Every once in a while, I will read through the LUG HOWTO on The Linux Documentation Project. It's a good guide on the issues related to running a LUG, and sometimes provide inspiration about how to solve problems when things get thorny or heated.

[No, I'm not going to elaborate on the thorny or the heated issues...]

List of LUG HOWTOS
• Linux User Group HOWTO: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/User-Group-HOWTO.html
• Recipe for a Successful Linux User Group: http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Linux_PR/newlug.html

Of course, some of the issues highlighted are different from what my perspective on things, such as the one about using Yahoo!Groups to manage the mailing list. Yeah, I understand that it may not help one's public image, but for investing a lot of money for domains, hosting, manpower on administration and maintenance, and stuff like that may not be possible for a new LUG, especially a student LUG. These kind of services is still useful during the initial starting out phase, I believe.

Still, I'm trying to move away from using Yahoo!Groups, not due to the reasons above, but rather to capitalise on the domain name of the LUG. Of course, issues like archiving, spam filtering, and moderation will become much easier with a self-maintained mailing list. Then again, I have tried to do that for several semestral breaks, but keep hitting technical, administrative and even time problems. Sigh... Hopefully, I can do it successfully this coming semestral break.