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<p>Good evening! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New
Year's. Bumping this to make sure it didn't get lost in the end of
the year hustle. :)<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/14/22 11:19 AM, Jason Lee wrote:<br>
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cite="mid:908916d1-31c7-047f-2cae-7ac7ad2184bf@steeplesoft.com">
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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>
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<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"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://jasondl.ee</a><br>
<a href="https://twitter.com/jasondlee/twitter"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://twitter.com/jasondlee</a><br>
<a href="http://linkedin.com/in/jasondlee"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">http://linkedin.com/in/jasondlee</a></div>
</blockquote>
<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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