TLUG and government grants

[billt-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org]

On Thu, Dec 08, 2005 at 02:26:25PM -0400, Tony Abou-Assaleh wrote:
> > > Basically, it appears that GTALUG doesn't have a mandate from the TLUG
> > > membership to act on it's behalf -- The membership being defined as one
> > > being subscribed to the TLUG e-mail list at the time GTALUG was being
> > > formed.
> > >
> > It doesn't matter what your position or anyone elses is. Presently GTALUG runs this mailing list and runs the club. If you feel that they are doing a bad job your recourse of action is to become and member of GTALUG and change it from within. Whining about it on the mailing list isn't going to accomplish anything.
> >
> > Another options is to leave here and go off and create your own club and mailing list. This has happened several time in the past with mixed success.
> 
> Since the TLUG list members never voted on GTALUG representing them, it
> does not matter whether GTALUG runs the list and meeting or not, they
> still represent only their own paid members, and not the whole community.
> Of course, that is only from the legal point of view. In practice,
> companies may choose to believe otherwise.

GTALUG has never claimed to represent the people of this list. What GTALUG claims is to run the operation of this list and the meetings. It also claims to provide other service to its members. At the moment those services haven't been determined.
> 
> An alternative to the 6 month free membership of TLUG members in GTALUG
> (this option has too many holes), GTALUG may simply propose to TLUG
> members that GTALUG becomes the voice of those on the list, whether
> they're member or not. I think this is fairly easy to do, require to
> changes in GTALUG, and would address the issue that GTALUG was not voted
> on by TLUG members.
> 
I don't think the board of directors would even accept this proposal. GTALUG purports to speak for its (paid) members because they are paid members and as such have authorized the club to do and speak on specific topics. If said paid member wish to change what the club is doing they have methods of doing so (including calling a special meeting to remove the board if they desire).

The people on this list have not authorized GTALUG to speak on their behalf about any topic, so there is no reason to do so. When I speak to a company about the members I speak about the 100 or so paid members, I don't speak about the 1000 or so people on this list. When specifically asked, I do say that we operate a mailing list for the general public with a thousand or so people on it, some of which are members and most of which are not. I specifically mention that this service is provided free of charge to the community with no requirements of membership.
 
The idea that GTALUG speaks for the people on this list is wrong.

Bill

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