[Talk] AUUG'S Declining Membership

[David Purdue]

A quick reply from the outgoing President.

david.newall at auug.org.au wrote:

> 
> How do we reverse declining membership?


A good question, but none of the points below actually address
it.


>  o Mailing lists should be available to everybody


They are; well, certainly the ones that are well used
(auug-announce, talk, auug-jobs) are open to everybody.


>  o Conference CFPs sent to all Asia Pacific universities


We currently send it to all Australian unis.  Send the contact
details for any others you want to add to Liz and she will add
them to the mailing list.


>  o AUUGN on web, not on paper


I, for one, would not read AUUGN on the web.  I only get a
chance to read AUUGN when I am not in front of a computer
(on an airplane, in my lounge room, in bed, etc.)  I would rather
have a well bound paper copy than a sheaf of loose paper that
I had printed off the web.


>  o Exec to meet electronically


Tried it, it is not nearly as effective.


>  o Can we afford a business manager?


I contend that we can not afford to NOT have a business manager.
It is hard enough to find volunteers for the things that Liz can
not do - harder still to get them to do the things they volunteered
for.  If we did not have Liz, I believe they would end up not
being done.  Our alternative is to hire a secretariate - but we
lose control, then we lose quality, then we lose members.


DavidP