Ben Scott wrote: > On 8/22/07, Bill Sconce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> GNHLUG itself will presumably *not* write letters or try to persuade >> officials of anything. > > In the past, people have said that being a "real organization" would > allow us to have people go before law- and policy-makers and say, > "We're here representing the Greater New Hampshire Linux Users Group. > We think you should...". As such, it would help lend an air of > legitimacy to advocacy efforts. A lot of people do let things like > titles influence their perceptions, so this isn't just hot air. > > Now, whether or not "we" "should" do the above is open to debate. > I'm not really sure where I stand on that question, myself. But I > don't think we should assume that we definitely have no plans to > influence political decisions, because in the past, at least some of > "us" *did*. >
I am afraid if we speak to legislators as "GNHLUG," we are a lobbying firm, with the liabilities and tax implications that implies. If I speak to my legislators as a citizen and voter and make it clear as part of establishing my credentials that I am very familiar with the Linux and FOSS communities, and that it is *me* speaking and not the organization, the two can be kept at arm's length. I think the political opinions within the organization range from the liberal to the conservative, radical to reactionary, and that having a representative of the group speak in an official capacity would introduce unnecessary divisions into the group. I encourage each and every member of the group to talk with their legislators and make *their* opinions known on important issues like copyright laws, DRM, the telephone-cable oligarchy and other issues they are concerned with. If a *member* of this organization wants to inform other members using the mailing list of the organization (while not establishing any 'official organization position'), I think that's the point of GNHLUG: establishing and encouraging communication amongst members. I think this discussion of legal entity types does bring us back to the great question. While many of us are employed in some aspect of the computer business, some of us do this as a hobby or an educational project or on a volunteer basis. Is the primary focus of the organization business? How do we justify the MythTV presentation, the most popular recent event? I think it could be argued that the main focus of the group is not business as much as it is focused on the community of Open Source and Free Software, and the fundamental differences such a philosophy brings to all aspects of computing. Is FOSS more of an economic model or a sociological one? Is GNHLUG a business or a social movement? I've tweaked on the Board meeting agenda to recognize that this discussion will probably close out our meeting. http://wiki.gnhlug.org/twiki2/bin/view/Organizational/BoardAgendaSummer2007 -- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com _______________________________________________ gnhlug-org mailing list gnhlug-org@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-org/
