[sa-auug] What do members want out of AUUG?

[Brian Astill]

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 07:23 pm, Benjamin Close wrote:
> Hi All,
>     First and formost I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and
> a Happy New Years.

Thanks, you too - despite the difficulties of April 2005.

> Which brings the question: What would you like to see AUUG doing next
> year?

The plethora of responses have no doubt all been off-list?

I guess my question is "should I retain my AUUG membership?" 
If the answer is "no" then the question of SA Chapter activities becomes 
irrelevant.

I am not employed in IT, nor do I gain income from IT. My employer does 
not pay my subscription, nor can I claim it as a tax deduction.
I am not a geek.  I would gain little from, nor could I afford, 
attendance at AUUG Conferences.
I first became a member by winning a free 1-year subscription to AUUG at 
a LinuxSA meeting, and retained membership because of the activities of 
the SA Chapter and the quality of AUUGN.

From AUUG-SA I have gained a sufficient knowledge of FBSD to have it as 
my preferred OS and  I have received help with some problems I have had 
from time to time (thanks, guys).  AUUGN has contained a number of 
interesting and helpful articles and has been accompanied by similarly 
interesting CDs.

However, AUUG-SA no longer conducts "formal" Chapter meetings.  The 
recent issues of AUUGN have shown that the editor has had great 
difficulty finding suitable copy and the latest issue came with a 
reissued copy of an already 3-years-out-of-date copy of Debian Woody.  
On that basis, the only virtue of AUUG membership is the companionship 
of our monthly evening meal at Marcellinas - which I can continue to 
enjoy without being an AUUG member.

(SFAIK, BUGA exists in SA only as a low-traffic mailing list.  If it 
operated in a similar manner to LinuxSA, it would probably be more 
suitable for me than AUUG.)

So ...   Should I retain membership of AUUG?  Seems to me that without a 
good quality AUUGN and an active SA Chapter, the answer should be "No".

> At present most chapters of AUUG are declining in numbers, at this
> rate AUUG will eventually cease to exist.

I wonder if my comments might be more-or-less typical, and the lack of 
vigorous response to your question might also be so?


-- 
Regards,
Brian
sos-sa.org.au