I have followed with interest the responses to Matt's post concerning
the future of WAMUG and agree with most that the list is an
invaluable tool and that is the medium that most users access
regularly.
Whilst the monthly meetings are generally attended by a tiny fraction
of the overall membership, they do provide a worthwhile forum for the
people who do attend. Unfortunately the workload, as in most clubs,
associations, societies etc, falls on a few dedicated people who give
of their valuable time, knowledge and expertise to make it work.
Matt hit the nail on the head when he said that money is not the
problem, it's people, or lack of them. Daniel, Matt and Peter
Hinchliffe have done a marvelous job on presentations, Susan on
filming and Martin putting it up on iLecture, Peter Botman doing the
finances and if it wasn't for Colyn we wouldn't have any coffee and
biccies.
But if they are no longer there and are not replaced, I feel that not
only will the meetings cease to exist, but in the longer term so will
WAMUG, including the list. When the server was hacked last month,
someone had to put in about ten hours to get it up and running again.
When a user can't access the list, someone has to sort the problem.
When funds are needed to pay for the server, someone has to arrange
it. On the rare occasions when one's needed, someone has to be a
moderator. What I'm getting at, is that WAMUG will still need willing
volunteers regardless of the format.
Whether the meetings should continue in their present form or not is
debatable or should a different format be examined? It was
interesting that when we held the final meeting for 2006 at Future
Sphere, we had a sea of faces (and that was on fairly short notice)
I'm sure that not all of us just went for the wine and biccies.
I totally understand that people are reluctant to volunteer for
committee positions, I know I was until Matt shamed me into it, but
we have reached that point in the Group's evolution that we need at
least some serious discussion on WAMUG's future or there won't be one.
Cheers (I hope)
Ian Conaghan
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