Structured Membership

[Nigel Sollars]

On Sat, 29 Sep 2001, George Toft wrote:

> 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

Many fair comments and concerns ... 

got my vote

Nige
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