New leadership for 2020/2021
by Steven Maddox
Hey Folks,
Notice this isn't my usual e-mail address! :)
Preamble:
StaffsLUG has been a project of Function Office since 2016, when the
final pieces were transferred over from the former LUGMaster.
Unfortunately in the 3 years prior, activity was at an extreme minimum
and so it took a further 3 years to confidently know an audience could
be found and willing to participate on the level that it does now.
As most of you will be aware we "relaunched" on 26th August 2019.
One year later:
As one of the directors of Function Office it has given me great
pleasure to see the LUG thrive again, especially as I was personally an
active member for many years in the 2000's and 2010's.
As originally intended, now is the time to devolve the project. This
means an end to the 3 temporary co-caretakers and instead appointing a
singular project leader, who can then involve whomever they determine
may be able to help them ensure continued success of the project.
Use of Function Office resources such as hosting, contacts, equipment,
banking and supplier agreements (like use of the WRS room) just continue
as they do now. You can even request that Function Office staff wear a
"second hat" and join you in *your* team to help you run the LUG if you
like, so it doesn't need to be a daunting task at all.
This will be done in the following stages...
- Stage 1: Everyone is encouraged to send nominations by e-mail to
info(a)functionoffice.org by no later than the 5th August 2020.
- Stage 2: If nominated by at least 3 people they'll be asked if they
want the role, replies needed no later than the 12th to be considered.
- Stage 3: Nominations get published on the 19th, any objections need to
be received no later than the 19th to info(a)functionoffice.org only.
- Stage 4: Nominees may be asked questions such as any relevant
experience or other supporting credentials to help us make a decision.
- Stage 5: Function Office staff discuss the subject and the board
agrees a new project leader which will be announced on the 26th.
- Stage 6: Internally within the LUG, the project leader can title
themselves however they like (e.g. Governor or LUGMaster, etc...) and
can create new roles for whomever they like to assist them internally.
Discussions over what mechanism should be used to run the LUG have
occurred ad nauseam over the years and the above is the *final* outcome.
As for myself, as Function Office continues to grow, freeing up even a
slither of time would be good and so I do not seek to be project leader.
Hope this all makes sense,
Since this is a Function Office process, I'd be grateful if any
questions surrounding this be sent directly to info(a)functionoffice.org.
Thanks
--
Steven Maddox
Director
Function Office
Registered in England & Wales number 06745059 at Apt 3454, Chynoweth
House, Trevissome Park, Truro, TR4 8UN.
2 years, 9 months
Happy Windows Refund Day! (for another 24 minutes anyway!)
by Steven Maddox
Hey,
So I forgot to say that I wrote a little blog post on the site today
about how it is *Windows Refund Day*... woo!
22 years and counting... this day started only a couple of weeks before
this very LUG started.
https://staffslug.org.uk/happy-windows-refund-day/
p.s. if the page is running slow... I already know... and I need to
re-work some things on the web server to make it speedier! But it
should open eventually.
I meant to send an e-mail about this earlier, but you know... work and
stuff :)
--
Steven Maddox
Lantizia
3 years, 10 months
Domain registrars
by Robin Phillips
Hi all,
Who do you recommend for registering domains, and why?
Robin
3 years, 10 months
Sharing Talks and Speakers
by Adam Sweet
Hi all
I run Wolves LUG and have been a Staffs subscriber for about a year but
only an occasional poster. I worked at Keele Uni about 10 years ago and
was a Staffs subscriber then too, though I don't think there were
meetings at the time.
We're trying to get up on our feet hosting talks at Wolves and the first
will be on 10th Feb. I'll post the details of that to your meetings list
separately if that's the right place, the reason for this post is to
encourage the sharing of talks and events between the local LUGs along
with NoVa LUG in the US who themselves host regular well attended talks
and share them with us. If you have any events or talks in future please
share them with the Wolves LUG list, or ask me to.
I'll be doing a talk in March on password cracking using a GPU, password
security and why complexity matters etc. I'll post about that nearer the
time.
We're looking for speakers for April onwards. If you have a 20-60 minute
talk you'd like to offer, or you can think of someone who would be
interested then please get in touch. It doesn't need to be a technical
deep dive, or even technical for that matter just something related to
Linux and Open Source, or interesting to Linux/Open Source nerds.
I'd like to get to the point where we can raise an audience large enough
to interest some well known speakers and I imagine none of the local
LUGs can do that alone. At least while everything is via video
conference there's no barrier to joining each other's events and we may
be able to build a decent audience for potential speakers.
So I hope you don't mind me posting our events on your list, I think
they'll be of interest to your subscribers. Likewise, please send us
your events so I can share them with ours. Or feel free to ask me to
stop if you're not interested :)
Regards,
Adam
3 years, 10 months
