[Lopsa-regional-project] Another local leader chimes in

[Jim Hickstein]

>> BBLISA has its own domain, server, bandwidth, web site, and mailing
>> lists; we are considered to be enough a part of "The MIT (*) Community"
>> that they give us a meeting space at no cost. Unless we were to lose our
>> donated colo/bandwidth I can't see us giving up our server; I can't
>> imagine why we'd ever give up our domain.
> 
> A perfect example of an existing group we'd like to work with, I think.
> BBLISA is established and doing quite well, as I understand it. It doesn't
> need much from LOPSA.

I'll speak up here coming from BayLISA (past board), the other one in 
the US that is independently successful (since 1991).  We (uh, they: I'm 
no longer on the board) likewise have our their domain, host, lists, 
etc.; but these could certainly be valuable services for a new group. 
Even BayLISA would benefit from economies of scale in putting up e.g. 
Drupal and stuff like that: It took _years_ just to get a membership 
database online (i.e. who is paid up, sending renewals, etc.), because 
volunteer effort is so scarce.  (I had to write it from scratch, though 
there are packages out there now that will do this.)  LOPSA needs to 
make this stuff a la carte; some groups will pick pieces and not others. 
  (For instance, BayLISA has a postmaster who is happy to deal with spam 
and abuse, but when he eventually vanishes -- they all do, sooner or 
later -- LOPSA's server would be a handy fallback.)

The biggest thing I think BayLISA could use is help promoting the 
meetings within the region.  LOPSA is national, so just targeting LOPSA 
members wouldn't bring people in from far away (though appearance on a 
national "events" page would be a good addition).  I'm thinking more 
that LOPSA would negotiate with other national groups whose mission is 
related but tangential -- IEEE, ACM, is there a national LUG?, Apple, 
Microsoft, consultants, lawyers, you name it -- to get some space/time 
in their magazine/newsletter/blog/website/meeting to alert people in the 
region that there is this other thing going on they might be interested 
in.  (They can't _all_ be on third Thursdays, right?)

BayLISA has been successful in keeping meetings going, but that takes 
local effort (by, as was pointed out, a core group of people, not just 
one person).  I don't think a national organization can help to show up 
early and set up the projector, etc.  But cold-calling potential 
speakers is a skill that's in short supply; a national organization 
could make that a lot easier just by having a network, without the 
speakers necessarily having to travel or spend money.  Local groups 
would have to contribute contacts they have in other regions, to such an 
"exchange".

I also think many regions simply don't have the necessary critical mass 
of people who are "sysadmins", or know what "sysadmins" are, to sustain 
a local group just for this.  But, again working from the national level 
down, one could co-opt a LUG/ACM/xxx meeting every N months for a focus 
on sysadmin, and that would maybe bring some people out into the open. 
This would only need a core of one person, willing to do a presentation 
in front of another group four times a year.

---

Next Thursday (the third!) I will go to a TCSA meeting for the first 
time.  I moved (back) to Minnesota, and I'm looking for a job, so this 
is a no-brainer for me.  (Mostly, I want to go to dinner afterward, 
which is always where the _real_ action is, but first there has to be a 
meeting.)  Dave Bianchi has been the sole core person -- the "ramrod" as 
I call this -- for TCSA for quite some time, just as Adam has for BBLISA 
(where I did my turn in the barrel, too, in 1994-5).  I don't intend to 
let him off the hook :-) by being the sole ramrod in my turn.  But a 
core of two might manage it to attract a few more.

There is greater scope there for LOPSA.  Dave has a web site, but it 
desperately needs updating (ongoing, with content, as well as 
infrastructure/look).  Membership fees that brought in speakers from 
e.g. BayLISA and BBLISA territory would go a long way.  Jennifer Davis 
(current BayLISA president) has the gift of cold-calling businesses and 
getting them to offer hard cash to "sponsor" such things.  I can do this 
myself, to a degree.  (She puts us all to shame!)  A couple of checks 
could kick-start this.  Then the big deal would be -- again -- a member 
database.  Even if LOPSA didn't touch the money, they could host the 
site to take the payments and keep track of people.  BayLISA is starting 
to offer lots of new "member benefits" with no way for a provider to 
verify who is a member and who isn't.  LOPSA could centralize the 
printing and mailing of membership cards; that would do the trick.  (And 
in exchange, say, LOPSA would get one crack at each new BayLISA member 
to up-sell them on LOPSA membership as well.)

Another idea: BayLISA membership $45, +$20 to add LOPSA and get member 
benefits from all these affiliated groups: (...)  (Easy enough if the 
validation database is central.)  So what if BBLISA members get a 
discount at Newbury Comics (say), and I don't live in Boston: I might go 
sometime!  And quite a bit of what Jennifer is arranging as BayLISA 
member benefits are applicable nationally.

LOPSA should harness Jennifer Davis somehow. :-)  And try to make the 
money, or at least the benefit of it, trickle back down to local groups. 
  I was on SAGE Exec as well, for a year, and that taught me that the 
local groups are where the value really is.  If there must be a national 
bureaucracy, it should, IMHO, be entirely or substantially in aid of and 
at the service of local groups.