Fred Benenson wrote: > > On 10/3/07, *Christina Xu* <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote: > > > The best way to help small chapters is to build an > organization that can > help them effectively, which is why we wrote the bylaws. > > > I brought this up at the by-laws meeting and am willing to do so > again: many of the problems that chapters face are not necessarily > able to be fixed by Deus ex Machina. A lot of the problems involve > lack of interest on a certain campus (see below) and, sometimes, a > particular chapter head's lack of leadership ability or > organizational skills. No amount of throwing money or tickets to > conferences or even resources at them will necessarily help. > > > Totally agree -- the only thing that helps chapters is themselves.
Christina's points are valid, but your one-sentence summary is patently false. Very frequently, resources (e.g. free webspace with useful packages pre-installed and configured), guidance on what sorts of activities to do and how to do them, tickets to conferences that get them excited about the issues and the community, etc. *will* help. Sometimes the chapter will be at a totally unsupportive school and/or everyone in the chapter will be fatally incompetent, and then nothing *anyone* does can help. However, I think that most of the time all of the things that a successful national organization could provide will help chapters survive and thrive. Of course, if you want to run for the Board on the platform of "Let SFFC provide nothing to chapters because *only* chapters can help themselves", be my guest, I'm sure that will be really popular with all of the new, small, and/or struggling chapters out there. It's one thing to try to help the chapters and fail due to unfortunate circumstances beyond your control, it's another thing to never try at all because you've convinced yourself that it is futile. Peace, ~Nelson~ _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss
