-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 I agree with most of Derek's points here, but I don't think we need to do anything drastic. In my opinion, the issue comes from the dichotomy between what we wanted LOPSA to be and what it turned out to be.
We wanted LOPSA to be the professional organisation for sysadmins, the organisation which lobbies politicians and law makers on our behalf, which recommend curricula to universities, which set ethical guide lines (with consequences), which recommends tools and best practices, etc... Let's face it, how many times has LOPSA taken position on controversial subjects related to our industry? How many press releases have we done? What LOPSA is today: 1) an amazing mailing list 2) a conference organiser 3) some support for local chapters 4) an organisation #1: Most of us are here for this. The people participating in the mailing list are the most broad, from the most senior to junior people and from people working for the largest organisations to the standalone sysadmin. I have not found another source anywhere as good as this, neither online nor in real life. The cost could be zero, we could use librelist.com or a google group. The value is in the members, not in the mechanic. #2: I don't know, I tend not to go to conferences (young kids, being a contractor the lost earning would be huge, etc...), but I suspect that a large piece of LOPSA cost come from this. #3: Again, I haven't been involved but I suspect most of the value comes from notoriety, mailing exchange and web space (possibly insurance?). Again, a near-zero cost. #4: being an official organisation requires board meetings (are reimbursing travel expenses), insurances, lawyers hours etc... There was value when we were going to be a huge organisation which was to do lots of things, but now I suspect most of the value is for #2 and possible some for #3 above. I don't know the numbers, but I also suspect that his is one of the largest cost to LOPSA. What we should do is recognise that this is what we have become, scale down appropriately, dissolve the current org, reopen new ones that fit the purposes, and charge members accordingly. I'd be happy to pay 5$/year to keep the trolls out of the mailing list, but I have been paying 50$ every few years mainly out of sentimental guilt. If/when I go to a conference, I'll pay for it. There is no way I can go to enough conferences in the reminder of my life expectancy to get value out of my membership fees in the past decade or so. - -- http://yves.zioup.com gpg: 4096R/32B0F416 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1 iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJU16S8AAoJEIpXcUQysPQWaN0P/2XpwyPGM3JGmLJd4t1Uii9z aGA8Ve7ZCzDXjbmIihjJdgoDP4u7u+r5In3CTz5ou87qcjQzE700ExA8ZkXOyI79 Ec9HZcdDaQJUZtQZ9vF3u2xqHUMAgUxYe+Wv8zegyk321Ujl338RzO/hBPpIC7yM 2ahYW/rH/CytbmYW04uRfzveCICRtoRL+Yv952QzWfWYFepyWwHBuFtOKmwunwkj eDhm2K7e65HivbMDOOqQes1SzNQ6MBaeLVzhzTxuB0sWcgZLiM6kMx2R10wuIEuk eRQ6HeWXGk0wf4u6njbv9szITFegIpp0Ui++lClmLaO7fTmI/7sWTQ7X+HEu2Dyb MH6/s7+YKNeBOJl5eHTTxAPw2HRnG9g1DvshRnrqHy9v8+dtcZcKc/PL7vVzzzsL qIDeJndDU1vld823WVXiqobxa9u6yJydaZaqoBSr+J+zSkHkRdeyKD9lkt/pTNtX C2AkjNBktBBt1HgMrRafP63FML79+Ik7sPwEToztztdO6GPVvnBexi1omZwxcglq yXKwWq7JqKqJAQaI1LMLi5kLP73srOZTwjDvpsxozGo0zPDJAqA7sVbOkp7VLULq LbPKKJMnBtFyyQ4gCqUOB+ZjEGJG09l9nQ1rGzTOakvMHjhJgXm9QNlA3oAcK9FR qF/qlNrZBQpqO1Od1Z/R =Tuak -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.lopsa.org https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
