[ubuntu-us-mn] Release party and installfest

[Tony Yarusso]

Okay, the other BIG ticket item for the very near future!

There will be a release party to celebrate Ubuntu 8.04 (codenamed Hardy
Heron) on Saturday, April 26th (two days after the release)!  It will take
place from 8:00 AM until 4:00 PM (come for whatever time frame you want, or
even stay for the whole thing if you're just that excited!) at the TIES
building at Snelling and Larpenteur.  The location has been graciously
arranged by the Penguins Unbound group, who will be hosting us this time.
As I understand it, there is incredibly fast internet connectivity,
including wireless, and there will also be coffee provided.  For details on
the location, see http://www.penguinsunbound.com/Location_for_Meetings.

This will be a chance to hang out, meet the new people in our group (the
mailing list subscription and Launchpad membership have risen significantly
over the last few months), and play around with shiny new toys.  For those
of you who are support-inclined, hopefully there will be a lot of new users
to help walk through installing Ubuntu for the first time.  For the
old-timers, you can check out the new features of both the installer and
desktop.  Or, you could even just sit around and be social IRL, if you think
you can handle it!  :P

Like I said, the Penguins Unbound people have arranged the location and
coffee.  The plan will likely be to order pizza from the Pizza Hut across
the street for lunch.  I will be ordering our 100 free fliers from System76
over the weekend.  I also have 100 CD-Rs and about 250 empty jewel cases for
this purpose.  Unfortunately, it looks like I'm going to be stuck working
that day, which makes it all that much more important that all of you step
up to the plate and make this event happen and make it cool.  Here's what we
still need volunteers (yes, that means you!) for:

Picking up a portion of aforementioned fliers from me and posting them in
local businesses around town.  Anywhere with a bulletin board of community
events is a good target, such as Caribou Coffee and many other coffee shops,
public libraries, book stores, computer stores, and schools, especially
colleges.  I might be able to dig up my list from last time, but I could
tell you much of it from memory if you'd like.  contact me to make
arrangements.

Donating / soliciting donations of more CDs, both for this event and others
we have coming up.  If you talk to any businesses about possible donations,
also mention that we're looking for photocopying, and feel free to give them
my contact info if they have questions you can't answer.  Over the summer I
would like to pursue this more in-depth, but do what you can for now.

Telling all of your friends.

Picking up the aforementioned CDs and jewel cases from me and bringing them
to the event.  I would recommend burning many of them ahead of time, so if
you want to do the burning yourself you can arrange pickup at any time and
then burn on Thursday or Friday yourself.  Otherwise,  I will have access to
a six-disk-at-a-time duplicator on release day, so could go through a lot of
them then, and you could pick them up from me either Thursday evening (the
24th) or Friday.  Possible pickup locations are Shoreview, Vadnais Heights,
Roseville, or St. Paul (by the cathedral), depending on the day.  Contact me
to make arrangements.

Telling all of your family.

Make / bring some snacks for before and after lunch at the event - remember,
whoever chooses the food gets to eat what they like!

Telling all of your classmates.

Provide installation support at the event for new users.  It will be
essential that we have some knowledgable people present to give a good
"first experience" as we welcome these people into the community.

Telling all your neighbors.

Provide CD-burning hardware at the event for burning on demand as necessary.

Telling everyone else.  Catch my drift?  ;)

We have 60 (that's right, SIXTY!) people on this list now, and Brian is
setting the bar pretty high with the size of the room he reserved, so I'm
counting on all of you to get the word out, get things organized, get
yourselves there, and bring a gaggle of friends with you when you do.  Let's
see if we can't double that number by the beginning of summer, how's that
for a lofty goal?

Remember, this is an LTS, this is BIG, so let's make it ROCK!

-- 
Tony Yarusso
http://tonyyarusso.com/
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