[TriLUG] Starting a LUG

[Magnus Hedemark]

On Tue, 17 Feb 2004, Errol Casey wrote:

> Can Trilug members provide any insight; I could share to these folks?

It's worth pointing out that most of the people who were very involved 
with starting TriLUG are not much involved with TriLUG anymore.

*However*, I think that the people that are in TriLUG now are probably 
better qualified to say what sorts of things work/don't work when growing 
a LUG as TriLUG has grown into one of the larger more professionally run 
LUGs in the country.  TriLUG membership and meeting attendance figures a 
incredibly disproportionate to the size of the local population which it 
serves.

> I know a lot of the original founders of Trilug have moved on ... but 
> there are a lot of folks that were here when it all started, and remember 
> things, and have did it with other LUGs, etc.

I wasn't here in the very beginning but Dreyfus certainly had plenty of 
available seating when I started coming.  I think that TriLUG really 
started to explode when the members went out of their way to offer a 
little something for everybody.  Meeting topics started including both 
hardcore geek tech and the whimsical.  One month might be a talk on kernel 
hacking, and the next on how to make better use of the Linux distro 
running on your TiVo.  Installfests have grown increasingly popular, and 
there seems to be continuing interest in the classes as well.

The volunteer spirit is very much alive in TriLUG and I think it is 
important to not underestimate the importance of that.  Giving volunteers 
a sense of ownership in the LUG will inspire them to go the extra mile to 
make things just that much better.  In TriLUG this is evident with the 
member services provided with the hosted machines, with the classes, 
installfests and more.  I think many take it for granted that all the 
TriLUG meetings will have wireless Internet connectivity but you know 
what, that is set up by a volunteer too.

Being set up as a non profit entity makes it easy to accept cash 
donations, corporate sponsorship, etc.  It's a little bit of a pain to do 
this up front, and will cost the founders a little bit of money up front, 
but over the long haul it makes it easier for local businesses and other 
benefactors to do things to help your LUG out.