Hello all,
I am responding to the separate questions from Aaron Seigo, Marcel Lecker, Johnny Stork, and Mahlah Hansen. Thank you for expressing your interest and concerns expressed over CRS, TechnoTrash, and an Installfest at the warehouse they are using. Please excuse me for any past unclear emails. I will attempt to be as clear and brief as possible. I don't know the answers to all your questions because there is now new management and a new location for CRS and TechnoTrash. I won't tie up the mailing list with the long answers to those I do know. A visit to CRS and TechnoTrash is worth a thousand words. I also have no intention of evading your questions. Please do not perceive any of my responses as a defense or attack when addressing your questions. At this stage of setting up an Installfest with CRS, I think it would be easy to make a big issue from any of the questions you all have made. I ask for the moment, for members to imagine setting up another Installfest. I will now attempt to tell CLUG members what they would be getting themselves into. CLUG has an opportunity to have monthly Installfests in a space with donated electricity and computer tables. The ideas that have been talked about so far on this thread are all valid. However, CLUG members need not be concerned with being used by a business (TechnoTrash) because CLUG members will have many options and choices. We don't have to do anything CRS or TechnoTrash tells us. One choice after the next Installfest that CLUG members can make is to donate their time to CRS activities and the societies they help. Another choice is to just keep on showing up for more Installfests to learn how to fix your own computer issues or someone else's. Yet another choice is to help promote Linux through workshops and Installfests to anyone who chooses to go to the donated CRS space. The CRS isn't forcing us to do anything in accepting their space. They want their volunteers to learn Linux. What they do with Linux is up to them. TechnoTrash is a business whose staff is concerned with the raw materials from used computers. They only want a Linux firewall for their Internet access. The CRS wants two of them. The CRS is a Not-For-Profit society that does what it can to make the best use of donated computers. If it can't find a use, they place it on the TechnoTrash pile. CRS was thinking of selling Linux firewalls with the computers which cannot be used by the societies it helps. It seems that societies don't have much use for firewalls, but businesses certainly do. Selling a firewall to a business would only supplement the CRS operations. I would suggest that any unanswered questions pertaining to the operations of CRS and TechnoTrash be addressed at the next Installfest. Keep in mind that CRS and TechnoTrash have changed management and locations just last month, so they still look like they have moved in and are setting up shop. After that, you can decide whether they deserve your time, knowledge, and energy on the projects that both CRS and CLUG members would like to work on (ex: firewalls, LTSP, computer building for your charity, etc.) Remember also, they can decide if they want to keep on inviting us to use their donated space and electricity for more Installfests. Mark Levy, the new manager of CRS, has said there is no money in used computers. He has stacks of operating, largely plastic, bubble jet printers he is willing to give away. CRS is also willing to donate computers to CLUG when a relationship develops. He sees working with CLUG as a positive means to work with the community and as a learning tool for CRS and CLUG. An Installfest and other shared projects would allow us to help each other achieve our separate goals. I would tend to agree. Thank you again, Peter Williams Coordinator for CLUG Recycled Computers CLUG Membership #02L02203 CLUG email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
