AUUG: Time to pull the plug?

[Greg 'groggy' Lehey]

In four weeks' time, the AUUG 2006 conference should be in full swing.
Traditionally the AGM is held on the Thursday of the conference, four
weeks from today.  According to Paragraph 15 of the constitution
(http://www.auug.org.au/info/constitution.html), the Secretary should
send written notice of such a meeting at least four weeks ahead of
time, i.e. today.

I have an agenda item, but I haven't seen notice of the meeting.

In fact, there are a whole lot of things I haven't seen:

- My membership renewal, due at the end of June.  I have agreed to
  automatic renewal, so all the treasurer needs to do is to deduct the
  sum from my credit card.  If my membership hasn't been renewed,
  whose has?

- Details of the new board.  The information on the web site is not up
  to date.  It's not even from last year; it's from the year before
  (2004/2005).  Who's our secretary?  Adrian sent out a message (his
  only one since becoming president) with the names.  Raymond Smith is
  the secretary, but I don't have an email address, and mail to
  secretary at auug.org.au bounces.

- Information about sponsors of the conference.  Part of the deal is
  to put these details up on the web site.  Either we don't have any
  sponsors, or the conference committee has not fulfilled its
  obligation to them.

- The final programme.  Typically this should be sent out as a flyer
  registration forms months in advance.

- Repeated mail messages to auug-announce with details of the
  conference and programme.

- The opportunity for "early bird" registration if done 6 weeks before
  the conference.  Clearly that's not going to happen.

- Registration details.  How do I register for this conference?

- A reply to my message sen to the AUUG board last week asking about
  this, and whether it wouldn't be better to cancel the conference.  I
  didn't even get official confirmation that the message was received,
  though one of the board members confirmed unofficially.

- Anybody complaining on the mailing lists.  Does anybody care?

From what I can see from my vantage point, the conference is a
non-starter.  Last week the board could have possibly cancelled the
event without owing the hotel too much money.  That's one of the
things I suggested in the message.  Maybe it has happened; but one way
or another, we need to know what is going on.

So: it looks to me as if AUUG is dead and just doesn't know it.  On
the other hand, last time the treasurer presented a report, we had
significant funds.  Maybe it's time to do something else with them.

Paragraph 33 of the constitution reads:

DISSOLUTION OF THE AUUG

  33.  1. Upon receipt of a petition requesting the dissolution of the
          AUUG from twenty or more members, or half the membership,
          whichever is less, the Secretary shall arrange for the
          question to be put to the membership by ballot no later than
          one month after the date that he receives the petition.

       2. If three-quarters of the members voting agree, the AUUG
          shall be dissolved.

       3. If upon the dissolution of the AUUG there remains after
          satisfaction of all its debts and liabilities any property
          whatsoever, the same shall be paid or applied by the
          Management Committee, according to a resolution of the
          membership at or before the time of dissolution, to any
          fund, institution or authority which, itself, is either a
          non profit company as defined by Section 3(1) of the Income
          Tax Act 1986 or is exempt from income tax.

The first problem is: how many members does AUUG have?  It appears
that renewals for memberships expiring in December last year *were*
sent out in January or early February.  But who's a member?  Are even
the board members in good financial standing?  Is there still a list
of members?

So, finally, my agenda item: I think that it's time to disband AUUG.
Am I the only one?

I'd like to see some discussion on this.  I've set Mail-followup-to:
to talk at auug.org.au, which is the obvious place to discuss it.  If
you're interested in the discussion, but you're not on the list, you
can join via http://www.auug.org.au/mailman/listinfo.

My questions at the moment:

- Do enough members think that it's time to dissolve AUUG?
- How many members do we have?
- How do we know who the members are?  At this stage, I'd say that the
  only proof is a receipt for payment of membership fees.
- If we dissolve AUUG, what do we do with the funds?  I can see a
  number of possibilities:
  - AUUG should merge with Linux Australia.  I think it's pretty clear
    that Linux Australia is conceptually the successor organization.
    The problem I have (and that LA shares) is that there's no place
    there for users of proprietary UNIX.
  - Donate all the funds to the John Lions chair of computer science
    at UNSW.

Greg
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