Christopher was also President in the 1998/1999 year.
I believe that it is time for me to put something back into the club. CUUG has a future and I want to help. What CUUG offers that a FAQ, manual or web site doesn't is human interaction, networking and friendliness. The "stuff" isn't really that important. Involvement and participation were the central themes for the 1999 CUUG board.
We have started to overcome the stagnation that has plagued our group for the past several years. Some of our small but important initiatives include starting a mentoring group, getting our own central server, starting the tinkers' SIG, and starting to restore basic "clubbiness" and friendliness in our meetings and activities.
Our club works because of volunteers. Our dues do not cover the cost of services provided by the club. We need to recognize our serious "worker bees" and get more members involved. The 1999 board has established the ethic "don't complain, help fix it" (professional whiners and talkers please stay silent). This ethic is working. We are slowly starting to get more members to volunteer.
None of the above is new or radical. What is new is that the 1999 CUUG board of directors is implementing rather than just talking about ...
We will need to continue these initiatives.
As the song says, "We've only just begun."
Robert was also a Director in the 1998/1999 year.
Robert, please add text here (biography, manifesto, whatever).
Liam was also Secretary in the 1998/1999 year.
Liam, please add text here (biography, manifesto, whatever).
Tim was also Treasurer in the 1998/1999 year.
Tim, please add text here (biography, manifesto, whatever).
Alan was also Vice President in the 1998/1999 year.
I have been a member of CUUG since about its second year of existence. I joined the Board of Directors in January, 1998, in response to a desperate plea from then-President Rob Hayne for volunteers, who, at that time, were in short supply.
The past two Boards have implemented significant cost reductions,
necessitated by our diminished membership. Recent initiatives have
been undertaken, and are still on-going, to turn this trend around
and bring our numbers back up. Hopefully, renewed interest in UNIX
in general (driven in large part by the recent attention to Linux in
particular) will bring more people in, and the increasing activities
available through CUUG will keep people around well into the future.
Mike was also a Director in the 1998/1999 year.
Mike, please add text here (biography, manifesto, whatever).
Roy was also a Director in the 1998/1999 year.
I wrote a deliberately provocative "manifesto" last year calling for
mandatory volunteer hours as part of CRC privileges. I was tired of
seeing Board and CRC volunteers burned out into apathy and resignation
because they had to carry the load alone. I've been forced to cave on
that by the sheer hopelessness of the idea - but in '98-'99 I was
cheered to see a large Board and some other participants evolve from
talking about problems to working out solutions. We now have several
interesting projects on the go that will bring about a lot of new member
services. They are moving slowly, because there are only a few
volunteers (almost all from the Board) working on them in their
non-existent spare time. My own CUUGer newsletter is almost not
publishing at all because time I used to spend on it is now going to the
Board. So expect me to be a broken record when I do publish:
volunteer, volunteer, volunteer. When you do come out, you'll meet some
good, funny people, do some good deeds, knock back a few brews, and be
glad you did it.
Blair joins the Board of Directors for the first time this year.
Blair, please add text here (biography, manifesto, whatever).
Randy was also a Director in the 1998/1999 year.
Randy, please add text here (biography, manifesto, whatever).
Brent was also Assistant Treasurer in the 1998/1999 year.
Brent, please add text here (biography, manifesto, whatever).
Vlad was also Assistant Secretary in the 1998/1999 year.
Vlad, please add text here (biography, manifesto, whatever).
Keith was also a Director in the 1998/1999 year.
Keith, please add text here (biography, manifesto, whatever).
Laurin joins the Board of Directors for the first time this year.
I have been a member of CUUG since its inception, and feel it's about time I tried to do something for the club. My primary reason for joining CUUG has remained the same: a chance to exchange information with others who share an interest in Unix. Access to various flavours of hardware and software and to the Internet are nice extras. Anything else may be nice too (Pizza!).
There should be room in the club for people who want different things
out of it:
folks who pay their dues and read CUUGer and surf, folks who are great
Linux fans, folks who are not Linux fans (well...), developers, sysadmins,
whatever, as long as we have the resources.