[UFO Chicago] [nick@zork.net: [!CrackMonkey!] [evan@debian.org: Re: meeting this month?]]
Peter A. Peterson II
pedro@tastytronic.net
Thu, 28 Mar 2002 01:42:57 -0600
I'm super behind on my crizzackmonkey listmail, but I ran across this,
and it struct me as very UFO, although our meetings are not open to
public-forum calling, mostly because of scheduling and mapping and
stuff like that.
Anyway, read it and weep (for joy).
----- Forwarded message from Nick Moffitt <nick@zork.net> -----
From: Nick Moffitt <nick@zork.net>
To: The Status is that Rob Levin Should Get a Life <crackmonkey@crackmonkey.org>
Subject: [!CrackMonkey!] [evan@debian.org: Re: meeting this month?]
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 15:52:25 -0800
Man, so Evan's experience writing up rules for pigdog announcements
sure came in handy here. This is classic "Mr. Bad Fan Watch"
material.
----- Forwarded message from Evan Prodromou <evan@debian.org> -----
>>>>> "BP" == Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu> writes:
BP> Are we going to have a meeting this month? We didn't have one
BP> last month AFAIK. Who wants to open the bidding for time and
BP> location?
OK, so, it's apparent that everyone has forgotten the shotgun rules
for B.A.D. meetings. I will now repost them, as a reminder to everyone
as to how the meetings work:
SHOTGUN RULES OF B.A.D. MEETINGS
RULE 1: Each month, the B.A.D. meeting will be on the 2nd Wednesday of
the month.
RULE 2: Determination for the location for the B.A.D. meeting is like
calling shotgun for the front passenger car seat. Whoever calls
the location first, wins, and that's where B.A.D. is going to be,
period. In case of close calls, "first" is determined by date
received by the list server machine, and ties go to the runner.
RULE 3: A meeting announcement must be posted by email to the
B.A.D. list, with the word "ANNOUNCEMENT" in the Subject
header. It must define a time, a location (with address and/or
directions by car and public transportation), and use the
declarative voice ("We are going to..." not "Would you guys like
to go to...?"). It should not be sent before the previous month's
meeting has happened (or should have happened).
RULE 4: If you make the announcement, you have to go, you have to be
on time and preferably early, and you have to make a little sign
that says "Debian" or "B.A.D." so people know where they're
supposed to sit. It would be nice if you organized an OpenPGP
key-signing, but you don't have to.
RULE 5: The preferred region for the event will rotate each month to
one of three areas: the South Bay, the East Bay, and San
Francisco. Rotation starts with the South Bay in March of 2002
and goes from there, in order.
As a courtesy, no announcement in an area outside the preferred
region should be posted before the 1st Wednesday of the month. If
no announcement in the preferred region is posted by the 1st
Wednesday, all bets are off and any announcement will work.
RULE 6: If no one makes an announcement, the meeting will not
happen. If nobody cares enough to take responsibility and make an
announcement, and everyone minces around with do-you-think's and
what-about-this's, we are weak and cowardly and do not deserve
the title of Free Men and Women, much less a lovely meeting
together.
RULE 7: Nobody is making you go to B.A.D. meetings. Your dialysis
machine is not at the B.A.D. meeting. You are not a robot of the
future who will be stuck in our dimension forever if you don't
attend the B.A.D. meeting.
If, for some reason, you cannot make it to the B.A.D. meeting, or
you don't like where it's being held, or Chinese food gives you
an upset tummy, then Don't Go, and M-x diary a reminder to
yourself to take some initiative and make the next month's
announcement.
That's it. 7 simple rules. The Date Rule, the Shotgun Rule, the Email
Rule, the Organizer Rule, the Courtesy Rule, the Have a Spine Rule,
and the Take Your Lumps Rule.
Now, as another reminder, here's the non-binding part.
* Good locations for a B.A.D. meeting will have:
* Food
* Cheap food
* Good food
* Alcoholic beverages
* Non-alcoholic beverages
* Access for minors and people under 21
* Separate checks
* Seats for 10-30 people
* Room to push tables together, or pull them apart
* Forgiveness for people coming and leaving at will
* Something for vegetarians to eat
* Something for carnivores to eat
* Enough quiet that we can talk
* Enough loudness that we're not a big distraction
* Enough light that we can see the network diagrams we're drawing
on the backs of napkins
* Access by public transportation
* Access by car
* Nearby parking
* Easy directions
Obviously, there's no requirement that every location have all these
things, and most locations won't. And you are the sole determiner of
where everyone goes: you can call the meeting for a XXX movie
theater or your own home or a cardboard box under the freeway. But
it'd be nice to meet these goals.
* Restaurants and cafes that have been historically supportive of Free
Software and Free Software groups deserve our business and dollars.
* A good time is late enough that people can get off work and drive or
ride from their region to the region the meeting is in, and not so
late that the place is going to close, or people have to go home for
sleep. Think 7-8PM.
* If you think you know a good place to go, announce it. If you don't,
shut up. When people post do-you-think's and what-about-this's, it
clouds the waters and everyone gets confused. So don't do that.
* If for some reason you are far outside the preferred regions of the
rotation, you should think about starting an offshoot group and
having separate meetings.
* A good meeting attendee will bring money for their share of food and
drink if they can. If they can't, they will keep their grubby mitts
off the food and drink. They will also be prepared to participate in
an OpenPGP key-signing party, bringing their key signature and some
ID. If they share from common food or drink (such as pizzas or fries
or pitchers of beer), they will get up and get another pizza or
basket of fries or pitcher or whatever when the current one runs out.
They will chip in for what they ate, and pay for what they ordered,
and remember the tip, and round up rather than down.
* A sample announcement email would look like this:
---8<---
From: Evan Prodromou <evan@debian.org>
To: bad@bad.debian.net
Subject: ANNOUNCEMENT: B.A.D. Meeting For April 2002
Date: 24 Mar 2002 08:31:11 -0800
The B.A.D. meeting for this month will be held at Munster's Pizza
Parlor on April 10th, 2002 at 1313 Mockingbird Lane in Berkeley at
7:30PM.
Munster's is at the corner of Mockingbird and Yourtown Street on the
Number 17 AC Transit line. It is a 2 block walk from the Northside
BART station.
I will be organizing a key-signing. If you want to participate,
please send me your OpenPGP public key by noon on April 10th.
See you there,
~ESP
---8<---
Note that this message projects authority, it has all important
information, and it does not use a question mark anywhere in the
message or subject line.
* There is no shame in announcing the meeting for someplace that
B.A.D. has already been before. Heck: if it was good enough before,
it's probably good enough now.
* If you make an announcement, it's entirely possible that NO ONE will
come, and you will be left lonely and afraid, standing naked in the
rain while all of the people you have ever had secret crushes on
point at you and laugh and laugh and fire ants crawl on your legs
and chomp your skin.
If you are prepared for this, any other outcome will be icing on the
cake.
If you are not prepared for this, and you send a vituperative and
bitter email to the B.A.D. list on the Thursday After, you will come
off like a fool, and you will have capped your disastrous event with
a bitter and ugly conclusion. This is not smart, so don't do that.
There we go! All the info needed, and more. Good luck, folks.
~ESP
--
Evan Prodromou
evan@debian.org
_______________________________________________
Bay Area Debian mailing list
Bad@bad.debian.net
http://bad.debian.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/bad
----- End forwarded message -----
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----- End forwarded message -----
--
Peter A. Peterson II, technician and musician.
---=[ http://tastytronic.net/~pedro/ ]=---