This is an E-mail I received today from members who could not make the meeting yesterday because of the building
access:
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Hey Brad,
I know this has been brought up before, and I know it has fallen on deaf ears because no one has wanted to do anything
about the issue, but I need to raise the visibility of something.
I was among a small group of 3 people who couldn't get into tonights presentation because it was 6:01. Regardless of the
reason (unusually heavy traffic with bad weather, having a non-government job that doesn't just stop at a certain time of
day, etc), I got there a few minutes too late to get in. Now technically I guess I don't have any excuse to be upset (although
I was still quite upset) since I have attended UG meetings before and been warned that they won't let you up after 6PM, but
I'm still upset, and not just for me. One of the people who was trying hard to get allowed upstairs somehow had driven
in from Cornwall, despite the lousy weather. I imagine he has a job that he was working and that as soon as he finished that
job he headed to the UG meeting. I could tell that he didn't know the doors would be locked and that he wouldn't be allowed
up either. Neither did the other person.
Now, I'm not running the OWSUG so I probably shouldn't care much about this, but I can't help but wonder why this problem
has simply been treated with a shrug of the shoulders in the past any why the OWSUG has never come up with a system that
works better. The meetings at 6PM downtown are fine for government workers that get off at a decent hour and that can just
hang around downtown, but for anyone who has to come in from outside the city and struggle with making time to get there,
the current system sucks. I also know from the security guard that this happens all the time, where people show up a little
late and are simply turned away. That doesn't seem like a very friendly, welcoming group that encourages *all* members to
participate to me.
Blogging about how great the event was and how attendees received free copies of Windows 7 is just throwing salt on the wound.
Anyhow, I don't have any expectation that this will go anywhere. I just wanted to share the sentiment felt by myself and others
tonight because I personally feel that ignoring the issue is the wrong thing to do.
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Firstly, this is unfortunate but do clearly state that nobody can come in after the specified time.
Now, this has been to date. In all fairness, until the committee was formed, OWSUG was run more or less by 2 individuals…
This letter shows passion and commitment from our members and if you care enough to write, I certainly care enough to make sure the
issue is addressed.
As a committee, we will review what is possible to fix this issue.
Brad