[Lopsa-regional-project] hello..

[Jennifer Davis]

> You want to post your opinion: Have at.
>
> You want to tell my local group what to do?  Get lost.

*Laughs*

I'm sorry.  I was taught not to preface my opinion with "my opinion
is" because it's generally understood .. ..   Just as I'm prefacing an
understanding of your entire email with a "In your opinion"..

I'll redirect you to my post again:
"Individually I'd like to point out that within each group that already
exists,"

Translated.. As an Individual.. I would like to point out that in my
opinion that within each group... as in _Just Me Speaking my Mind_ not
an ultimatum or a demand.

It wasn't a.. "Everyone Do This Now".. but "hey it would be helpful if
people did this".

I'm not telling you what to do with your group.  I'm saying it would
be useful/helpful in order for _anyone_ to be able to assist _anyone
else_.

Do groups want more members?  Do groups want better organization?  Do
groups want better speakers?  Do groups need financial assistance?  Is
it just about meeting once a month?

Is your group more of a "user group", a club, or a professional
association?  I'm not telling you what to do with your group.. I'm
saying do you actually know?  My group isn't _me_.  It's my groups. 
It's what my group wants not what I want.  Do you know what the people
in your area want?  Is it compatible with what your group wants?  You
can have a more professional group where people pay for meetings.  You
can have a more relaxed group where it's all free.  (or either of
those mixed).  People wearing suits vs tshirts and jeans.  It can be
about serious issues, educating, or just blowing off steam.  I'm not
assuming anything for anyone.. I'm point blank stating that I'm not
doing that.  I'm saying "hey I'm available to help out" and "show me
how you want help".  I'm about following through with that with
actions and not just saying it too.

Esther, I think you have something in your bonnet
specifically/personally about me, or something you've experienced in
the past.  I'm asking that you please take it offline to discuss with
me if you have a personal issue, or solve it on your own time.  I'm
not going to defend myself or my comments to this list anymore because
I think I've been pretty clear at this point.  If people don't want my
help .. that's cool :) I don't mind people saying "hey thanks, but no
thanks."  Don't be rude to me because you perceive my content in a
negative manner.

Michael,  what can LOPSA do for BayLISA?  I'm not sure yet.  Some of
the things that we have thought about doing over the past year could
be better managed from a overhead organization, but it's about
control, flow, and balances.  It would be nice to not have to
worry/figure out some items.. but we need to know that it's reliably
being taken care of.  We have the start of a speakers bureau (not
published yet, but slowly been built up over the last year).  We have
contacts at various organizations that are interested in supporting
locals.  We are in the process of offering shell accounts for users,
and providing email addresses.  There are a lot of possibilities, but
I think at this point it feels like LOPSA needs to have a more solid
grounding itself.  I think that more strong locals will be able to
support LOPSA and in turn that will end up with more locals being able
to be formed.  One thing that would be useful _right now_ is providing
a place that potential speakers/luminaries in the field could say "hey
I'm going to be in X area, anyone interested in having me talk".  That
would give locals a place to check for potential interesting speakers
and take advantage of matching schedules rather than having to pay to
fly someone in.  Radia Perlman is an excellent speaker, and I randomly
contacted Sun to find out that she is in the Bay area once a month so
we managed to snag some of her time last year.  There are plenty of
other situations where this happens I'm sure.  Right now I end up
looking at conference websites (which aren't easily listed anywhere
either.. I google for them occasionally), and finding potential
speakers in the area.  I also use LinkedIn and cold query about
interest in talking at BayLISA when I'm looking for a specific
individual.  So having a nice place that sysadmin speaker types could
post "I'm in Dallas from April 1-7" would be good.

I think it would be useful if there was a discounted membership for BL
members.  "$20 add on to BL membership gets you a LOPSA membership". 
I think this is the reverse of what someone proposed.. but it makes
the local membership more attractive, and gets people interested in
more on a national level.

Jennifer