[H-GEN] UQ room bookings have hit a snag

[Russell Stuart]

On Mon, 2015-12-21 at 13:33 +1000, Peter Robinson wrote:
> Have you got any information on how many UQ students are either
> members or make use of your services.
>
> I know I have pointed students in your direction before but I have no 
> idea how many students take up the suggestion. Some positive info in 
> this area might persuade the powers that be.

I don't know Peter as we don't ask.  I know we have had students turn up
this year, especially around Pycon time.  All people I know who were
students and still attend regularly graduated last year.  "Real"
students tend to be an ephemeral lot.

If Humbug is going appeal to the power that be, it's going to have to be
on what we do and stand for.  We may not be able to attract a permanent
student membership, but UQ students regularly attend and volunteer for
the open source conferences we organise. (The next one we are looking at
is LCA, maybe 2018, which is traditionally held *at* a University.)  As
you know, we work at making the student population at all Brisbane
Universities aware of these conferences, and we make a large loss on
students tickets so money won't be factor in their decision to attend.

Beyond that, we are "the" Open Source group in Queensland.  We one of
the strongest such clubs in Australia.  You can measure that in any
number of ways: attendance, conferences we involve ourselves in, having
regular fortnightly meetings with a published schedule, and regular
executive meetings with published minutes.

Maybe that is because we are also the oldest such club.  I don't think
we would be around if it weren't for UQ's continued support over the
years, so UQ's support has yielded something tangible: a strong public
face for open source in Queensland.