First, let me apologize if I'm being confrontational. I'm in an odd mood today... and I fully expect (and deserve?) flak at the meeting tomorrow... :)
Let me paraphrase what I was saying: A volunteer organization only exists at the whim of those who do the work. Those who do not do the work are more than welcome to comment or offer suggestions. But those same people cannot complain if something isn't getting done "fast enough". Well, they can, but they still have to wait for those doing the work to decide whether the complaints/comments are fair and/or need attention. CLUG and the website are not stone structures. We CAN make changes where needed. The website is just one example of the apathy I've seen building up in the past couple of years. For all intents, CLUG as an educational/hobbyist organization seems to be dead. CLUG as a social gathering for those who appreciate FOSS seems to be in an "OK" state, though even that is diminishing. CLUG's goal of "promoting Linux and open source" is a little too vague I think... I fully agree that the website needs attention, but so does CLUG. I'll stick the the site for now though. The problems as I see them are: a) website updates are put on the shoulders of a single person b) the website is not kept current and/or useful (see point a above, and remember that that person has a life too) c) the purpose of the website has not been well defined, and therefore poorly implemented (I'll take my share of blame for that one) d) CLUG is having an identity crisis (in my eyes at least), and this is reflected on the site. The current site was purposely cut to the basics, with the intent to add features as need/demand for them arose. We are seeing a sample here of a "demand" for better access to meeting and event information, so *we* should be doing something about it. I don't think we have the "demand" yet for general user accounts, though there appears to be a "need" for more than just the exec to have accounts. The ideas coming out in this thread are very good, and rightly deserve action. But there's the rub. If someone isn't willing to take ownership of the problem and do something about it, the problem will persist. CLUG has become, well, sluggish... where people volunteering to "fix" a problem comes into play. There are those who are more than willing to step up. Kudos to them, and their efforts ARE appreciated. But this still comes down to relying on a select few to do things the way we'd like. As a group, and as individual members, we need to decide what we want to do, what our purpose is, and how to achieve these things. Then we as a group need to follow through and do the necessary work. Kin has gotten the ball rolling in one area with his educational presentations with community organizations. We are seeing some follow through here from group members. This is all good. But it's not the website, and it's not reflected on the website. As for Cameron's suggestions of consistency and structure, I agree. But this takes time and effort. Who wants to tackle that problem? With the website, and with CLUG in general? But I would hesitate to add yet another section to the website to cover the "background stuff". It would just be one more part of the website that would be neglected. As for Jesse's comment about lack of a "sign up" method on the site, that was a conscious choice after the abuse of the previous site. But anyone on the executive can create a user account at any time. This is the first time since the new site went up last summer that it's been asked for (to my knowledge at least). A tip though - if you had an account on the old site, you likely have an account on the new site and just need to request a new password. (http://www.clug.ca/user) (another sample of too much resting on one person.... I'm not sure the exec even knew that bit, seeing as I just remembered... :) A note for Bogi and/or Mitchell: The version of Drupal on the website is probably out of date. There are three or four new releases since the summer. I don't know if the code's been updated, but it should be looked into lest we run into the same problems we had with the previous site. I take it back. I *am* being confrontational, on purpose. I feel these issues need to be worked out. We have the AGM and elections coming up. Now is a good time to air the "dirty laundry" I think, so that our new exec can form a plan to address these things. I also want people to argue and tell me I'm full of crap if I am - many times I'm surprised I'm not corrected. I'm left to assume that either people are too polite to say anything, or that I'm right. I know I can't be right all the time... :) If we can talk about issues objectively, I have no concerns being told I'm wrong. I have big shoulders. But we need to keep the personal insults out of that discussion... Shawn ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cameron" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "CLUG General" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, February 5, 2008 8:34:51 PM (GMT-0700) America/Denver Subject: Re: [clug-talk] meeting in this month I wasn't really biatching...but I know for a fact that I did not know that one could get access to the site...so I can't be faulted for that. I was actually writing the e-mail quickly while at work and sometimes e-mail doesn't refelcte the true emotions of what is being said. Plus...I know we do have a communications person in the executive who is responsible for that. And by responsible I mean either doing it themselves or recruiting someone to help. I was merely pointing out some of the frustrations that I saw with the site to provide some guidance for whoever was doing it...they can take it or leave it...or they can tell me to pee up a rope. This kind of ties into one of my bug spots...a lack of consistency or standards or certain ways of doing things. I am all for flexibility ad creativity of someone who is doing something but from a "corporate/professional/etc." I think it is important. I do appreciate that the executive and even some non-executives alike put countless man/woman-hours into making CLUG run...and I do mean that honestly. I truly do appreciate everything that is done on behalf of the membership often times without a kind word, a pat on the back...or a cookie for a job well done. Perhaps more of the background stuff that CLUG needs done should be more widely vocalized. Maybe a posting section of the website. Could be multi-purpose...members could post ads for jobs wanted/offered...but the exec could also use it recruit help as well. _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [email protected] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [email protected] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying
