[volunteers] Election deferred

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Luke S Crawford (lsc at prgmr.com):

> Do we still have nobody?  

Correct as far as I know.   However, that strikes me as not a
significant operational problem, currently, whereas the current lack of
anyone lining up speakers is a real and serious one.

I would suggest focussing attention on the real problem.

> So I've been asking around about this, and apparently it's not just me;
> we have quite the reputation.  

Yes, I can think of at least three people who used to be involved with 
SVLUG and have actively attempted, numerous times, to sabotage it.  I
wouldn't be surprised in the least to hear that they're still
bad-mouthing us to anyone they can find.


> It's sad, really, as considering our location, this should be /the/
> linux user group.  

That used to be the case, but I've noticed, FYI, that there has been 
two successive mass departures from Silicon Valley of technical people,
one during the dot-bomb recession and one during the current one.
(Attendence and participation in technical groups during
November/December is always low, but a lot of our natural audience
simply isn't in the Bay Area, any more.)

> We (meaning the SVLUG membership) should expect the president to
> keep order during the meetings, and expect the president (or some 
> other sanctioned officer)  to ask a disruptive member to step outside
> and talk (or perhaps ask the disruptive member to leave?) 

It's convenient if it's the president who performs that duty, if by
chance we're unlucky enough to have a drunk former president or a
crazily belligerent engineer in the audience.  However, it doesn't have
to be the president who does that, in the once-in-a-decade freakish
chance of that situation arising.

If you're trying to make the SVLUG presidency sound attractive by saying
it requires one to be a bar-room bouncer, then kindly remind me not to
hire you to do marketing for me, Luke.  ;->

> What are other thoughts on the matter?   Is it really as big of
> a problem as people say?  Is this the best way to address the problem?

I'm perplexed that you are asking these questions.  Who are these
"people" to whom you refer?  I'll bet that, if you cite three names, at
least two will be among the ones I'm thinking of.

But it's also possible that some will be members (past or present) of
the svlug at lists.svlug.org mailing list who _have never lifted a finger_
to do anything for the group, but merely resent the fact that Reiber,
Oga, Miller, and Turkal (among others) used to make a lot of noise there
before the "Do not post on SVLUG organisational matters; such topics
belong solely on the separate volunteers list" rule put an end to that.

But, again, never mind that.  I'd rather see people addressing the
_actual_ problem.