0. Talk to Speaker Coordinator

Speakers at PenLUG are coordinated by Andrew Fife. If you have an idea for a speaker or wish to sign someone up, talk to him first before representing PenLUG. He will either ask you for the contact information for the speaker or authorize you to sign them up for an available slot.

Once you've cleared it with the coordinator, scheduling PenLUG speakers is as easy as 1..2..3:

1. Find a Speaker

This is the hard part. Use your friends and colleagues to identify potential speakers. Ideas include book authors, software maintainers, corporate and nonprofit representatives, or anyone who may have done something of interest to fans of Linux and Open Source. One easy way to "cheat" is to look at upcoming and past speakers for other Linux groups in the area such as SVLUG or LUGoD.

2. Book the Date

Talk to the speaker about the upcoming meeting dates, and identify one which works for them. Hopefully it will be the next open date, but sometimes you have to schedule two or three months ahead and find someone else for the earlier meeting(s). Tell the speaker a few basic things they may need to know:

• Location, date, and time information - give them the URL for the PenLUG site.
• Ask them to arrive at least 15 minutes early (i.e., 6:45). Remind them that traffic can be bad, and to plan ahead.
• Trade cell phone numbers with them so you can be in touch on the day.
• Tell them to bring a laptop to present with, and we will provide the projector.
• The room has wireless Internet access but no Ethernet.
• They may be recorded (video or audio) and the results posted online unless they ask not to be.

Ask the speaker to provide a brief title, description (one paragraph abstract) of their talk, and a brief bio about themselves, which will be put on the Web site and sent out as email. Give them a link to a past meeting agenda page so they have an idea of what format to use.

3. Update the Web site

If the meeting is unscheduled, there is no agenda page created for that date. On the PenLUG home page, click the small question mark next to the date in the "200X PenLUG meetings" page. This will prompt you to log in to TWiki if you have not already done so. In another window (or tab) open an existing agenda page to copy from, and then click the "Edit" link on that page. Copy all the text from that agenda page, and close that window/tab (so you don't accidentally change it) and then paste the text into the blank agenda page. Edit the date, author, title, and details to reflect the information about the new meeting.

Once that is created, copy the author name and title into your clipboard, and return to the PenLUG home page. Click the "200X PenLUG meetings" title and that should show you a list of all the dates for that year. Click the "edit" button and replace "TBD" with the author and title of the meeting for the date you have just created.

Finally, as soon as the previous PenLUG meeting has past, edit the home page to change the date of the included agenda to the next meeting. Look for this:

---++ Next Meeting

%INCLUDE{"MeetingAgenda200XMMDD"}%

Change the XMMDD part to indicate the date of the next meeting.

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