><br>
<a href="https://twitter.com/jasondlee/twitter">https://twitter.com/jasondlee</a><br>
<a href="http://linkedin.com/in/jasondlee"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">http://linkedin.com/in/jasondlee</a></div>
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