[plug] SLPWA and automatic PLUG membership

[Leon Brooks]

One of the items discussed at the newly formed SLPWA Committee meeting was the 
inclusion of PLUG membership in SLPWA membership. The point was made by 
several people that this will entail PLUG first agreeing to this and second 
being organised for this.

As a PLUG member, I'd like this to be an agenda point for the first July 
meeting. This means it should be discussed here and now.

Amongst other things, PLUG has been fairly laid-back about asking people for 
membership dues, and has not clearly delineated the benefits of membership.

One immediate benefit is that you get an account on Spark, which is invaluable 
for seeing how your site/machine/ADSL link looks to the rest of the world, 
and in my case for seeing how things work from a machine which I had 
absolutely no hand in setting up. You also get an additional email address, 
some web space, and all sorts of other small but occasionally priceless 
priviledges. For AUD$10 a year ($5 if you're a student), you'd be really 
struggling to even get advert-free web hosting anywhere else.

No doubt there are other benefits which are more important to you. As a PLUG 
member, I'd like to see them discussed here and congealed into a FAQ. It 
might also be worth discussing other ways in which PLUG membership can be 
differentiated and shown to be more valuable.

There was also SLPWA discussion of having an annual do with/for PLUG, 
sponsored (at least mostly) by SLPWA. A bbq was suggested, but it's far from 
being the only option; maybe a Christmas in July thing or crowd out some 
place like AdventureWorld one (warmer!) Sunday. I'd like to see discussion on 
that topic as well.

Please take time to reply with 3 separate messages, 3 separate subjects, if 
you're commenting on 3 different topics. I wrote only one message so you need 
only read one if you don't care, but really they're completely separate 
issues.

Cheers; Leon