[volunteers] On hamburgers

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Alvin Oga (alvin at mail.Linux-Consulting.com):

[snip]

> picnic "coordination" is supposed to be done by a rotating group,
> so duncan representing entity?? is a good thing

Duncan's of course a good guy and among my dearest friends (he
officiated at my and Deirdre's wedding) -- but note _whom_ he was picked
by, for this role.  _No_ Bay Area Linux group was consulted in any way in
that matter.  (I asked around.)  And that gets back to my point, that
I've made to people at intervals for the past year:  The Linux community
has been simply removed from management of its own picnic, by unilateral
decision of Sbay.  

Which is just one of the many ways in which it's been made to be 
_no longer_ our picnic.  (Drew Bertola assumed otherwise, when he handed
over the domain.  His trust was misplaced.)

I talked to people privately about this for quite a long time:  E.g., I
kept calling last year picnic coordinator Jennifer Davis's attention to
various irregularities, e.g., that picnic funds were now being treated
as the property of Sbay, and her reaction was always to acknowledge the
issue, but say that she simply didn't want to deal with it, would hope
it didn't blow up until after the 2006 event, and would leave it to her
successor.  (She literallly said that.)  Then, I tried to discuss those
same matters at the end of last year's picnic with Heather, John, and
Ian:  They claimed that nothing was changing, even as I cited exactly
what was now being made different.  

And last, I mentioned on Sbay's (non-public, of course) Linux Picnic
mailing list that these issues were being glossed over and should be
dealt with -- which got an evasive non-response response from Ian in
public, followed closely by private mail from Heather where she ducked
all my pointed questions and claimed, again, that nothing had changed.

So, I commented, there, that it would be good for Sbay to "come clean"
to the Bay Area Linux community about what it had been doing -- i.e.,
cease the insultingly obvious evasions -- the exact wording of mine that
Heather is now misrepresenting as having been an accusasion of personal
dishonesty, which of course is not what I said.

And that "coming clean" of course did not happen, and apparently will
not happen.



Heather wrote:

> > For the record Ian remains an officer on Sbay's board

I get a little cranky when people clumsily ignore, and attempt to
distract attention from, my (highly obvious) point:  I was, of course,
pointing to Ian's eyebrow-raising assertion that he will "defer
decisions about organizing the picnic to Duncan".  Regardless of whether
he has zero votes, one regular vote, an ex-officio vote, etc. on
someone's deliberative body or other, why would there even be any
_question_ about whether the Picnic Coordinator organises the picnic, as
opposed to being micromanaged by Ian Kluft?  Why should that question
even arise?  Will every Picnic Coordinator have to secure personal
permission from Ian Kluft before he/she can do the job?

Anyway, that's a minor but telling detail, that I just happened to
notice in passing.  There are more significant aspects:


> if anything .. the many sponsors should be able to dictate how their $$$
> is spent for the picnic ... without whom the picnic might not occur
> "linux picnic" is for everybody .. not one entity to dictate

Which reminds me, Heather:  So, it's still the Bay Area Linux groups'
picnic, eh?  OK, go ahead and ignore everything else I'm saying.
However, just one question -- about the picnic treasurer:


Henry House of LUGOD did a fine job as picnic treasurer.  He didn't
co-mingle the picnic's funds with LUGOD's or anyone else's, and managed
them properly on behalf of the Linux groups that collectively ran the
2005 picnic.  (I confirmed the latter point with Henry in person, at
exactly the time you were trying to convince me that my memory was
faulty, and that Sbay hadn't changed anything:  Henry confirmed that I
was not alone in my perception.)

But LUGOD isn't going to be allowed to do the treasurer job, any more.
Nor SVLUG.  Nor BALUG.  Nor EBLUG.  Nor CABAL.  Nor Smaug.  Nor CalLUG.  
Nor SJSU LUG.  nor SF-LUG. 

Sbay has emborged that function within itself and will not let non-Sbay
personnel do it any more, correct?  If you assert that I'm wrong, prove it:
Solicit offers from the Bay Area Linux groups for a treasurer (Henry or
anyone else) to manage and spend the picnic's incoming funds on behalf
of _all_ the constituent groups, and not just on behalf of Sbay.  Then
make clear that the picnic coordinator and treasurer are answerable to
the numerous participating groups -- as was the case traditionally --
and not uniquely to Sbay.

Call me a cynic, but I'd be astounded if that were to happen any more.
(Instead, we'll hear institutional excuses for why it won't occur.)  The
picnic treasury is now and prospectively treated as Sbay's property and
under its control (as was the case in 2006, despite the agreement with
SVLUG to the contrary), just as the Web site is, the domain is, and the
picnic venue is.  Sbay values the Bay Area Linux community only as free
labour -- and of course, it wants to feed us hamburgers, which I do
agree is quite nice of it.

I do think the latter's A Good Thing, and I appreciate it.  I also
think, meaning no disrespect to Sbay's picnic, that it'd be nice if the
_Bay Area Linux community_ had its own picnic again, as well.