Excuse me while I bow down. Completely agree. Slightly scared about being accused of arson, but there we go.
Do other people have any major objections to this way of doing things? I think it makes sense to have mini-committees when we need them, primarily because I know that the other 'benevolent dictators' are at least as busy as myself, and we *really* want to see this thing succeed. As far as having a global committee to 'manage' ALUG is concerned, I have very similar reservations to the ones that Mark has already cited.
Linux is strong because the 'little guy' (read 'you and me') is, or can be, as strong as anyone else who's involved with linux. As I said, if people think a commitee is the right thing to do, then I'm quite happy that we give it a go. However, as Mark said, it's hard (and believe me, I've had a fair bit of experience from both sides of the table) to get this right.
Interestingly, although I'm not convinced of the merit of a comittee in this case, I have often wondered whether we can make the meetings a little more formal, and have actual scheduled demonstrations. In particular, MJ Ray, Andrew Savory and myself have tried to arrange specific demonstrations on several occasions; almost invariably, these have gone off half- cocked, or haven't happened at all. I'm sure both Andrew, Mark and myself would agree that this is our fault, although there is no reason why *we* should be doing those demonstrations. Do people think that there is a better way of making these things happen?
Thoughts?
Paul
On Mon, Jan 03, 2000 at 01:11:21AM +0000, MJ Ray wrote:
On Sun, Jan 02, 2000 at 11:25:39PM +0000, Paul Russell wrote:
What do other people think? I'm quite happy to see a committee formed if that's what everyone else thinks would be best, but I'm not sure that it would be in our best interests.
This probably isn't the reply Adam wanted, but anyway. ALUG is an organisation, but in the best tradition of Linux, it's a disorganised association of like-minded people who are each willing to put in wildly varying amounts of time. The Linus-like role of "benevolent dictator" probably gravitates somewhere around the original firestarters Laurie, Paul, BJ, Andrew Savory, Martyn Drake and myself. None of us has absolute authority and that cuts both ways.
I still stand by my arguments in http://www.mth.uea.ac.uk/~h089/alug/list/alug1/25.html
I would still be against an ALUG committee, but I would welcome small organising committees for each meeting. If a group would like to take on that task for the next one (ALUG5 is it now? coo) make yourself known to the list now!
MJR
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