Benjamin Alexander Landin 1988-2022

We just became aware that Ben Landin, our webmaster and member of the leadership team, took ill shortly after the last leadership phone meeting and was hospitalized. He had surgery and was improving when he caught an infection. He is now recovering in the intensive care unit at Parkview Hospital. Visitation is limited to two people per day because of Covid restrictions, and these spots are usually taken by his family. Well-wishers may send cards to “Ben Landin Room 2112, Parkview Regional Medical Center, 11109 Parkview Plaza Dr, Fort Wayne, IN 46845.”

We at the Fort Wayne Linux Users Group have been struggling to decide on a path forward for holding events safely, during this health crisis. Continuing to kick the can down the road by cancelling in-person events, month after month, waiting for the situation to improve, contributes nothing toward fulfilling our mission. So, we will commence holding online events soon. Decisions on the exact nature of these events and the platform(s) on which they will take place have yet to be finalized. Keep an eye on this space for details to come.

To slow the spread of COVID-19, all restaurants and bars in Indiana have been ordered to close for dine-in patrons. As such, our regular venue for the monthly social is no longer available.

Similarly, the library has closed its meeting rooms. They might be available again in time for our next presentation, but they will likely impose an attendance limit, and it has long been our policy not to exclude anyone from attending our events.

While we could still hold events in a public place like a park, experts are advising everyone to avoid unnecessary public outings of any kind.

The health an well-being of our members is important to us, so we are cancelling all events until further notice. We hope you understand our reasons for doing this.

If you would like to get involved in actively helping to fight this virus, the Folding@Home project makes that possible without risking your health. If you have a computer sitting around idle, particularly one with a discrete GPU, and you can spare the electricity, visit the link below to learn how you can donate processor time to help develop a vaccine.

github.com/FoldingAtHome/coronavirus

As we are now established on GetTogether, and due to lack of remaining membership, our Meetup.com group will be closing entirely on Friday, June 7. We have sent out a few limited communiqués over the past couple weeks, but we had yet to announce this publicly. We will continue to host events as usual, so please join us on GetTogether.

We have found an event management platform that is both libre and gratis. As such, our group on Meetup.com is changing to a paid subscription today.

More details follow in the full post.

Do you have an idea for a presentation topic? Do you have feedback about the group or our events? We want to hear from you! Fill out our suggestion box survey and let us know what’s on your mind.

The form can be found here: fortwaynelinux.org/suggest

Unlike previous surveys, this one will remain open indefinitely.

We’re still tweaking the site theme and layout, but we’re online.