Table of Contents

SLUUG Steering Committee

4 December 2023

NOTE: Minutes posted on the Wiki are always unofficial. Schedules for upcoming presentations are always tentative. (Some more tentative than others!)

Location

Agenda Changes

SUMMARY: This is where we consider any additions, changes, deletions, sequence changes, or other changes to items in the prepared agenda.

  * HISTORY: 
  * We can consider changes prior to all reviews, planning and OLD BUSINESS items.
    * By jumping ahead, then back, without altering agenda layout sequence.
  * Do NOT alter agenda layout sequence, during current meeting.
  * Moving a listed item out of sequence makes later editing difficult.
  * 
  * We can jump to **Old Business** items, consider, then back to usual sequence.
  * We can jump to **New Business** section, create new item, consider, then jump back to usual sequence.
  * By NOT altering agenda layout sequence during the meeting, that will keep it easier to build the next agenda.
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Start Video Recording

Start STEERCOM Meeting

Attendees

Listed alphabetically by last name:

:?: * James Conroy

:?: * Jonathan Drews

* David Forrest

* Ed Howland

:?: * Ken Johnson

* Lee Lammert

* Gary Meyer

* Stan Reichardt

* Steve Stegmann

* Sean Twiehaus

Secretary Report

SUMMARY: Somebody has to build the agenda and then record the minutes.

Treasurer Report

Balance as of 1 November $2,765.48
Buddy NS -9.27
Balance as of 30 November $2,756.21

Calendar Report

SUMMARY: We maintain a calendar of technical events in the Greater St. Louis area and surrounding regions.

  * HISTORY: 
  * Not all events are official/sponsored SLUUG events. All sponsored events are shown in red.
  * Items have been added and corrected by Stan R, Gary Meyer and Don Ellis.
  * Items listed on this calendar were used to feed the ANNOUNCE weekly mailing.
  * Events on HIATUS are NOT counted! Historical items are NOT counted!  
  * Only face-to-face meetings were counted!
  * Detailed breakdown showing cancelled, defunct, delayed, missed, moved, and postponed meetings was being done.
  * The page has been altered to allow showing separate displays of supported meetings from sponsored meetings.
  * Stan R has discontinued doing detailed breakdown of calendar entries believing it is too much effort for too little value.
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
2011 xxx xxx 105 108 103 117 105 105 105 113 103 96 2011
2012 110 104 122 123 138 111 99 124 122 133 114 111 2012
2013 123 128 136 147 144 146 139 119 145 167 153 140 2013
2014 143 159 174 165 188 165 132 136 173 165 141 107 2014
2015 171 179 177 183 176 168 162 176 206 294 236 197 2015
2016 260 277 314 231 183 191 157 166 222 224 212 157 2016
2017 133 141 177 168 137 143 124 158 173 163 168 129 2017
2018 165 177 166 179 162 165 147 176 166 184 163 113 2018
2019 131 160 173 171 145 155 130 144 157 179 182 127 2019
2020 157 172 188 147 152 174 171 154 168 163 184 155 2020
2021 175 170 174 171 172 178 188 179 187 176 194 193 2021
2022 210 219 244 219 234 228 251 229 264 268 270 238 2022
2023 265 288 304 297 300 303 299 300 165 170 ??? ??? 2023
  * LEGEND:
  * Greyed out areas indicate corrections or never previously reported counts.
  * xxx - numbers not recorded.
  * ??? - Future Numbers.
  * Stopped counting general Saint Louis County Library events in May 2016.
  * Re-counted April 2016 without library events.
  * Count of calendar entries for May is down from previous months. No explanation is given.
  * Count of calendar entries for March 2020 misleading because of 
  * Limited maintenance effort for March 2020 because CORONAVIRUS-19 self-isolation effects.
  * Started counting **moved** and **delayed** items in April 2020 as considered being useful.
  * Improvements in Google Calendar feature limits to five days processing at at time, takes
    * about 10 times as long to perform counting. Much more tedious.
  * Five day limitation "improvement" gone, no longer takes so much longer to count.

Subscriber Report

SUMMARY: Mailing List Report combined with MEETUP membership count, now called Subscriber Report.

  * HISTORY: 
  * We counted how many were on each SLUUG mailing list, then started using MEETUP dot COM site. 
  * These numbers roughly estimate size of our community over time. Both growth and shrinkage.
Year 2017 Year
List Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec List
MEETUP 273 285 291 299 301 302 304 315 319 325 336 340 MEETUP
ANNOUNCE 582 580 575 570 569 569 569 568 566 562 562 559 ANNOUNCE
DISCUSS 197 196 193 190 191 192 191 192 191 189 188 189 DISCUSS
STEERCOM 36 36 35 34 34 34 34 34 33 33 33 33 STEERCOM
SYSADMIN 20 20 20 23 23 23 23 23 22 22 22 22 SYSADMIN
Year 2018 Year
List Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec List
MEETUP 348 360 367 372 375 377 385 390 393 402 408 416 MEETUP
ANNOUNCE 556 544 543 543 545 542 535 534 533 531 531 533 ANNOUNCE
DISCUSS 188 188 187 187 187 187 187 185 184 184 185 183 DISCUSS
STEERCOM 33 33 33 33 32 32 32 32 32 31 31 31 STEERCOM
SYSADMIN 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 SYSADMIN
Year 2019 Year
List Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec List
MEETUP 416 423 432 443 452 464 466 473 472 480 488 497 MEETUP
ANNOUNCE 532 532 532 534 519 516 516 514 513 516 513 510 ANNOUNCE
DISCUSS 184 182 181 182 183 183 191 190 191 191 190 190 DISCUSS
STEERCOM 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 30 30 31 32 32 STEERCOM
SYSADMIN 22 22 22 22 22 22 16 16 16 16 16 16 SYSADMIN
Year 2020 Year
List Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec List
MEETUP 501 514 516 521 527 535 547 555 564 570 577 590 MEETUP
ANNOUNCE 504 502 501 501 500 499 497 495 492 491 490 490 ANNOUNCE
DISCUSS 188 190 189 191 191 189 189 188 188 189 190 188 DISCUSS
STEERCOM 31 31 31 30 30 30 30 24 23 23 23 23 STEERCOM
SYSADMIN 16 16 16 16 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 SYSADMIN
Year 2021 Year
List Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec List
MEETUP 603 613 626 631 640 650 652 658 678 687 698 710 MEETUP
ANNOUNCE 489 488 482 480 480 479 477 478 479 481 480 477 ANNOUNCE
DISCUSS 188 189 188 190 190 189 189 189 190 195 195 195 DISCUSS
STEERCOM 22 22 22 23 23 23 24 23 23 23 24 24 STEERCOM
SYSADMIN 15 15 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 13 15 15 SYSADMIN
Year 2022 Year
List Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec List
MEETUP 718 727 730 751 762 770 787 806 823 830 840 871 MEETUP
ANNOUNCE 480 475 474 474 473 472 471 469 469 469 470 469 ANNOUNCE
DISCUSS 198 198 197 196 197 196 196 197 199 199 199 199 DISCUSS
STEERCOM 24 24 24 25 26 26 25 25 25 25 24 24 STEERCOM
SYSADMIN 15 15 15 15 15 16 16 15 15 15 15 15 SYSADMIN
Year 2023 Year
List Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec List
MEETUP 886 898 918 927 936 945 960 976 995 922 ??? ??? MEETUP
ANNOUNCE 469 470 470 470 470 470 468 468 xxx ??? ??? ??? ANNOUNCE
DISCUSS 200 202 203 204 203 202 202 202 xxx ??? ??? ??? DISCUSS
STEERCOM 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 25 xx ?? ?? ??? STEERCOM
SYSADMIN 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 16 xx ?? ?? ??? SYSADMIN
  * LEGEND:
  * Numbers as of end of each month.
  * Blocking of mailing list attachments not completely configured yet.
  * This will be much easier to do on BOCK.
  * ANNOUNCE mailing list.
    * Still no volunteer editor to do a quarterly or monthly newsletter.
  * Command used to generate these (as root on Bud):
    * /usr/local/mailman/bin/list_members **list_name** | wc -l (This doesn't seem to work on Bock.)
  * Greyed out areas indicate corrections or never previously reported counts.
  * xxx - numbers not recorded.
  * ??? - Future Numbers.

Attendance Report

SUMMARY: Somewhat reflects the community interest in topics. Or, how well we publicised event.

  * HISTORY: 
  * Initial mail list subscriptions were prompted by attendance sheets.
  * Group leaders are responsible for taking attendance at face-to-face meetings.
  * Remote session attendance display with ZOOM does NOT work automatically.
  * Remote session attendance done best using extra recording with Linux SimpleScreenRecorder software. 
Year 2017 Year
Meeting Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Meeting
Steercom 8 6 8 6 7 7 5 6 6 4 6 3 Steercom
SLACC 7 12 10 5 7 (10) 6 7 8 11 xx 6 SLACC
SLUUG 20 17 24 17 10 13 7 13 12 21 14 16 SLUUG
STLLINUX 14 15 18 14 15 14 18 16 16 12 (27) xx STLLINUX
NEWLUG 9 10 xx 7 7 8 7 5 8 5 7 9 NEWLUG
Year 2018 Year
Meeting Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Meeting
Steercom 7 3 6 7 6 6 5 5 7 5 5 4 Steercom
SLACC 6 6 7 9 6 6 7 6 7 4 4 5 SLACC
SLUUG 14 13 13 18 15 11 8 15 14 14 10 13 SLUUG
STLLINUX 12 8 13 11 13 10 11 15 13 xx 9 9 STLLINUX
NEWLUG 8 11 8 11 11 9 10 12 9 7 10 5 NEWLUG
Year 2019 Year
Meeting Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Meeting
Steercom 6 6 6 7 5 8 6 6 8 8 7 8 Steercom
SLACC 6 6 7 7 8 7 6 10 10 9 6 9 SLACC
SLUUG 15 14 13 18 12 15 17 (20) 18 14 17 25 SLUUG
STLLINUX 18 11 11 16 12 16 20 16 14 18 18 17 STLLINUX
NEWLUG 9 5 11 10 8 7 10 13 9 5 6 3 NEWLUG
Year 2020 Year
Meeting Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Meeting
Steercom 4 6 6 (8) (5) (7) (6) (6) (7) (6) (6) (5) Steercom
SLACC 9 8 (6) (8) (7) (9)(11) (7) (10) (10) (8) (8) SLACC
SLUUG 17 13 (xx) (xx) (18) (22)(29) (22) (16) (xx) (17) (25) SLUUG
STLLINUX 18 12 (12) (xx) (20) (19)(25) (10) (16) (23) (15) (xx) STLLINUX
NEWLUG 6 6 - (10) (13) (13)(12) (11) (11) (12) (15) (9) NEWLUG
Year 2021 Year
Meeting Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Meeting
Steercom (5) (4) (5) (5) (5) (5) (6) (7) (5) (7) (6) (6) Steercom
SLACC (10) (9) (9) (8) (14) (10)(10) (11) (6) (9) (15) (15) SLACC
SLUUG (15) (26) (23) (25) (17) (22)(17) (18) (14) (22) (25) (19) SLUUG
STLLINUX (20) (19) (20) (19) (17) (17)(15) (18) (20) (20) (25) (20) STLLINUX
NEWLUG (13) (15) (16) (14) (9) (10)(10) (11) (15) (12) (16) (10) NEWLINUX
Year 2022 Year
Meeting Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Meeting
Steercom (6) (5) (7) (5) (5) (6) (4) (6) (6) (6) (5) (5) Steercom
SLACC (11) ( 9) (12) (14) (12) (11)(13) (11) (8) (12) (9) (9) SLACC
SLUUG (25) (28) (33) (30) (22) (21)(25) (26) (19) (18) (19) (20) SLUUG
STLLINUX (28) (21) (20) (20) (21) (17)(21) (18) (14) (20) (16) (33) STLLINUX
NEWLUG (14) (xx) (12) (14) (13) (12)(14) (12) (14) (13) (10) (16) NEWLINUX
Year 2023 Year
Meeting Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Meeting
Steercom (4) (6) (6) (7) (7) (7) (5) (7) (6) (5) (4) (?) Steercom
SLACC (10) (10) ( 6) (11) ( 7) (10)( 7) ( 7) (7) (7) (9) (?) SLACC
SLUUG (17) (18) (13) (23) (21) (21)(15) (18) (20) (18) (20) (??) SLUUG
STLLINUX (19) (16) (19) (24) (21) (19)(18) (17) (14) (16) (27) (??) STLLINUX
NEWLUG (12) (14) (14) (14) ( 8) ( 8)(14) (10) (11) (14) (18) (??) NEWLINUX

:?: Proposed layout for next year, without parenthases.

Year 2024 Year
Meeting Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Meeting
Steercom ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? Steercom
SLACC ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? SLACC
SLUUG ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? SLUUG
STLLINUX ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? STLLINUX
NEWLUG ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? NEWLINUX
  * LEGEND:
  * Greyed out areas indicate corrections or never previously reported counts.
  * xx - numbers not yet recorded, attendance not taken, or sheet missing.
  * ?? - Future Numbers.
  *(9) - Number in parentheses is head count. Use head count if greater than attendance sheet count (or sheet missing).
  * *  - sLUGs was STL Linux Users Group for Seniors with initial meeting 8 February 2015. Discontinued October 2017.
  * *  - SNUG SuSe was STL Novell Users Group with lunch meeting.  Discontinued December 2017.
  * -  - dash indicates no meeting (NEWLUG March 2020).

Meeting Review Comments

SUMMARY: We try to analyse what happened or what was presented at the previous months meetings.

November 2023

SLACC - Nov 2nd, 2023

Daylight Saving Time Ended - Nov 5th, 2023

SLUUG - Nov 8th, 2023


COOKIE TIME ~ ANNOUNCEMENTS ~ CALL FOR HELP (Gooey Middle):


HOLIDAY - Veterans Day ~ Nov 11th, 2023

STLLINUX - Nov 16th, 2023

NEWLINUX - Nov 28th, 2023

SUMMARY: Previously named Hazelwood LUG (HZWLUG), then Newcomer LUG (NEWLUG). Now, Newcomer Linux User Group is designated as NEWLINUX. The NEWLINUX home page lists a number of topics to provide general directions from which we could start. Usually no presentation; so, held as a Beginner Workshop offering installation and configuration help. Topics are usually determined by attendees. We usually cover way more than one topic.

Meeting Schedule

SUMMARY: This is where we discuss available and confirmed meeting topics. GOAL: To map out meeting topics for as much as 3 months out.

December 2023

STEERCOM - Dec 4th, 2023

SLACC - Dec 7th, 2023

SLUUG - Dec 13th, 2023


COOKIE TIME ~ ANNOUNCEMENTS ~ CALL FOR HELP (Gooey Middle):


STLLINUX - Dec 21st, 2023

HOLIDAY - Christmas Day ~ Dec 25th, 2023

NEWLINUX - Dec 26th, 2023

SUMMARY: Previously named Hazelwood LUG (HZWLUG), then Newcomer LUG (NEWLUG). Now, Newcomer Linux User Group is designated as NEWLINUX. The NEWLINUX home page lists a number of topics to provide general directions from which we could start. Usually no presentation; so, held as a Beginner Workshop offering installation and configuration help. Topics are usually determined by attendees. We usually cover way more than one topic.

January 2024

    January 2024      
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           

HOLIDAY - New Year Day ~ Jan 1st, 2024

STEERCOM - Jan ???, 2024

SLACC - Jan 4th, 2024

SLUUG - Jan 10th, 2024

   BASE Confirmed **History of the Shell** by Ed Howland

STLLINUX - Jan 17th, 2023

NEWLINUX - Jan 23rd, 2023

Old Business

Server Admin

SUMMARY: We put up a server on the Internet for email, it grew, and now we have to maintain it.

=

Version Released Debian Security Support Debian Long Term Support
Debian 10 Buster 2019-07-16 2022-09-10 2024-06-30
Debian 11 Bullseye 2021-08-14 2024-07-01 2026-06-30
Debian 12 BookWorm 2023-06-10 2026-06-10 2028-06-10
On BOCK we are currently running Debian 10 Buster.
FYI Debian 12 was just released.
Debian end of life dates available here https://endoflife.date/debian/
We want to wait until cooler weather, in the Fall. Nobody is paying us to panic.

=

Web Site SLUUG.ORG Maintenance

SUMMARY: We have a traditional Internet presence with the existence of our main SLUUG web site.

Uploading Presentations

SUMMARY: We have recorded many of our past meetings and made some of them available on the Internet.

Web Site MEETUP.COM Maintenance

SUMMARY: We have presence on MEETUP.COM.

Our Internet Presence on Other Social Media

SUMMARY: We presume that our single web site isn't enough to draw younger crowd.

ANNOUNCE Mailing List

SUMMARY: As a historical descendant of our monthly newsletter, the ANNOUNCE mailing had been a weekly extract of our SLUUG GOOGLE Calendar of Events. Previous editors had also styled it less of 1 liners of the entire calendar and more of abstracts of OUR talks & outstanding interest items.

  * **HISTORY:** The subscriber list has been populated from attendance sheets by a nominating subscription process, which requires human input.

Hybrid Meetings

SUMMARY: Combine recording physical plus remote meetings

  * HISTORY: 
      * We have for the longest time been saying: 
      * **No physical face-to-face meetings until further notice.**
      * When we again have physical meetings, we would like to continue video meetings in conjunction with any physical meetings.
      * So, in anticipation of future openings of libraries and restaurants,
        * reduction of lock-down, we need to work toward perfecting the technology. 

Cameras and Microphones and Projectors

SUMMARY: We try to record many of our meetings.

Change BASE and MAIN Structure

SUMMARY: Effort to align length of BASE to be shorter than MAIN presentations.

  * **HISTORY:** 
  * General Meeting BASE portions go too long. Volunteers tend to do topics beyond introductory level. 
    * Scaling back subjects and length of coverage might be a good thing.
    * We should be much more flexible in structure and not restrict to BASE and MAIN, allowing for multiple short topics.
  * Stan R posted to SteerCom mailing list for prior discussion.
  * Stan R suggests that we start pulling simple ideas from our Planning Schedule Report and by using a facilitator (or two) encourage
    * and guide participation covering that single topic.  Simply starting out by presenting a relevant man page might work to get folks to join in. 
    * Keeping it short and simple (KISS).

Attendance Database

SUMMARY: We use for head count tracking and for member voting qualification during each Calendar Year (CY)

  * HISTORY: 
  * Attendance tracking necessary for member qualifications to vote in our annual elections.
  * At face-to-face meetings we would pass around clipboard with sign-in sheet.
  * The standard remote video recordings do not automatically show participants.
  * Stan R runs a second connection to each video meeting named **Anonymous Coward** to record attendance. 

Planning Schedule Report Database

SUMMARY: We have LibreOffice BASE for tracking BASE, MAIN and STLLINUX meeting topics and speakers.

  * HISTORY: 
  * A running database helps Gary schedule meetings.

Handouts

SUMMARY: We have informational handout PDFs available http://www.sluug.org/resources/handouts/.

  * HISTORY: 
  *The PDFs are generated using LibreOffice. The originating files are stored along with generated PDFs.
  * Lee ordered printer parts that should correct crinkle problem.
  * Stan R has been modifying a Linux Presentation Day from 2015 found on the Internet.  It has excellent content.
    * Difficult to modify, as it is extremely graphically intense.  Built and modified with the Scribus application.
    * Likely too complex to print, may wind up splitting content to make a slide show presentation.

Linux Stickers

SUMMARY: Ken Johnson really prefers stickers, rather than stuffed toys!

  * **HISTORY:**  SWAG is good!
    * Lee has sheet to pass on to Ken.
    * James Conroy will make background black so we can get what we want when ordered.

Organizational Papers

SUMMARY: We have large box of hard copy historical records concerning our organization. It has been floating around.

  * **HISTORY:** 2020-10-05 Gary found cardboard box with old secretary material. Original Xeroxes of articles of corporation, etc. Historical interest. No idea who dropped it off.

Sponsorships

SUMMARY: We seek financial support from the tech community.

  * **HISTORY:** We are not good at getting sponsors.

We Need Help

SUMMARY: We don't have enough volunteers to do everything consistently.

  * **HISTORY:** We need new members who want to do stuff. Same as every month.

New Business

SUMMARY: After old business, we call for anything that we need to deal with.

Recurring Requirements

SUMMARY: We routinely rotate thru the following (just in case).

  * HISTORY: 
  * In past, we had missed critical government filings, dropped ball on domain renewals, and similar important items.

Recognize Useful Efforts

SUMMARY: When anybody does something to help!

Follow-up and Action Items

SUMMARY: It may help a little to tag individuals with tasks:

Blue Sky Recording

Adjourn STEERCOM Meeting

Stop Video Recordings

Blue Sky Ideas

SUMMARY: Food for thought ~ anything not previously covered that provides mental stimulus for thinking about improvements or solutions.

  * HISTORY:  Stimulate creativity by planting the seed of an idea.  
    * Current action or response not required.
    * Some ideas are Off-The-Record ~ NOT TO BE RECORDED!
    * Some ideas should be publicized.~ SHOULD BE RECORDED!
    * If a speaker believes something should not be recorded, the recording operator needs to be notified.
    * ** Each speaker would initially declare whether an idea should be recorded or not. ** 

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