What a fine Wed, Sep 11, 2002 at 01:31:39AM -0500 it was when Chuck Cole
said:
>
> 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.

If I were hiring someone for serious technical stuff, they REALLY need to
have more than TCLUG on their resume.  I don't care where installfests are
held.  This is a Linux USERS group, not a Linux Job Acquirers Group or
Linux Resume Makers Group.

> 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).

I really don't see how the location of our installfests indicates a
ceiling.  No one has ever implied that I must be undereducated just because
I've set foot on community college or vo-tech soil for some event or other.
Furthermore, going to an installfest at a church has not affected anyone's
opinion of my religion.  In fact, I would be more worried about the
implications of continuously holding them at churches than the implications
of continuously holding them at a vo-tech.

> 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.

I just double-checked the TCLUG homepage and I didn't see anything about
1) state licensing
2) engineering
3) professional jobs
4) truck driving
5) department store PC repair
Apparently we have completely different ideas about what the group exists
for.  If you want a professional engineering job, join IEEE.  If you want
to use Linux and be around other people using Linux, join TCLUG.  I don't
think anyone has ever implied that TCLUG should be the highlight of your
resume, or the selling point in your interview.

> Interesting question!  All the Linux users I knew before joining here are
> degreed engineers in high tech industry.

All the Linux users I knew before joining here were undergraduates in
computer science, but I never thought Linux users were limited to or even
most prevelent in that domain.  I was an undergraduate in computer science
too, so it makes sense that I wouldn't meet a huge number of degreed
engineers, or Linux-using truck drivers.

> I certainly welcome folks of all backgrounds, and would encourage even
> JrHS
> kids to participate, but I wouldn't like the image that TCLUG activity
> may
> be a "disqualifier" for solid technical values at levels above and way
> beyond the vo-techs.

So if we hold it at a elementary school, does that mean we all dropped out
of Junior High?  I think most people understand that an event like an
installfest needs resources that
a) not everyone has
b) not everyone will lend for free

> Not hardly enough!  The group needs to consider this stuff if it ever has
> a
> mission and enough form for serious non-profit donations of support to
> occur.

Please not the non-profit debate again.

Lorry