Table of Contents

Preparation

Stuff to do immediately before the meeting.

• Check in with facilities staff
• Hang signs and banners
• Chairs and tables
• Equipment (projectors, laptops, etc.)
• Help the presenter, if appropriate

The meeting proper

• Welcome & Introductions
  • Announce and thank the host
  • Have attendees introduce themselves
    • Who they are
    • First meeting or not?
    • Where they work or go to school
    • Their Linux history
    • Thier current Linux projects and problems
• Administrivia
  • Announce future meetings
  • Mention meeting information available at http://www.gnhlug.org/
  • Thank MV Communications for hosting GNHLUG website
  • Pointers to restrooms and refreshments
  • When do we have to leave
  • Explain meeting format and agenda
• General questions but not answers (maybe -- see below)
• Presentation proper
  • Introduce presenter
  • Facilitate presentation
• Presentation follow-up
  • Presentation Q&A
  • Be sure to thank the presenter!
• General Q&A
• Awards (if any)
• MeetingDoorPrizes - if any; give them out fairly
• Say goodbye
  • Thank everybody for coming
  • Remind everybody of next meeting (again)

After the meeting

• Help presenter with packing their equipment, if appropriate
• Put back the room and facilities the way you found them

Meetings Extras

Many (but not all) of our meetings have informal gatherings that take place before and/or after the meeting proper. They generally include inter-personal networking (knowledge sharing, war stories, one-on-one discussions), and/or refreshments at a local restaurant/watering hole. This should not be a part of the meeting proper, as it is (1) distracting and (2) not what some people come for. However, it is best to plan and schedule for it, possibly even going so far as to advertise a time and place for the food and drink.

General Q&A Sessions

Meetings should include a "General Question and Answer" component. Many people come to meetings to get help and solve problems.

There are two approaches to this:

• Take questions early on, post them on a whiteboard or similar, but do not accept answers. Then have the main presentation. After the presentation is finished and wrapped up, go back to the list of questions, and let people give answers. This lets people think about the questions during the meeting.

• Save the entire Q&A for after the main presentation. This keeps everything in contiguous units, and avoids distractions during the meeting.