TLUG and government grants

[Tim Writer]

William Park <opengeometry-FFYn/CNdgSA at public.gmane.org> writes:

> On Tue, Dec 06, 2005 at 03:49:33AM -0500, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> > William Park wrote:
> > >We are member-driven organization.  That means, we gotta have bodies
> > >first, then try to coordinate.
> > >
> > That's not how it works.
> > 
> > 1) First you express a vision and realistic goals based on that vision.
> > 
> > 2) People choose to join based on affinity with the vision and goals.
> > 
> > 3) Then, based on resources at hand (people, money, technology, etc), 
> > you develop plans to accomplish the goals.
> > 
> > I'm not complaining about the lack of #3, I agree that's premature. I'm 
> > commenting on the bypassing of #1. Plans can change frequently, but 
> > goals change rarely and vision should be a constant.
> 
> Are you always like this?

Like what? As far as I can see, Evan has refrained from personal attacks.

> Even prima donna stop singing when they are not on stage.  How many time do
> we have to tell you, "THAT IS NOT HOW TLUG WORKS."
>
> Group of Linux guys got together over beer, and that become TLUG.

Perhaps, I don't know as I wasn't there at the beginning. I attended my first
TLUG meeting in about 1997.

> Later, those guys decided to have something formal, and that brought
> forth GTALUG.

That's inaccurate, IMO. There were several abortive attempts at
incorporation. The latest (successful attempt) appears to have been organized
by a small subset of the "membership" which has traditionally been defined by
membership in this list. AFAICS, the purpose of incorporation and the reason
for charging a membership fee has never been clearly communicated nor does
there appear to be a wide concensus on this list.

> It's always body first, idea second, and action third.

When TLUG has been involved in publicly visible events in the past (COMDEX,
CLUE Centre, intall fests, etc.) there has usually been one or two members
who have presented a vision and organized a group of volunteers around that
vision.

> Other organizations may work differently.  But, different strokes for
> different people.
> 
> 
> > It was not I who changed the rules and said that TLUG was morphing into 
> > a pay-to-join organization.
> 
> There you go again.  TLUG used to be just mailing list and monthly
> meetings.  That will stay the same.  GTALUG is just a formal layer
> created on top of that.  You've been involved with TLUG far longer than
> me.

That's true.

> And, I fail to see why you need this explained so repeatedly.

Because it has never been properly explained. I suspect that Evan and I
aren't the only long time members who feel that way.

-- 
tim writer <tim-s/rLXaiAEBtBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>                                  starnix inc.
647.722.5301                                      toronto, ontario, canada
http://www.starnix.com              professional linux services & products
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