[AUUG-Talk]: Re: AUUG: Time to pull the plug?

[Steve Landers]

On 14/09/2006, at 10:54 AM, imajica wrote:

> Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote:
>> So, finally, my agenda item: I think that it's time to disband AUUG.
>> Am I the only one?
>>
> I strongly disagree with you.
> AUUG should _not_ be disbanded, but perhaps the organisation could  
> use some change ... it should certainly be more flexible in terms  
> of it's galloping bureaucracy ...

Actually, part of the issue is we've wound down the bureaucracy,  
tried to outsource some functions and automate others.

> Change is slow. Give the new ctte a chance.

Yes - please.  The new committee members are coming up to speed, and  
we've lost a lot of experience recently (Greg, David and Jonathon  
standing down, and Liz Carroll leaving last year).

One issue we struck this year was the short amount of time from the  
new board taking effect and the conference.  In past years that  
wasn't such an issue because of board continuity and a full time  
employee, but this year it has caught us out.  In future, that'll  
mean we either need to change the AUUG board year (perhaps having  
elections in March) or change the time of the conference. That's  
something I'd appreciate members discussing and providing feedback on.

So far the new board (with the assistance of Lawrie Brown, program  
chair) has tried to concentrate on conference and the quality of the  
papers to be presented. As you'll see on http://new.auug.org.au/ 
events_store/auug2006/abstracts I think we've succeeded re the program.

Re the question of whether AUUG should merge or fold - that's  
something we constantly ask ourselves (I certainly could find things  
to do with the time currently devoted to AUUG). But while we see  
diverse technical papers such as those in the conference it gives us  
confidence that there is a role for AUUG, complementary with the  
other computing groups, and albeit in quite a different form than in  
the past.

In many ways we see AUUG going back to its roots - focussing on the  
technical content and less on the "show" (so to speak).

I hope this helps put things in perspective.

Steve