The spirit of "volunterism" quickly fades when seen amidst the reality of both professional and personal commitments. That statement is not conjecture. It is a reality. And for the few who do find the time to volunteer, the tasks at hand are so enourmous and time-consuming that it the entire effort becomes unsustainable.
All who have answered positively to my initial questions - it's nice to see that you have really good ideas on what PLUG should be doing, but can you put your money and TIME where your "posts" are? I've seen Marvin Pascual and Paolo Falcone labor intensively during his tenure, sometimes alone, with other people (including me) too busy to be bothered. I commend them for keeping the flame of PLUG alive during those times. But alas, Marvin is now working abroad, and although Paolo is still around, the job is too big for one person. Even during my tenure as president, nobody i approached could accomodate enough of their time to move the agreed upon projects forward. It's nice to read about what PLUG could and should be doing, but really, those who posted, my challenge is to put your time in this, not just offer rhetoric. Maybe it's time for you to step up, put forth a platform, a list of activities you can commit to implement during your term, and then maybe the "membership" can vote you in as PLUG officers. It would be nice to see the spirit of SUSTAINABLE volunterism in PLUG, and not just be a list of activities few members of a mailing list did in the past.. As for having a "paid" set of officers or administrative people, that can only come when PLUG is able to present VALUE to potential donors. This is something we need to build in time, This is something we need to prove today. This is something we can hope to achieve in the medium or long term, but as it is, not with one year of dormancy, and a membership hesitant to donate time even to meet for an election of officers. On 10/31/07, Roberto Verzola <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I've been working with NGOs for years. The board need not be paid staff. You > just need one paid person doing all the admin/secretariat stuff. The rest can > continue to work as volunteers. > > Regards to all, > > Obet Verzola > > > On Wednesday 31 October 2007 08:50:28 Holden Hao wrote: > > > That's one of the reason why I never ever wanted to form a formal group > > > ... but since it's there, it's there. > > > Don't take me wrong...I do appreciate that PLUG has changed into a > > > structured organization, but to get a formal group going, you need > > > dedicated people, sys ads, people who experiment, but geeks (no insult > > > intended) are not that kind of people. -- I mean dedicated to > > > administrative...they'd > > > > This is somewhat true and I am frustrated that you can't even bother > > some board members to make decisions and vote with a "yes" or a "no" > > to resolutions submitted via the board list. However, I believe that > > with a structured organization PLUG can achieve more and grow from > > just being a mailing list. > > > > I believe that to make PLUG grow, we need a professional management > > team to manage its operations. PLUG can function as an NGO and manage > > its day to day operations and projects (FOSS conferences, advocacies, > > boot camps, etc.) . However, the management team needs to be paid. > > The organization needs to be able to get seed funding in order to > > establish its foundation. This can be done through donations, > > sponsorships, or through an income generating activity. The only > > problem we have now is that who can spare the time to do all this at > > the start. > > > > > > > > Holden > > _________________________________________________ > > Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List > > [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) > > Read the Guidelines: http://linux.org.ph/lists > > Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph > > > _________________________________________________ > Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List > [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) > Read the Guidelines: http://linux.org.ph/lists > Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph > _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Read the Guidelines: http://linux.org.ph/lists Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
