Structured Membership

[George Toft]

Dear Pluggers,

I lived through the structuring and subsequent fracturing and demise
of Hawaii's Linux User Group (LUAU).  It started off much like our
Westside meetings in size and content, and as it grew to 35+ active
participants, and 180+ listserv members, the notion of structure was 
presented.  In the interest of presenting a formal image to the
public, so we could spread the word about Linux with credibility,
we agreed to have a president, vice president/public relations,
treasurer (planning for the future), and secretary (meeting minutes 
and webmaster).  This was done at the objection of the "charter
members" of LUAU, who subsequently left the meetings, and stopped 
being an active part of the list.

All went well for one year, until the positions came up for renewal.  
The vice president made a bid for president and won, and wanted to
take the group in a direction that the group did not want to go.
After much infighting, name calling, deceit, and worse, the group
broke up and lost all credibility.  The charter members had their
group, the newbies went with the president, a new group was formed
by a close friend of mine, and everyone else went elsewhere.  This 
took about three months.

Linux is open because the people involved are free thinkers, and
generally do not like unnecessary structure (do not confuse with 
anti-structure).  If we liked being restricted in choices, we would 
be happy in a point and click environment where someone else gives 
us our choices.  Trying to impose structure on us is a very tricky 
endeavor, and one that needs considerable forethought.  I personally 
oppose such actions as requiring members to perform some action (use 
GPG to sign something) to be a member.  Our common bond is a love of 
Linux, and the power of Linux, not our ability to use crypto keys.  
If I should choose to not use crypto, that is my choice.  My 
membership is with Phoenix Linux Users Group, not Phoenix GPG Users 
Group.

I've gone through a user group change that was thought to be for 
the best that turned out catastrophic.  I would hate to see the same
thing happen here.

George