[AUUG-Talk]: What happened to CAUUG's money?

[steve jenkin]

Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote on 19/1/08 4:33 PM:
> - CAUUG wasn't actually doing anything at the time.  I seem to recall
>   your (Steve J) intention to spend some money on newspaper ads.  The
>   board felt that this was not an appropriate way to spend the money.
>   

Clarificaiton:
- CAUUG did run 3 'mini-confs' during that year. The 4th never happened.
[We were active contrary to the claim.]

- I proposed a *conference* with a public day & maybe exhibition
(remember 1996/7?)
  - To reach ordinary Canberrans required something different - such as
a *lift-out* (insert) in the local rag.
  - Sponsors & participating firms would've paid to be in there, no net
cost to AUUG
  - 'over-runs' at 1-2c each would've been used at the conference and
given to sponsors/advertisers
  - the AUUG funding was only to place the deposit for the insert
  - this would've been much cheaper & more targeted than the small
adverts AUUG placed in National Dailies
  - previous experience with CAUUG conferences meant we would expect a
decent surplus on the 'professional' conference and tutorials.
  - this model, if successful, could have been replicated in other
places - leveraging existing sponsors and admin services

Canberra accounts for ~20% of IT spending nationally.
Its 100,000+ "dwelling units" have the highest per-household &
disposable income, have the most highly educated workforce and the
highest computer & broadband use in the country.  For 300,000 people we
have 4 Universities plus a bunch of research going on.

Canberra is an ideal proving ground for IT-related concepts... Small
popln, compact, great access, many venues, bandwidth, experts, lots of
money, lots of interest....

Of course the board didn't want to spend money on running anything new -
letting it trickle away on admin. costs & running small, poorly
organised conferences at a loss were a far more valuable and useful options.

[I stepped up and contributed where I knew I could make a difference and
actually deliver, not let down others.]
[That includes pushing the "John Lions Chair" which, no thanks to AUUG
or its general membership, has raised $1.5M]

-- 
Steve Jenkin, Info Tech, Systems and Design Specialist.
0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915)
PO Box 48, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA

sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin