[AUUG-Talk]: Re: Don't close AUUG down!

[David Newall]

A few points:

1. Under the AUUG constitution, board members must be members of AUUG, 
so Greg cannot be secretary without renewin
2. Also under the AUUG constitution, AUUG cannot shutdown, nor agree to 
do so, at the upcoming meeting.  (I've discussed this before.)

3. Yet another constitutional hindrance, it seems to me that AUUG cannot 
divest itself of its assets, without also dissolving.

4. For more than a decade, AUUG's main source of income has been surplus 
from running the annual conference.  This was a big deal, sufficient to 
pay the business manager's salary.

As I see it, the reasons AUUG is now in dire straights are two-fold: 
first, is a general malaise in the membership.  Almost nobody bothers to 
do anything for the group.  Second, and more seriously, is at least the 
most recent, and quite likely the last two, conferences were very poorly 
organised.  This is not meant to accuse or slight any of the people who 
put in effort into those conference, merely to state a self-evident 
fact.  A well organised conference will have papers, will have 
attendance, and a reasonable projection of the numbers will be known 
months before the event.  The last conference didn't even have a fixed 
programme until just before the event.

AUUG doesn't really need all of the members to energetically spend time 
on AUUG activities.  All it really needs, and by far the single most 
important activity it has ever engaged in, is to put on a decent annual 
conference.  True, it used to be the only show in town, whereas today, 
linux.conf.au is the only one.

If AUUG is to have any chance of continuing, that chance will be 
seriously diminished by giving away the bankroll.  Without the money, 
AUUG will never again be able to put on a proper conference.  Without a 
proper conference, AUUG will not prosper.

David