[svlug] SVLUG - hostile takeover

[Rick Moen]

Hi, Raffi!  Where you been hiding?  We've missed you, man.

I just looked in on mail after a long weekend taking care of other
things, and your long-absent name caught my attention. 

If I understand that long and emotionally labile rant correctly, you're
saying I've somehow become a criminal mastermind controlling SVLUG, and
your evidence of this is that I posted some views to a mailing list,
which somehow cruelly prevents other people from expressing views of
their own.

The flaw in that reasoning, as I see it, is that _you_ just posted a
bunch of personal views to the same mailing list.  That would seem to
imply, by the same reasoning, that _you_ just seized control of SVLUG,
too.  I hope you have fun with that, and with luck you have all the
necessary Bond villain accessories.  If you lack a Persian cat, monocle,
or Nehru jacket, let me know.  I know a guy who can get 'em for you.

Moving right along:



Quoting Rafael Skodlar (raffi at linwin.com):

> 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".

Er, no.  You seem to have missed the point, entirely.

First of all, I like amateur radio people, and am very glad they and the
various ham groups are around.  All I did was mention that Sbay _is_ first
and foremost a ham radio group, not a Linux group.

Second, the Linux Picnic was founded, and for quite a few years was run
collectively, by:

BALUG
EBLUG
LUGOD
Sbay
SVLUG
etc.

Some groups came and went -- but it was always _collectively_ run:
All the groups participated in picking the annual picnic coordinator and
treasurer, and none of the groups got to pronounce rules for the others
to follow -- on either the coordination mailing list or at the picnic
itself.

The upcoming 2007 picnic will be administered by:

Sbay

...because they _literally_ kicked all the Bay Area Linux groups out of
picnic governance.  Which was the sole point I made.

I didn't say they did this "because some people engage in ham radio"; I
merely mention that they did it.  It's a fact.

And that's really all I have said.  

...except to mention that, when I brought this matter up on the
Sbay-controlled linuxpicnic at linuxpicnic.org mailing list, the Sbay 
people involved, which included Ian, Jennifer, and Heather, refused to
reply regarding the change they'd brought about.  Instead, Heather
started a private e-mail thread with me, in which she attempted to 
assert that _nothing had changed_.  When I rejected her premise, after
double-checking with Henry House of LUGOD to make sure my memory was
correct, Heather switched from trying to convince me of an obvious (but
convenient) falsehood to hurling simple personal abuse -- more or less
like yours, in fact.  ;->

So, I wanted to make sure people knew, since Sbay seemed to be at such 
great pains to _not_ mention it to anyone.

I brought numerous irregularities to picnic coordinator Jennifer Davis's
attention, e.g., Ian casually mentioning at the Belmont IHOP
coordination meeting that it'd be fine if picnic assets were simply
taken by Sbay's Stratofox group, because it's "the same organisation".
Jennifer's reaction was as described:  She passed the buck, and said she
hoped it would be her successor's problem.

(She now apparently denies having said that, which is disappointing.
Henry House happened to have been standing fairly close by in the
parking lot, when she said it.  I wonder if he heard it, and what
Jennifer will say if he did?)

Sbay has ended up sole decider of who is picnic coordinator, now
never lets anyone but its own treasurer be the picnic treasurer, and
keeps the picnic funds entirely within itself.  (I know exactly where
the sponsorship cheques go because I keep _writing_ the cheques from
BayLISA, so I have the cancelled cheques.  I also vote for those
sponsorships from BayLISA, by the way.)  Sbay checks with none of the
Bay Area's Linux groups on any of that, and applies its own very
draconian, control-freak, secretive rules to the linuxpicnic mailing
list.  

I have no real problem with that, _because_ it's simply no longer our 
picnic, but rather theirs.  Thus, we need to reconstitute ours,
elsewhere.  

And that, again, if really all I've said.  Despite Heather and
Jennifer's rantings, I've asked for nothing and sought nothing -- except
to inform the membership about what happened behind their back.

Anyway, don't be a stranger, Raffi!  Come back to foam at the mouth more
often, man!