[SGVLUG] Jul 9th Meeting Recap

[Lan Dang]

tl;dr Turn out was about 29 people in total.  Thanks  Bill, Mike P-S, Jess, John K, and Ed.  Great talk by Nathan about publishing and technology. A book and Ubuntu swag was given away.  Comments on Du-Par's as a venue and unpaid dinner bills :(


The room setup was much better than last time. Thanks, Bill, for the suggestion.  We set up the screen on the opposite end, with the folding doors.  This time, they were able to put away the wing chairs better, so we had more flexibility in pushing back the line of tables and using the booths.  I think I need to set the projector about 4 feet from the screen in order to mostly fill the screen.   Ed brought a PA and Jess brought a microphone, so even people in the back of the room could hear our presenter clearly.  John K brought the extra long extension cord that gave us the freedom to reorient the room.  Mike P-S stepped up as emcee, as usual, and led Linux in the News.


Nathan Haines (@nhaines) came prepared with Ubuntu swag and a Ubuntu reference book for giveaway.  He gave a great talk on the publishing process, both traditional and self-publishing, non-fiction and fiction, print and ebooks.   Nathan is currently working on a book called "Ubuntu for Windows and Mac Users" for APress (hopefully to be published in October), but he also has experience with various aspects of the publishing process through his freelance work.  He kept it relevant to the LUG by showing how the software you can get with Linux and Ubuntu were good enough for the writing purpose; he did not have to turn to Microsoft Word or other proprietary products.   He tried recording his talk using his Nexus 7; we'll see if he managed to capture the whole talk.


http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Ubuntu-Linux-Windows-Users/dp/1484206096

I'm actually intrigued by his book.  It is aimed at savvy computer users who are getting into Linux, but may need a little guide to Linux equivalents of the programs they use on other operating systems.  That fits my situation.  I am very familiar with the Linux commandline due to work, but I know very little about the Linux desktop, and that has been a barrier to me adopting Linux at home.  I also really like Nathan's way of describing things and his attention to details.  Here's hoping he keeps his deadline and gets the book published by October.  I think it would be a great book to have at our 20th anniversary party.
  


Du-Par's is working pretty well as a venue.  The room works for presentation format meetings, and they have been very accommodating.  But we're still trying to figure out the best way to deal with dinner orders and bills.

We need to work harder to communicate with the powers that be at Du-Par's.  Despite our standing reservation and my call to them the day before, they still tried to set us up in the patio room.  I'm happy I insisted on the middle room because we ended up with nearly 30 people, with several new faces, and some people we haven't seen in a while.  Our server was very good about accommodating us, but frankly, she was overwhelmned.  New people kept showing up and wanting to order; the tables had not been fully laid out with table settings; we wanted separate bills; and we obviously did not want to be interrupted during the presentation. For a group of our size, she really could've used more help.

We were able to get most of the orders handled before 8pm, but we weren't able to settle the bills until the end of the meeting.  People were a little frustrated that they couldn't settle their bills in a timely manner so they could leave.  Additionally, there wasn't much identifying information on the bill aside from what the order was.  At the end of the night, there were 4 bills that were unpaid.  I think there was a fish and chips order, a split pea soup and half sandwich order, and a large bill that was over $40.  I would've covered it, but our server ended up voiding the bills.  It made us feel bad, but I wasn't going to argue. I really hope it was a misunderstanding and that people had paid their bills at the register so they could leave.


We talked about how we could do better next time.  I think we need to talk to the manager the day of the meeting to make sure they have enough servers for our group and know how to take the dinner orders and bring the bills.  Separate checks are the only option.  It is probably better for people to settle their bills as soon as they get their food, so they can leave whenever they need to leave; it additionally makes it a lot easier to match bill to person.  I also highly recommend that the server take down people's names with their orders.



Lan