Quoting Chuck Cole (cncole at earthlink.net):
> We are NOT strapped: we just haven't tried much and now are ignoring other
> immediate offers.

Really? Since Clay and/or I setup installfest, you must know something we don't.
What other immediate offers are being ignored? Only other offer was St. Thomas
and I do not think you have all the details. Unless something changed in the
last couple of days.

> Wrong ideas about "educational standards": some of the issues are whether
> TCLUG folk are the type/quality that a business might hire for serious
> technical stuff, or whether they are categorically a hobbyist group with at
> most non-degree technician skills... on the average and the goal.  To
> welcome non-degreed folks from anywhere is fine, but to indicate that the
> ceiling is no higher than vo-tech, and off the academic track for
> professional skills (state regs indicate what "professional" means, and in
> engineering cases it is specific about having a degree).

Bah! Your attitude sucks. Your elitist attitude will do more harm to linux then
any of these else.

> Meeting at a business does not reduce learning or technical excellence.
> Suffice to say that unix came from Bell Labs, a business, and that the best
> paying software/IT jobs are in high tech businesses here in town.  I think
> you are grossly wrong in that idea, but the life choices are yours, of
> course.  In general, competent people are paid for what they can do, and
> high tech businesses pay to hire, support, and develop education in many
> ways.  Target (et al) might not.

Meeting -anywhere- is good. If a porn site offered huge bandwidth for linux iso
images, do you have a problem using that site to get the files? Personally, I'd
leech away. 

> Truck driving and department store PC repair is great, but it doesn't
> satisfy the state licensing regs for what "professional" engineering
> requires, nor does it add to a resume when seeking a professional caliber
> job.  Of course, it is an advancing gateway into "the business" for some,
> but my point is the tougher image one about the implied ceilings on
> education and average levels of education.  Not being able or not seeking to
> get business sponsors is a direct indication that TCLUG may have no business
> value or relevance for its kind of learning and participation.  Some here
> may care a great deal about that implication.

And some may not care at all. I hope tclug never seeks to get direct business
sponsorship. It's a community of users, for the users, by the users. "Angel"
sponsorship (much like Angel investors) of tclug is always welcome. 


-- 
Bob Tanner <tanner at real-time.com>         | Phone : (952)943-8700
http://www.mn-linux.org, Minnesota, Linux | Fax   : (952)943-8500
http://www.tcwug.org, Minnesota, Wireless | Coding isn't a crime. 
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