[svlug] Checking on donations records

[Rick Moen]

[I couldn't get to this because I was busy building new server hardware
for SVLUG.  Sorry about delay.]


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

Hmm, I notice you're posting my private mail in public.  OK, I'm
authorising that, in this case.


> thanx for digging thru the archives etc .. presumably that's where you
> got the info ..

Correct.  Yesterday, I checked through all archives of all SVLUG mailing
lists.  You've spoken repeatedly of having donated $3.000 of hardware
_to SVLUG_, while complaining about unnamed individuals misappropriating
some unstated amount of it to personal use (suggesting SVLUG's
leadership failed to stop this diversion of resources).

That would be bad, so we'd definitely want to talk to those people
immediately, and fix the problem.  Which means we need to know what
hardware, and what people.  Unfortunately, so far we've found no
record of your ever donating hardware to SVLUG_.[1]  

Nonetheless it's of course possible that you _did_ donate gear to SVLUG,
and I just didn't find mention anywhere.  That is why I was (and am)
asking, and still hoping for a reply:  What hardware have you given -to-
SVLUG; where can we find this mentioned or documented?

> the were no skipped month of giveaways ... so it'd should include 
> Dec, Mar and May in that list

Sadly, I see no mention of that anywhere.  The record shows that you
asked for and received approval from our officers for meetings cited.
It was always arranged on an individual-meeting basis, and no request or
discussion for any month beside the six I listed -- door prizes of five
bare 1U chassises and several NetGear "tulip" NICs.  (The latter were
about $25 retail, or at least that's the price I paid at CompUSA.)

E.g., for the Oct 2000 meeting:

  Alvin:  "whats the possibility of giving away a 1U chassis as 
  a door prize to the people that show up to InstallFest ??
  - 1u chassis w/ powersupply only....no mb/disk/cpu/etc"

  Chris di Bona:  "Uh, would this be your 1u? IF so, do whatever you
  like."

Pretty much like that, every time.


> each 1U chassis is $250 - $550 range .... depending on it's size
> which means the donated value is around 9x $ 250 if it was all

I've _seen_ those chassises.  They're perfectly fine, but, if you paid
$250 to $550 each -- dude, you really got robbed.  

It'd be good to see your invoices -- but, anyway, the larger point, and
what I was _asking_ you about, is that your repeated claim to have
donated anything _to SVLUG_ looks doubtful, based on svlug@, officers@,
svlug-announce@, volunteers@, and web-team@ archives.  Can you help out,
there?


> your attempt to discredit the value of past donations seems petty and
> childish

I was just addiing up what you _did_ donate, as door prizes, etc.
-- and trying to find out if you ever donated any hardware _to SVLUG_,
mostly to investigate those oddly vague claims about misappropriation
you keep raising.

The matter struck me as best discussed in private mail, but I have no
objection if you insist on public discussion.


[1] Except the mirrored 300GB IDE pair you donated on-list to SVLUG
in mid-September; but then OFF-list said two days ago you were
"withdrawing the donation" of.