[AUUG-Talk]: Survival of AUUG

[George W Gerrity]

I'm one of the (almost) silent members. I have been listening  
quietly, but making no contribution because I don't feel in the  
position to do so.

Many years ago when AUUG was active in every capital, and I was an  
employed academic, I could attend conferences wherever they were  
held, thanks to UNSW picking up the tab. I was also actively working  
in UNIX and teaching courses using UNIX, and attending local meetings.

Today, I am retired, and I only occasionally dabble into the guts of  
Darwin under my Mac OS, and even less often into Linux: still, I used  
to enjoy reading AUUGN and would be in the position (now I am back in  
Canberra from the Bush) to attend any local meetings, were there any.  
I really can't afford to attend either conferences or meetings  
outside of Canberra, and because I am not actively working in the  
area, conference talks and work sessions are of little interest to me.

So, AUUG as it currently exists isn't a lot of use to me — especially  
with the demise of AUUGN — but I would like to support it monetarily  
if it still serves the *NIX and Open Source community. Thus, I'll  
stay on as an inactive member for a while, to see if the organisation  
can find a useful niche as a special-interest group in the *NIX and  
Open Source community.

George Gerrity
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