The second gathering/meeting of BDLUG was held on September 3 in the BUET cafe.  Here is a summary of what happened.

The number of participants increased significantly.  Most of the attendants are newbies.  From the seniors we had Shuman bhai (M S Anam) and Md. Samiul Haque from BDMail.  We did not have any fixed
agenda to discuss, most of the time was spent on troubleshooting topics.

There was a discussion about the setup of an offline mail server. Issues related to DNS also came up.  At least two members were having trouble with SiS cards.  A discussion on editors came up, centered
around emacs and its intimidating key-bindings.

The important discussions were on BDLUG activities.  We have made a list of tasks that *must* be done before the next meeting.

  * Form an organizing committee: we have to make an organizing
      structure, then select who does what. Debate/discussion for
      this will be on the mailing list.

  * Collect funds for registering a domain name for BDLUG: we will
      need US$70.  The money will be collected in the next meeting.

  * Make and maintain a FAQ of questions discussed in the meetings
    and the mailing list.

  * Write articles on Linux for publishing in magazines/newspapers.

  * Open a Question & Answer section in a widely circulated computer
      magazine.  Mr. Samiul Haque has agreed to talk with Computer
      Bichitra and Computer Jagat if possible.

  * Register BDLUG with Lists of LUGS in various Internet sites.  We
      are listed with www.linux.org, linux.com and another major
      (free) list of LUGS.  I have already applied to RedHat.  If
      anyone knows of other lists, please let me (mojahed) know.

  * Updates to BDLUG site:

      a. Make a link to members, linux related local organizations
         web-sites.

      b. Try to collect some ads from local network related sites,
         Mr. Biplob from Corona has agreed to take this task.

      c. Write new scripts for easing the registration process and to
         allow members to edit their information any time.  Note:
         members will have to be assigned passwords for this.
         Mr. Biplob and Mr. Mustaq Ahmed from BUET both expressed
         their willingness to work on this.

      d. Articles! we really need them.  Mr. Mursalin Akon (BUET) is
         writing an article for newbies.  I am making a page for
         tips/tricks.  Also, Mr. Tahaseen Alam's (IADB) informative
         mails will be collected in a page.  We need more contributors
         here.

  * From now on, BDLUG's meeting will be held on the first Friday of
      every month at 3:00PM.  We will try to arrange the next meeting
      in the CS dept. of DU.  Shuman bhai has agreed to talk there.
      If it's not possible (red-tape and ...), BUET cafe is always
      there for back-up.
 

Unlike the first meeting, this one was a lot _unorganized_.  We lacked the organizing expertise of Mr. Sabbir Mahbub.  Not having a fixed agenda complicated the matters.  So our hard learned lesson is, make a
fixed agenda before the meeting and collect (even hire!) someone like Sabbir bhai to run the event.

Dear Members, most troubleshooting topics can be easily discussed on the mailing list.  Everyone can see the solution, and the answerer can check his own machine.  The meeting is held only once a month, and
that only for a couple of hours.  Is there any need to waste the valuable meeting time with troubleshooting discussions of all sorts? I mean, why is the mailing list for then?  Yes, there are some _troubles_ which need a human presence, we can keep only those for the meeting.

Last topic.  We are a Linux group, Linux is the greatest OS on earth :-) and provides the most freedom, we are supposed to be good people. So, please don't ask for distributing commercial software.

We thank Mr. M S Anam (Shuman bhai) sincerely for making us some time from his busy schedule.  We also thank Md. Samiul Haque for sponsoring the coffee.