[H-GEN] Support to change Humbug's constitution.

[Raymond Smith]

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On Mon, 4 Dec 2000, Frank Brand wrote:
> Brisbug...some years ago...was very very successful.

Indeed, I too was a member. I believe they have now shrunk to a membership
of 300 (from some thoussands the year before) and are looking pretty sick.

> I think that the great success that they had was due to the dedication
> of a few people who were strong drivers of the organisation.
> Unfortunately, those people usually get burnt out and a vacuum develops
> (was gonna say hiatus but I don't know if the spelling is correct)

Indeed.

> I actually did speak to some Brisbug people about a year ago and they
> certainly had an interest in Linux at that time.

Yeah, we had a goodly number of these come along to the Installfest. They
seemed switched on.

> > On the other hand, we had a number of members from the BrisBUG PC User
> > Group compliment us on this very style of meeting. However, I agree with
> > you that HUMBUG needs to know what its members want/expect from it.
>
> Yep the meetings are fine if thats what members want. Unfortunately it
> is not that suitable for me....thats my problem not Humbug's if the
> members are generally happy.

True. I for one would like to see the education programs, etc, for
newbies.

> > > I see, in other parts of Australia and overseas, user group meetings
> > > that are well organised and have good technical sessions and speakers.
>
> Well, some of the user groups in Sydney and Melbourne and Adelaide seem
> to be reasonable from what I hear but I would not claim great first hand
> knowledge

Sure. My experience is mostly of Queensland societies. Again -- maybe
there are just too many interesting things to do in the sunshine state.
:-)

> > Yes. Indeed the new members who have contacted me have all asked for this
> > sort of thing. The executive has heard but has been busy with other
> > things. What would be great is if people interested in *giving* Linux
> > Education talks could contact us.
>
> I think that this is often harder to do than to talk about....good
> quality presenters and presentations are not that easy to come by and I
> do not underestimate the difficulty in the logistics here.

As we have discovered. Again, if there is anyone at all interested in this
please contact the executive.

> > While I would like to make AGMs more attractive to members and do welcome
> > your suggestions I take great exception to your assertion that there is
> > any attempt whatsoever to disenfranchise people or circumvent any law.
>
> Dont get so excited Raymond *wink*. I did not mean to imply any attempt
> at doing so. I was referring an earlier post that talked about ensuring
> that members were not precluded from voting and another drawing
> attention to the legalties of the situation. I apologise if my language
> extended a mere throw away line into a special issue.

Thank you. As you say you were referring to earlier posts. I guess I am
frustrated by what I see as armchair critics; which is unfair because I
remember that while I was at uni I had no time at all to spend on HUMBUG
but had plenty of time to comment on what the then executive was doing
with HUMBUG.

In many ways this quorum issue is irrelevant in the bigger scope of
things, namely, just what do the members want HUMBUG to be? So it is great
to here everyones views even if they send this short fused secretary
ballistic :-).

Regards,

Raymond
---
raymond at humbug.org.au                     All that we see, or seem,
                                    Is but a dream, within a dream.
                                           -- Edgar Allen Poe


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