[AUUG-Talk]: Want a(n) (non-financial) organisation? Pony up.

[David Lloyd]

Adrian,

> So, is it just talk?  Or does the membership want to make the effort to 
> keep its organisation going?  There is no secret reserve of board 
> slaves. If _you_ want the organisation to stick around, _you_ must get 
> involved.

Well, I'm happy to investigate ways we can keep the organisation going 
and was thinking, walking along that linux.conf.au, although it is far 
more embracing than its name suggests (1), mightn't accept all the types 
of papers than an AUUG conference might.

However, organising an AUUG conference (read: any major conference) is a 
huge amount of work. All those who think that it isn't, please point 
yourselves out because we could all do with a dose of dark humour as we 
poke good-hearted fun at you in these times...

It did strike me, though, that an AUUG mini-conference might work, to 
carry on our tradition and for the organisation to continue to maintain 
its mainstay identity and make the funding of it "Someone Else's Problem".

Exactly what might be in an AUUG mini-conference is up for grabs, but 
I'd certainly attempt to encourage the papers that would be summarily 
ruled out from "linux.conf.au" (such as "Using that Snooper Dooper on 
Your HP-UX Server" to make a pithy example) and include it. Of course, 
Linux Australia *might* have an issue with this, but there's no harm in 
putting the proposal to them.

Obviously it's too late to throw any new mini-conference in 2008 but 
2009 is up for grabs and I'm already concocting a plan to hold an 
Australian OpenSolaris Mini Conference then anyway.

I will say that:

* I don't have the pedigree of having worked on an AUUG conference
* I have worked on linux.conf.au 2004
   - and organised _all_ the social events
   - and helped all the mini-confs out
   - and watched the interesting cultural differences of how AUUG runs a
     conference to how linux.conf.au runs a conference
* I organised EducationaLinux 2004
* I can come across as spectacularly odd via e-mail but I'm really a
   relatively sensible person
   - I just forget that e-mail lacks the gestures and tone which would
     otherwise indicate that I'm being sarcastic, pulling one's leg,
     gleefully digging a hole in which you can accidentally fall into or
     such...
* I do go to every SA AUUG meeting that I can because I like the relaxed
   atmosphere and there is something about AUUG and those attracted to
   AUUG that is different to the Linux communities
   - this isn't a judgment, just a statement of what I perceive
   - it could be wrong, right or both at once (!)

I'm happy to step up and see whether this idea (of a mini-conf at 
linux.conf.au 2009 called 'The AUUG mini-conf' or something similar) 
might float.

Is this worth pursuing?

DSL