[Ubuntu-be] GRP in Liege

[snulkid]

(I kept most of Pierre's message for LiLiT commitee members in CC, so 
sorry for the long email but don't worry : after that, I'm starting 
to hibernate ;-)

Le lundi 29 octobre 2007 13:28, Pierre Vorhagen a écrit :
> > (...) the "Liege branch" of ubuntu-be has a problem...
> Yes, the Liège branch has a problem I'd say... in so far that there
> are not enough (are there any?) people actually *from* Liège
> (...) snulkid (you consider yourself part of ubuntu-be?

No

> The problem is, I think, that there is nothing central... the LUG
> is dying out, or at least not so very active I understood (on the
> internet site it is still written that the next LMP is the 4th of
> October... we wanted maybe to come again with Yorrit), there are
> other organizations that are all more or less trying to do their
> thing (like Bawet or N-Hitec (the engineers tend to install Linux
> on their machines by themselves, without even knowing that Lilit or
> ubuntu-be exist)) and then there is ubuntu-be, that is not really
> very active, and probably rather non-existent...
>
> As the most active group is still LiLiT, maybe start off from
> there. It is what we had in mind with Yorrit... getting more
> students to LiLiT, based on Ubuntu of course. We were pretty
> surprised to see that the average age was about 20 years more than
> ours, considering that LiLiT is an official student "circle"... We
> will come to the next LMP, don't know when, and I propose that we
> discuss this then, with all Liège located ubuntu-be members and
> LiLiT... Else, if a closer collaboration is not really wished or
> possible, all ubuntu-be members can meet in a café somewhere in
> Liège (the Shamrock on top off Rue St Gilles for example, that guy
> is on Xubuntu and Ubuntu and also regretted that there isn't more
> activity on Liège.).
> I don't really care how we do this (if it is with LiLiT, fine for
> me), but if we had some active people that actually are from Liège
> and live there, it would still be possible to have an active
> ubuntu-be branch.

Pierre, I'm quite confused that an opinion about ubuntu-be leads to 
comments about LiLiT (and Bawet) but, to make things clear, here are 
a few points :

* first a personal one : for "internal" reasons I will not comment, 
I'm currently leaving the LiLiT commitee, and will probably also stop 
most of my FLOSS-related activities (so, Mark, sorry but I won't 
attend your winter meeting..).
I also won't attend this week LiLiT "Linux Meeting Party" but anybody 
is welcome, of course :
http://www.lilit.be/index.php?page=contact#LMP

* LiLiT website was just out of date. I just updated it.
LiLiT is certainly not "dying out", at least compared to most other 
LUGs, and even if they currently lack people, Bawet is regurlarly 
organising LIPs, in alternance with LiLiT (who will maybe organise 
another one before end of 2007).
Just have a look at our "old news" :
http://www.lilit.be/index.php?page=archives
activity reports :
http://www.lilit.be/wiki/index.php?header=full&page=PvAgOr050420#Annexe1%3Arapportdactivit%E9s2004
http://www.lilit.be/wiki/index.php?header=full&page=PvAgOr060308#Annexe1%3Arapportdactivit%E9s2005
http://www.lilit.be/wiki/index.php?header=full&page=PvAgOr070308#Annexe1%3Arapportdactivit%E9s2006
and our (rather incomplete) photo galleries to get an idea of what we 
did.

* about the canceled Ubuntu/N-Hitec Party : if someone is to be blamed 
on the LiLiT side, this is me because I should have re-contacted 
Laurent earlier (we met at LiLiT LIP on July 7th) and be more careful 
about the LIP : it surreptitiously moved from a "N-Hitec LIP with 
LiLiT support" to a "LiLiT-in-charge-of-it LIP".
On October 18th, LiLiT had a meeting, where people said once again 
there were unavailable on a working day; our president also inform 
Laurent had set an appointment with him next Monday. This was just 
before Laurent canceled the event.
So, you can blame N-Hitec, ubuntu-be local members, maybe the ULg 
bureaucracy, maybe me, but not LiLiT.

* it has always been clear that LiLiT (or Bawet) is not going to give 
support to "engineers" or other professionals : we cannot do that 
(not even invoice something), given our statutes. N-Hitec can, I 
guess.

* LiLiT is an ULg circle for historical reasons. Right now, among our 
26 members, we have 2 ULg students and 3 ULg workers. We would be 
glad you "get us more students", even "based on Ubuntu of course" (we 
are "distro-neutral"). But first, LiLiT is not involved in (or part 
of) ubuntu-be and second, we made several attemps in the past years 
(October 25th would have been a new one) to target the students 
without any real success. We also had contacts with other circles 
(Fédé staff, AEES).
So, any collaboration can be discussed with the LiLiT committee 
(g-traxx mentioned a "school-related" action...) but don't expect an 
overwhelming enthousiasm after so many trials.

* LiLiT is well structured (see 
http://www.lilit.be/index.php?page=asbl). When dealing with 
non-structured groups like ubuntu-be, we should at least have a clear 
speaker in front of us. That is not the case in Liege, so maybe the 
first point would be 1 or 2 people to take this job.

Regards and all my sincere wishes for your coming actions
-- 
snulkid