So, COVID-19 and all that. At least thus far (at the time of this writing 2020-06-21), BerkeleyLUG hasn’t had in-person meetings since our 2020-03-08 meeting.
However, effective 2020-05-10 BerkeleyLUG has moved meetings to virtual!
Pi.BerkeleyLUG has also moved meetings to virtual.
So, back to same schedule, just the “location” has changed. (see also our list: https://berkeleylug.com/googlegroup/ for any possible late-breaking changes on meetings)
Oh, and virtual meetings can have many unique advantages too, e.g.:
- don’t have to travel to physical meeting location – convenient from almost anywhere – and “travel” time/cost of about zero.
- can generally well hear all meeting participants when they speak – generally no issues with too much noise/sound, loud crowds/music/TVs from the venue (and works especially well when they remember to take themselves off mute) – and too, can mute most any annoying sound source (participants can mute themselves if there’s background noise or they’re not speaking – or you/moderator can mute them).
- free entry / no “table rent” (maybe you didn’t think venue’s food/snacks/beverages were all that great and/or great a deal anyway)
- easy to see/share screen displays – none of the issues of how to get half a dozen or more folks to easily and well see what’s on someone’s (sometimes small) screen in a crowded cafe or the like – so works much better for demonstrations, often helping answer questions, etc.
- easy to have the not (very) portable home computer in/at the meeting – e.g. that big desktop/server class machine you have some Linux question/issue with, or want to show/demonstrate something on … very easy to have it be in virtual meeting – no need to lug it to BerkeleyLUG physical meeting.
- home camera(s) – and not (can always turn ’em off / disable), … but can also showcase your cat(s) or whatever (or show how they assist you with Linux) or other home stuff that’s not allowed/convenient/feasible to drag to physical meeting. Oh, and bad haircut or just don’t have the outfit you want to wear to a meeting or whatever … use of camera is not at all required – so, can go to meetings and not show one’s face/person – if so desired.
- “table” space – no issues with crowding and lack of available seating together at meeting location.
- etc. 🙂