Good Morning All I agree with Michael about the need for a formal committee and the need for some formal rules.
In my view the committee needs to be larger than the one Michael suggests. Add officers for "New Members", "Education - Software" and "Education - Linux" that means nine people, plus in succeeding years an "Immediate Past President" making 10. I think they should all have voting power but that at least three of the top five people must be present for a meeting to have a quorum. (IP Pres, President, Secretary, Ed - Linux, New Members ?) Because this is a learning community it would also be valuable to have a rule that forces the rotation of executive members each year. That stops that automatic re-election of certain "top people" who after 7 or 8 years come to "own the organisation" then there's a battle and the organisation breaks up. It also encourages people to learn new roles. It is also very valuable to have a "soft rule" that the incoming president should have served at least two years on the executive in the roles of Secretary, Ed - Linux or New Members. That means there is a route into the position of President that everyone can see, and also a route out of that position. The committee needs to meet regularly. Since we are all online, weekly IRC meetings might be a useful tool. It's surprising how getting people together in real time sparks new ideas and gets the energy flowing. It comes down to how much time people have, but if you want to build a feeling of community quickly, that's one way to do it. Lets have a big attendance at the meeting. John (New to Linux - Long on Organisations and Committees) John S. Veitch mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Photo Available on WWW http://www.ate.co.nz/johnsveitch.jpg Adapt to Experience URL http://www.ate.co.nz/ for Virus Protection http://www.ate.co.nz/trend/
