----- Original Message ----- From: "Duncan Neithercut"
Subject: RE: [ql-users] QL2004 P;us
How many of the 300 Quanta members subscribe to this group? Perhaps you know. I dont, my guess is perhaps 63 - based on 1 in 20 rule, if one person complains then approximately 20 others are also dissatisfied and assuming all subscribers will happily dump their committee with the responsibility of organising the meeting, as it is an easy choice for most. It is therefore possible that you are jumping to conclusions about the membership.
I suspect rather more than 63, but as you imply indeed not a large sample of Quanta membership. However it is the only forum open for a quick interchange of information, and I suspect the more active members of Quanta are the ones who subscribe to this list.
You reach more Quanta members via this list than via any AGM I have attended. Why then doesn't Quanta actively participate?
On communication. Look at the Quanta advert on page 51 of the current edition of QL-Today. The website quoted in that advert has not existed for years. I pointed this out to the Quanta committee in February and every member told me I was wrong until I shoved the advert under their faces. It was then corrected for one issue only.
Or again. Quanta is always complaining about a shortage of material for the magazine. When do the ever use their own magazine for telling members what they are doing? (Think of the Q60 decision!)
It is usually bad policy to disrespect your membership if you are a committee member, and if you are a trader as well!!
Trader? Total receipts this year £41. Total expenditure £113.92. If I say goodbye, I am the winner and the QL scene the loser.
In fact most Just Words! time is spent helping people with general computer problems. Other traders will tell you something similar. Why do QL users go to traders for help instead of Quanta?
Obviously Geoff knows the current committee better than the run of the mill Quanta members, we dont turn up to the AGM anyway, and he has stated publically he has no confidence in his colleagues on the commitee to organise QL2005 (why are you on the committee?).
In February I had a meeting with the Quanta Committee in which it was agreed that there was a need for reform and renewal. As a result of this I agreed to become a committee member which I did as from the end of April.
You may remember a couple of weeks ago I challenged the 3 Florida boys to tell me how their plans for the next 12 months were proceeding now that they were at the halfway period. I am now applying the same test to myself at my halfway period.
How far has Quanta renewed and reformed itself in the last 6 months?
I have made my own analysis and provisional decisions. I would like to hear the opinions of others.
Logically therefore I vote as a Quanta member of good standing that Geoff should organise this meeting in the UK and have it as close to the center of England as possible and as near Birmingham or Manchester as possible.
I would love to run a QL2005 - just one big last International QL show in the UK, but it will be a lot harder than QL2004. The latter was really a show for the movers and shakers rather than the punters, but QL2005 will have to be the other way round. Accommodation, financing, catering and insurance will have to be a Quanta responsibility. They have the funds to do it. They made a profit of £1,363 last year and I think there will be a similar profit this year. Quanta has been talking about a major show since about July 2003, but in 15 months has not come up with a single concrete proposal. At the last committee meeting they were talking about an early AGM in February combined with QL2005, but since then I have heard nothing, even though you need at least a clear six months to run an international show. Draw your own conclusion.
I repeat, I will happily organise QL2005, but only on the conditions I have made on this list earlier.
Sorry if I sound bossy, dictatorial and arrogant, but I had to be bossy, dictatorial and arrogant to get QL2004 off the ground.
Best Wishes, Geoff
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