[svlug] SVLUG - hostile takeover

[Rafael Skodlar]

SVLUG,

It happens from time to time that different organization become victims 
of a hostile take over. It happened to SVLUG some time last year I 
believe. Based on latest chain of emails I came to the conclusion that 
_Rick Moen_ contributed to this big time. Yes Rick, I'm accusing you 
just that. I ignored your attack messages for months and only recently 
started to pay more attention again.

I would be more than happy to see you stop attacking people I know, 
people that are my professional colleagues and friends, but you keep 
coming back like a rabid dog. Attacks on Ian Kluft, Alvin Oga, Heater 
Stern, Jennifer, and others became your major topic on this list since 
"you run the show". I spent numerous hours on different activities, 
picnix, ham radio, etc. with people you seem to hate so much. I know 
them well. I hate to see their names being dragged through the mud by 
you or anybody else.

A reminder or background for the "newbies". I'm a member of SVLUG since 
before it was officially called that way, that's SVPAL days. The mailing 
list used to be very lively. SVLUG members, some from BayLisa, were very 
supportive to newcomers. People from all over the world discussed mostly 
LINUX related questions and we learned from each other, long before Rick 
started to "help". We also  started to help each other with 
installfests, phone calls, etc. Some of us ended up going to homes of 
people that needed Linux help, etc. Later on, Ian and others arranged 
and managed installfests at Cisco for years. We were a happy family as 
one member frequently put it in his messages.

As more and more online help was provided in different forums besides 
ours the message level dropped somewhat in recent years. However, it's 
my observation that it took the biggest dive since SVLUG hostile 
takeover last year. There were some minor disagreements between people 
on occasion, including myself, but Rick managed to take them to the next 
level IMO. People just went away or turned into passive members as they 
told me in private.

On one occasion, he, joined by his wife to be, if I remember correctly, 
and I had a big fight over something or the other on the SVLUG list 
during his "San Francisco days", see archives. He _always_ wanted and 
had to have the last word. I let it go at that and other times and 
thought we mended that "split in opinions" at the last two Linux 
picnics, exchanging a few words.//

However, I cannot let it go this time because of baseless accusations 
about _ham radio group_ pocketing SVLUG money. Rick you are very good at 
twisting words, English, Latin, or whatever so I'm not going to engage 
in any further discussions about your character assassination adventures 
but feel that I need to come out of a passive membership in defense of 
colleagues or groups I'm involved in. Perhaps Google or some other site 
will go back in time and run psychology analysis on mailing list 
archives to tell who's right or not in the near future.

In one of the latest emails, attacks obviously, you mentioned "ham radio 
group" in a very negative way IMO. _ham radio group_, not sure what you 
meant by that in your attack exactly, never made any unilateral 
decisions about Picnix or who's going to be invited from SVLUG and other 
groups or not. Just because some people engage in "ham radio", i.e. 
amateur radio, among other things, it doesn't mean that they are 
unprofessional or run a ham radio cabal to "kick all of the Bay Area 
Linux groups out of picnic governance".

As a ham I would recommend you do not stick head in a microwave box to 
come up with additional baseless accusations about ham radio group "... 
pocket all leftover sponsorship money into your own treasury after the 
event." or anything else of that nature for that matter. That's a 
serious accusation you know. Some of us put ham and other equipment to 
common use based on our (personal $) abilities at different _non-ham_ 
events and feel insulted when a clueless outsider throws bad words, read 
lies, abut it around. We used ham radio to provide communications for 
shuttles and private cars driving people to/from the picnix and provided 
support in case of emergency at previous Linux picnic events. Some of 
the hams were there just for that, help and communications support. 
Nobody ever received a dime or a spare battery for it. Free hamburger 
doesn't count. You got it too. Person you hate so much, Ian, provided a 
lot of his personal equipment, some worth thousands of $ uncounted 
times, and so did others. On other occasions for example, Alvin donated 
new computer hardware, but of course, you don't see such things.

You keep acting as a self appointed SVLUG word twisting lawyer. I hate 
damn lawyers especially when they lie and act as executioners as well. 
You are voted of the island as far as I'm concerned.

Here you have it, my opinions and observations. I will not engage in any 
more of this debates on the list however.


Sadly,

-- 
Rafael