Starting a MD Eastern Shore Sub Group

[omegamormegil]

Greetings!

I live in Salisbury, on Maryland's Eastern Shore, and I've been using Ubuntu for just over a year now, having started with Dapper a few days before the Edgy release. I am interested in starting a sub-group here, if there isn't one already. What do I have to do? I'm interested in being a local contact for people using Ubuntu that need help, and I think having a group with meetings would be fun. What exactly does the local group do? I'd appreciate any links to resources I could read about this.

Maybe I could even come to one of the meetings I see advertised on here. I have some family in Howard County. My wife's dad actually works at the Howard County Library, although I'm not sure what branch.

For this past year, I've been operating a small home ebay business, using Ubuntu exclusively. I have gotten some of my friends into using Ubuntu, and I am proud to have switched the Purnell Museum in Snow Hill, MD from Vista to Ubuntu. The staff uses two brand new Dells which carry the Windows Vista Capable sticker, but the staff was frustrated at how slow everything was running since upgrading.

I am amazed at how well Ubuntu has been adopted by the people around me that have switched to it from Windows. The museum reports that using Ubuntu is virtually hassle free, and is easier to use and faster than Windows Vista was. I have switched four friends of mine to Ubuntu, and for the most part they have had a wonderful experience.

I look forward to participating more in this community!

[ChuckFrain]

Welcome to the group. You and anyone else is more than welcome to attend our meetings. Interesting that you have family at the library.

As far as starting a group in the Salisbury area, feel free. About the only thing that I would ask of local leaders is that they sign the CoC (http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct) and work with the Maryland team as a whole. It's not a matter of being answerable to anyone, just keeping everyone up to date on what's going on. Feel free to add your group info to the Wiki. I would ask that you at least coordinate with Josh on style and naming of the pages if you create them on your own for consistency sake.

As for how to start, that's pretty easy. Find a location that is open to the public to attend. Post your meetings for others to join. Hope someone shows up:) Internet access is helpful but not required.

As for what to do, that really depends on the group that you find shows up and what they want out of meetings. Our Columbia meetings are discussion/advocacy/planning sessions. That is because we are all knowledgeable about Ubuntu and Linux. However if the balance shifts to having more novices attending that want tutorials we'll either add a meeting for that or break up our existing one to accommodate both. You may find that you have more technical people show up and focusing on that type of contribution would be beneficial.

If you have LUGs in the area work with them when possible. Don't schedule your meetings at conflicting times.

If you want more info, check out https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoFAQ for general Loco info and post here or email me directly and I'll do what I can to help.