[plug] PLUG and businesslike images (warning: contains some speech-making)

[Leon Brooks]

alex polglaze wrote:
> The whole notion of $10 joining fee

It won't stay $10, rest assured.

> and expecting to get free CD's etc

The free CD's is actually a good idea, not so much for drawcard purposes
as to make sure that each member has a certain minimal kit to work with.

> appals me. If we are goint run a serious organisation and expect other
> people to join then we need to present a business like image.

This is true - but not all true. As well as presenting a businesslike
image, which is something PLUG is _not_ yet doing, PLUG must cater for
sysadmins who know what fans do to tie-wearers, home users, and business
hobbyists who get quite enough of ties and "stick-on" businesslike faces
during their workday.

> There are
> costs involved in running an association, group or whatever or you want
> to call it. These costs are paid for from the members subscriptions.

Yes. So far the costs have been minimal, and this is reflected in the
fees. The fees, I hasten to add, are not the financial be-all and
end-all.

What I wish to avoid is the situation found in churches and other social
organisations, where many (usually almost all) of the members stick
their money in the offering plate and then sit back, waiting for someone
else to do the work. The parallel in PLUG is membership fees equals
money-in-the-plate - and also members out there earning funds for PLUG
equals church members out there helping the disadvantaged as their
instruction book clearly says they must.

Against this aim, but useful for bootstrapping purposes, PLUG plans to
beg money from the "gummint" and the (essentially nominal) membership
fees are a necessary part of this plan.

> There is no such thing as a free lunch.

As seen under a brass cannon in the Main Dome?

> If we expect to get more out of
> the group than we put in, then the group will not survive. Let's work
> out what we want the group to achieve instaed of bledding it dry before
> it starts properly.

Ummm, are you arguing against yourself here? $10 is hardly bleeding
people dry!

What we want the group to do (nebulous grand aims as I understand them)
is (1) support its members and (2) promote open source software,
especially Linux.

More specific aims include regular meetings for the purposes of
informing the members and also giving them an opportunity for input;
fund-raising activities of which training courses are an ideal example
because they kind-of incorporate the next activity; working up to a
presence at trade shows and the like for Linux promotional purposes.

> I also doubt whether we will get any corporate members at $50 when
> individuals can join for $10. Rather what will happen is the company
> will get the employee to join as an individual and reimburse then the
> $10. They have costs to control as well and they are no fools.

Why is this important? From my POV, it's being penny-wise and
pound-foolish. Most real-world business managers are also bright enough
to understand this. Corporate membership could in that light be regarded
as a minor intelligence test.

> Let's start living in the real world.

I'd be satisfied with an integer world for now.

-- 
I don't know what's scarier - losing nuclear weapons or that it happens 
so often that we have a name for it.
		-- Giles Prentice, in "Broken Arrow"