[MLB-WIRELESS] General Meetings

[Bryan Pliatsios]

>> Wireless workshop sounds more frindly and will give the community  
>> a feeling
>> of there is training and sales og wireless equipment.

I would suggest that this would also be an opportune moment to again  
publicise MW with newspaper and radio interviews covering the  
upgrades to GHO and very specific example of the "cool uses" of the  
network. http://forum.techtalkradio.com.au/viewforum.php?f=4 I  
already planted a seed a few days ago.

While a member, I'm not all that involved. I see MW as a resource or  
consultative group with a network that I could leverage to my own  
ends, but I'm a wifi mad geek already. When I talk about MW with  
friends and family that I'd like to get onto the network they want to  
know what other ppl do with it, and I don't really have good answers.

 From the outside looking it appears that the spark has left MW, with  
a number of nodes I've been interested in (for various reasons)  
closing down, losing interest or frustrated by the lack of action by  
other members.

Changing the meeting format is definitely needed. I walked in on the  
last meeting half way through and found 6-8 members trying to listen  
to the presentation while 10 other conversations were drowning them  
out from around the room and in the kitchen.

Perhaps a 10 minute general business/general interest by a committee  
member followed by a 20-30min 'Topic for Beginners' and a 20-30min  
'State of the Network' or 'Advanced Topics' that doesn't completely  
leave the new guys bored and confused. Importantly, get more chairs  
and everybody sits attentively for an hour and then everybody walks  
around making plans and arguing points. Having an attentive audience  
will hopefully bring everybody up to a common level and improve the  
average member's skills and knowledge.

As there is internet access, I'd like to see a member tasked with the  
job of summarizing the meeting and taking basics notes of content  
discussed and relevant links that would go up on the wiki during or  
at the end of the meeting. Just a cut'n'paste of a point form rundown  
would suffice and create a jumping off point to create new articles  
and definitions on the wiki. Often it's easier to remember *when* you  
heard an answer that what the answer was. So being able to look back  
over the past few meetings as a starting point for finding an answer  
would definitely help.

This plan would make for a 60-80minute meeting, and if started at 8pm  
there would still be an hour for the BBQ before and around 3hours of  
chatter after the meeting.

Of course these are only suggestions, and I'll leave it to you to  
decide if I'm talking out my .ear.

Bryan
nodeJCB