On Fri, Apr 29, 2005 at 10:48:05PM +0700, Tracy R Reed wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Could someone post a brief report on what happened at the SDCS meeting? > I regret that I could not have attended. Did many KPLUGgers show up? Is > the Mac LUG seceeding? Why did they take over the board and then try to > leave? It doesn't seem to make sense. >
It's hard to summarize for a couple of reasons. First, anything we write here is in the open and will inevitably become part of the SDMUG's tribal knowledge. Hardly discrete. Secondly, we're dealing with motivations that may not be fully understood by those who feel them, let alone reveal them. Briefly, the officer structure of SCDS, which is almost exactly the same officer structure as SDCS, reports that SDMUG will vote at their next meeting on withdrawing from SDCS. Several reasons were cited, including financial and sense of control, but none of the reasons stood up to scrutiny except the hyperemotional one, which was, "we're Mac people and the rest of you aren't so we don't have anything in common." There was some airing of what I found to be a remarkable amount of resentment, to and from the SDMUG. There was general condemnation of (and mutual blaming for) apathy in all SIGs. The financials that were presented made little practical sense, at least to me. SDCS has much more on hand than it really needs (about 9 - 10 years operating expenses). SDMUG alone is supposed to be paying more in in annual dues than SDCS needs to operate. The smaller SIGs apparently don't even know what their benefits or obligations are. SDMUG is meeting next Wednesday night and I asked for the opportunity to address them before they voted to make the case for their delaying separation. Personally, I'm skeptical that anything will stop them since they've already gone to the not insignificant expense of incorporating. I suspect that this will lead to the dissolution of SCDS and that the real losers will be the small SIGs and the as-yet-unborn SIGs who will either have to fly under the radar (with attendant financial risk to their officers) or disband. Whatever the outcome, KPLUG will be forced to become more organized, with a formal membership and nominal dues -- either that or become a mailing list-only org. If SDCS doesn't fly apart, we'll need to step up and contribute honestly in proportion to our membership; if it does and we want insurance and good meeting places, we'll either have to carry the small SIGs or incorporate for ourselves. Usual disclaimers about all of this being MHO. -- Lan Barnes [EMAIL PROTECTED] Linux Guy, SCM Specialist 858-354-0616 -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-steer
