====== SLUUG Steering Committee Minutes - 4 March 2009 ======
NOTE: Minutes posted on the wiki are always unofficial.
Schedules for upcoming presentations are always tentative.
(Some more tentative than others!)
====== Location ======
Saint Louis Bread Company,
(at Old Olive and Olive),
10550 Old Olive Street Road,
Creve Coeur, MO 63141
====== Date and Time ======
* Wednesday, March 4, 2009
* 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM
====== Attendees ======
* Carl Fitch
* Mike Wilkerson
* Tony Lovasco
* Craig Buchek
* Don Ellis
* Gary Meyer
* Stan Reichardt
* Jerry Stutte
* Jeff Muse
====== Secretary Report ======
* Secretary has printed out minutes up through February.
====== Treasurer Report ======
* Balance: $1361.65 as of 2/28/2009
* Receipts (pending submission):
* Carl - Annual registration fee to State of Missouri
* Craig - Submit receipt for voice recorder.
* Gary - Turn in receipt for domain registration.
====== Mailing List Report ======
* Subscriber numbers (approximate) as of end of February 2009:
| List ^ Jan ^ Feb ^ Mar ^ Apr ^ May ^ Jun ^ Jul ^ Aug ^ Sep ^ Oct ^ Nov ^ Dec^ Jan ^ Feb ^
^ ANNOUNCE | 857 | 856 | 853 | 854 | 843 | 835 | 830 | 828 | 807 | 805 | 802 | 791 | 790 | 786 |
^ DISCUSS | 185 | 185 | 186 | 1?? | 188 | 188 | 192 | 193 | 192 | 193 | 194 | 196 | 201 | 206 |
^ STEERCOM | 31 | 31 | 31 | ?? | 29 | 32 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 34 |
^ SYSADMIN | 17 | 17 | 17 | ?? | 15 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 |
* Numbers will now be as end of each month.
* Blocking of mailing list attachments not completely configured yet.
* ANNOUNCE mailing list.
* Still no volunteer editor to do a quarterly or monthly newsletter.
====== Attendance Report ======
* Numbers, as of end of February 2009:
| Meeting ^ Jan ^ Feb ^ Mar ^ Apr ^ May ^ Jun ^ Jul ^ Aug ^ Sep ^ Oct ^ Nov ^ Dec ^ Jan ^ Feb ^
^ Steercom | 6 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5| 6 | 6 | 6 |
^ SLACC | 7 | 4 | (4)| ? | x | 6 | 9 | 8 | 6 | ? | 4| 4 | No | 6 |
^ SLUUG | 14 | 12 | 23 | 17 | 31 | 18 | 17 | 15 | 18 | 21 | 20| 27 | 24 | 23 |
^ STLOSUG | 13 | No | 6 | No | 20 | 10 | No | 12 | No | 11 | 10| 7 | 6 | xxx |
^ SNUG | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | 5 | 4 | No | 5 | 3 | 5?| No | 7 | xxx |
^ STLLUG | 17 | No | 16 | 17 | 29 | 22 | 20 | 23 | 13 | 15 | 11| 10 | 19 | 32 |
^ STCLUG | 9 | 11 | 3 | 13 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 19 | No| 6 | 11? | 12 |
^ HZWLUG | 10 | 11 | 14 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 9 | 11 | 9| 4 | 2 | 8 |
^ MythTV | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No| No | No | 8 |
* No - indicates no meeting.
* NA - Not part of SLUUG
* () - Numbers in parentheses are head count.
* ? - Question mark indicates attendance not taken or sheet missing.
* xx - attendance numbers not yet recorded.
* Added MythTV as a SIG.
====== Meeting Review and Comments ======
===== February 2009 =====
February 2009
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
==== SLACC - February 5 ====
* Linux configuration - no presentation
==== SLUUG - February 11 ====
* BASE: Different diffs by Stan Reichardt
* Interesting.
* MAIN: Netbooks (Miniature Notebooks) by various via Carl
* Good - 4 or 5 people brought machines and talked.
* Official Annual Meeting.
* Gary has the minutes.
==== Solaris - February 17 ====
* TOPIC: Dedicated DNS Server in a Zone, Continued by Jeff Muse
* Actual topic: Solaris Volume Manager by Steve Smith
==== SNUG - February 18 ====
* TOPIC: Novell Storage Manager version 2.5
* Good. Canned video presentation, with demos.
==== STLLUG - February 19 ====
* TOPIC: Mozilla-based Apps: Miro (formerly Democracy TV), Songbird, Komodo by Craig Buchek
* No Internet - AGAIN - made it difficult demo some things
==== HZWLUG - February 24 ====
* Topics are usually determined by attendees. We sometimes cover more than one.
* TOPIC1: Demo of SimplyMEPIS version 8.0 distribution of Linux.
* TOPIC2: Best Introduction to Linux, man (1) intro, info, pinfo, KDE Help, Gnome Help, etc.
* TOPIC3: Using X Window System to access remote machines. (SSH X forwarding)
==== STCLUG - February 26 ====
* TOPIC: Google Apps Experiences by Jim Roe
* Really good. Should re-visit at a future STLLUG meeting.
==== MYTHTV - February 28 ====
* TOPIC: Installation and Troubleshooting by various
* Went well. Got 3 machines running.
====== Presentation Schedule ======
===== March 2009 =====
March 2009
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31
==== SLACC - March 5 ====
* Linux configuration - no presentation
==== SLUUG - March 11 ====
* BASE: Internet Tablet Demo by Jerry Stutte
* MAIN: March Through Linux /proc by Carl
==== Solaris - March 17 ====
* TOPIC: Continuation of System Build
==== SNUG - March 18 ====
* TOPIC: TBD
==== StL Business Expo Macrh 18 ====
* SLUUG Booth
* See Discussion Below
==== STLLUG - March 19 ====
* TOPIC: Podcasting and New Media by Mike Wilkerson
==== HZWLUG - March 24 ====
* Topics are usually determined by attendees. We sometimes cover more than one.
* OPTION1: Continued exploration of /var directory.
* OPTION2: Exploring the GNOME File Manager.
* OPTION3: Partitions.
* OPTION4: Anything else.
==== STCLUG - March 26 ====
* TOPIC: Bulk Deployment with Linux by Tony Lovasco
* PLANNING: Ubuntu Release Party
==== MythTV - NO MARCH MEETING ====
* This SIG meets at irregular intervals.
===== April 2009 =====
April 2009
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30
==== SLUUG - April 8 ====
* BASE: GNU screen by Jeff Muse
* Main: Live Demo IBM Virtualization by Sammie Allam, IBM (via Lee)
==== SNUG - April 15 ====
* TOPIC: TBD
==== STLLUG - April 16 ====
* TOPIC: Open Source on the Desktop: Why Not?
* by Don Hardaway and Craig Van Slyke (St. Louis University) (TENTATIVE, via Gary)
* See first article [[http://lwn.net/Articles/293907/ | here]]
==== STLOSUG (Solaris) - April 21 ====
* TOPIC: Continuation of System Build
==== STCLUG - April 23 ====
* TOPIC: Google Calendar by Stan Reichardt
* TOPIC: Google Gadgets by Jerry Stutte
==== HZWLUG - April 28 ====
* Topics are usually determined by attendees. We sometimes cover more than one.
==== MythTV - NO APRIL MEETING ====
* This SIG meets at irregular intervals.
====== Potential Presenters ======
These are some people who can present, and possible topics they can speak about.
* Don Hardaway and Craig Van Slyke (St. Louis University)
* TOPIC: Open Source on the Desktop: Why Not?
* Gary to contact them to request a presentation from them.
* See first article [[http://lwn.net/Articles/293907/ | here]]
* Wehrenberg Theaters (via Gary)
* TOUR/DEMO: Digital cinema projectors
* Sanjiv Bhatia (or someone from UMSL, via Lee)
* TOPIC: AIX 6
* TOPIC: Open Grid Computing
* December or January
* David Letscher (Prof of CS at SLU) (via Gary)
* TOPIC: TBD
* Still gone for summer. Awaiting details.
* Rick Clark (Ubuntu) (via Craig)
* TOPIC: TBD
* Might be able to talk to STCLUG and STLLUG
* Jeff Logullo (Sun)
* TOPIC: MySQL - now a Sun product
* TOPIC: Project Indiana, a new package management system a la apt/dpkg
* TOPIC: Versioning filenames (snapshots?) in ZFS
* TOPIC: New release of ZFS
* TOPIC: Belenix & other live CD's based on Open Solaris
* Scott Nesler
* TOPIC: GIMP (follow-up from previous presentation)
* TOPIC: PGP and GPG
* Jeff Muse
* TOPIC: various Solaris topics
* Stan Reichardt
* TOPIC/DEMO: Google Calendar
* TOPIC/DEMO: Using Scribus
* Tim Dreste (via Stan R)
* TOPIC: Untangle Gateway Platform
* TOPIC: CentOS Linux
* Don Ellis
* Mac OS X Snow Leopard
* Kyle Cordes
* git and GitHub
* Flying Boxes
* Craig Buchek
* git and GitHub
* ack (grep replacement)
* GNU grep (--count, --context, -e, --color)
* wget and curl
* Mac OS X topics
* Ruby on Rails
* Test-Driven Development (or get Brian Button, if possible)
* Jerry Stutte
* OpenGL
* Tony Lovasco
* Patent-Free Codecs (Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Theora, FLAC, Dirac) STLLUG - May 20
* Mike Wilkerson
* Round-Table on Joe Linux User (moderator)
====== Potential Topics ======
These are some topics that we've had requested, or brainstormed, but need to find speakers for.
* Unix glossary - define terms
* mount point
* white space
* "well-behaved" app
* zombies
* parent process
* Knoppix karaoke (various users sit in front of Knoppix system)
* regedit - edit Windows registry from Linux
* Drawing network diagrams using Dia or OpenOffice Draw
* Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL 5)
* Still looking for volunteer; tried Clark Smith at Red Hat
* Fedora recent releases
* SuSE or OpenSUSE recent releases
* Someone from Novell?
* Gary Hollingsworth?
* HP-UX current release, features, future
* Dave Mills?
* HP corporate?
* iSCSI
* Using git
* CPUs
* Features of modern Intel/AMD CPUs
* x86-64
* x86, x86-64, IA64, Sparc, PowerPC, ARM, POWER
* iPhone
* Developing for (web, native)
* iPhone competitors
* LG Dare
* Samsung Instinct
* Other Linux-based phones
* LiMo versus Google Android
* Linux from scratch.
* SplashTop - a quick booting distro.
* PGP/GPG use in Email
* Thunderbird Enigmail
* KMail
* Google Android
* Gateway and STL JUGs both recently had presentations
====== Results of February Elections ======
* Stan determined eligible voters and sorted the submitted ballots.
* Ballots were opened and counted at the Steering Committee meeting.
* Two Board openings.
* 1st Board Member - Jeff Muse
* 2nd Board Member - Lee Lammert
* SLUUG Officers:
* President - Gary Meyer
* Vice-President - Stan Reichart
* Treasurer - Lee Lammert
* Secretary - Craig Buchek
* STLLUG chair - Phil Bunch
* STCLUG chair - Carl Fitch
* NOTE: See Board Meeting at bottom
====== Small Business Expo ======
* QB demo for the SBE - can anyone help get it working?
* SBE Flyers - Lee has 50 flyers if anyone would like some.
* Small Business Expo is March 18.
* Lee has signed up for a booth -- same one as last time.
* Project is to build a business desktop with GNU/Linux to show off.
* Need to get requirements/recommendations.
====== STCLUG ======
* Scott Nesler purchased and donated STCLUG.ORG domain.
* Gary renewed STCLUG.ORG domain.
* Craig added to Apache configuration, so it now runs off our servers properly.
* Craig will add DNS records on our EveryDNS account.
* Gary needs to create DNS records in EveryDNS and point the domain at EveryDNS.
* Currently pointing at GoDaddy parking page.
====== SLACC ======
* Need to register SLACC.COM domain.
* Carl - follow up with Noel about transferring the SLACC.COM domain to us.
* Expires in March; need to renew.
* Check on SLACC.ORG - seems to be owned by a cybersquatter.
* Noel asked that we allow current email users to keep their SLACC.COM email addresses.
* ACTION ITEM: Carl, Gary - Transfer and renew SLACC.COM domain.
====== StlWebDev ======
* Lee proposed resurrecting StlWebDev as a SLUUG SIG.
* Lee spoke w/ Allan Trick, president of (now-defunct) StlWebDev group.
* They're willing to abide by SLUUG terms.
* They've not held meetings for some time.
* Would like to move the web site and mailing list to our servers.
* Mailing list would be separate from our DISCUSS list.
* Using our Mailmain and Apache services.
* Unanimous agreement.
====== Server Admin ======
* Craig updated DokuWiki to the latest version.
* Partitions on Bud are getting full.
* Home and var partitions.
* Tony will look into prices for 9 SCA hard drives - 36 GB and 72 GB.
* Jeff installed Solaris 10 on the E250 with the hard drives.
* Ran into mirroring issues, due to disk sizes.
* Omnitec offered to provide secondary DNS for us.
* We would provide secondary DNS for them.
* Lee and Carl would maintain DNS on both ends.
* Dark is alive again, thanks to a campus-wide power outage.
* Anyone who needs to get anything off should do so ASAP.
* We should retire this system.
* Wash U took our **webdev** box (128.252.19.27) off network Mon December 1.
* They detected questionable IRC traffic with IP addresses in Finland & Norway.
* We should analyze and respond.
* Jeff Muse added Ultra and Busch - Sun Netras running Solaris 10.
* Expect to use one like Bud and one for backup storage.
* We have 2 Sun E250s, which are currently racked but not connected.
* Carl proposed parting out those boxes.
* Craig concurred.
* One of the systems is reporting a bad/missing CPU.
* The other seems to be OK, but needs power and an OS.
* Jeff got 4 x 36 GB hard drives, and placed in the good Sun E250.
* We're planning to setup our own DNS on Ultra/Busch.
* Make our own servers authoritative for our own domains.
* Would allow us to publish reverse records.
* Primary has said they can allow this.
* Would allow us to publish SPF records.
* We could offer dyanmic DNS services to our members.
* On a subdomain, such as users.sluug.org
* Steve Smith (from Solaris SIG) offered a 36 GB drive to install in one of the Netras.
====== Server Management ======
* Backups
* Work left to do:
* Make sure docs are up to date.
* Add documentation telling users how to configure mail clients to use Bud.
* Started documenting client email configurations, to help users migrate.
* See [[../users]] and [[../mail_setup]] pages.
* Craig - Work on finishing server builds.
* Document changes to PAM to correct MAIL variable. (Craig)
* More security, for SSH and otherwise.
* Get offsite backups working. (Mike)
* Publish SSH host keys on web page.
* Standardize/regularize user accounts (IDs, password expirations). (Mike)
* Other work to do:
* Better web site management tools
* Document useradd process.
* Develop standardized 'Membership List' & same UIDs on all production machines.
====== Sponsorships ======
* Tony Lovasco will look into getting some sponsorships.
====== Membership (and Shell Accounts) ======
* Craig had a discussion with Jim Leingang about membership, and got several suggestions.
* Assign small task to more members, so they feel more a part of the organization.
* For example, have someone new every month doing sign-in sheets and new user contact.
* Reward good behaviors.
* Awards at the end of the year.
* Provide incentives (like door prizes) for people who bring in new members.
* Membership drive
* Need to print out name tags.
* Omnitec will print them out and bring to SLUUG meeting.
* Cafe Press merchandise
* Carl/SLUUG/Lee need to reconcile demo merchandise
* Lee has proposed to sell pizzas as fund-raiser if continued insufficient Memberships & Sponsors.
====== Manage The Group ======
* Lee suggested we create a Rails app on Bud to manage the group.
* Member data - payments, expirations, etc.
* Sponsors - expirations, etc.
* Attendance
* STL Ruby Group is writing a similar application.
* RAMS - Rails Association Management System
* We should leverage that, and guide it to our needs
* Scott Nesler has built an app for attendance
* Stan has plugged data into it for the year
* Not sure if the app fits any of our other needs
* (app is developed on CakePHP MVC architecture).
* Member Payment, expiration would be simple addition to existing table/screens.
* CRUD functionality simplifies expanding the application with additional tables.
* Compartmentalization of CSS and layout templates simplifies changes to the look and feel.
====== Low Numbers ======
* Gary suggests we discuss why the #s on the general meeting and STLLUG are so low!
* What can be done to return them to more traditional values?
* Also relate to subscriptions to ANNOUNCE.
* Gary suggests we talk about what can be done about the declining subscriptions to ANNOUNCE.
* A ~20% drop in 18 months! (And it was over 1000...when?)
* Craig gave away a stuffed penguin as a door prize.
* Had stated that whoever brought the most (new, returning) people to STLLUG meeting.
* Tony Z won the penguin, bringing his Linux class to the meeting.
====== Ubuntu Release Party ======
* Rick Clark from Canonical proposed SLUUG sponsor an Ubuntu release party.
* Official Name: Free Software and Technology Expo
* Date will be 2nd Saturday in May - May 9.
* Runs from 4 PM to 9 PM
* Setup from 3 PM to 4 PM
* Tony Lovasco from Nexradix paid for [[http://www.westportstl.com | Westport Plaza]] location.
* Sheraton (900 Westport Plaza) - gold tower
* Tony is registering [[http://freesoftwareexpo.com | freesoftwareexpo.com]]
* Single ballroom - 75' x 30'
* Tables in a horseshoe, with projector
* Booths around the edges
* SLUUG membership desk
* Potential Presentations (4)
* something by Rick Clark of Canonical / Ubuntu
* Open Source Licensing: What You Need to Know by Craig Buchek
* something by Scott Granneman (TENTATIVE)
* something security-related by Christine Wanta
* Open Source in an Economic Downturn by Craig Buchek (ALTERNATE)
====== Other Old Business ======
* None
====== Other New Business ======
* None
====== Blue Sky ======
* Stan asked if we can get some stats out of our web server.
* awstats
* Webalizer
====== Recognize Useful Effort ======
* Recognize completed action items.
* Recognize who did anything useful.
* Stan did all the work required for the election.
* Printed ballots.
* Validated submitted ballots.
* Jeff got one of the Sun E250s loaded.
====== Board Meeting ======
* A board meeting was held from 8:49 - 8:52.
* Carl Fitch, Craig Buchek, and Jeff Muse were in attendance.
* Stan Reichardt, retiring board member was also in attendance.
* Carl moved that the (new) board accepted the advisory vote of the members with 2 exceptions:
* Gary Meyer did not accept the position of President.
* Carl Fitch accepted the position.
* It is suspected that Phil Bunch will not accept position of STLLUG chair.
* Craig Buchek agreed to accept the position, if Phil does not accept.
* Jeff Muse seconded the motion.
* The motion was passed unanimously.
* Carl moved that we adjourn the meeting.
* Craig seconded.
====== Follow-up and Action Items ======
* Lee - Need list to print out name tags for paying members.
* Everyone - Talk to someone about coming to meetings.
* Everyone - Talk to someone about sponsorships.
* Everyone - Talk to someone about giving a presentation.
* Gary - Update STLLINUX.ORG to show 3 names in WHOIS data.