[LUGSB] LUGSB constitution.

[Jonathan Dehan]

Agreed, well rewritten, though i had to look up what colloquia meant. Though
they should be more familiar with that word.

On Wed, Apr 2, 2008 at 4:57 AM, Benjamin Kudria <ben at kudria.net> wrote:

> On Tuesday 01 April 2008 23:41:01 pm Ilya Sukhanov (dotCOMmie) wrote:
> > Hello all.
> >
> > Please read this email and make any valuable comments you feel are
> > appropriate. This is a time sensitive issue, so don't wait to make your
> > voice heard.
> >
> > The USG government has deemed Article II (quoted below) of our
> > constitution[1] as too technical. Our treasurer, Young, describes his
> > interaction with a representative of the Special Services Council:
> >       The person I talked to (from the SSC office) noted that Article II
> -
> >       Purpose was too vague, and we should add more details, and
> explicitly
> >       explain terms hard to understand by non-technical people, such as
> >       "Open Source" and "Free Software."
> >
> > First of all I'd like to make it know that I think the fact the
> grievance
> > made against our constitution is made at a particularly suspect timing.
> > Just one week away from finalization of the USG budget, and thus the
> final
> > approval date of our budget. Our constitution has been filed with USG
> for
> > over a year and a half so they have had plenty of opportunities to voice
> > any objections as to wording, purpose, or goal of our constitution.
> >
> > I disagree with the point of the hard to understand terminology. We are
> a
> > special interests club, and as such, for the sake of brevity we do have
> to
> > refer to the concepts which we embrace by their common names (within the
> > field). The vast majority of our members come from computer backgrounds
> > where the terms "Open Source" and "Free software" are well known and
> > understood. Having to explain these terms in our constitution would make
> it
> > unnecessarily verbose and cumbersome.
> >
> > As for the point of a vague purpose, I think that is something that
> should
> > be addressed. Perhaps add something about what we do to promote Linux,
> Open
> > Source and Free Software.
> >
> > Current Article II:
> > The primary purpose of LUGSB is to promote the use of Linux, Open
> Source,
> > and Free (as in freedom) Software among the members of the Stony Brook
> > community. A second purpose is to provide an environment open to all who
> > wish to learn how to use, and understand free software.
> >
> > Proposed Article II:
> > The primary purpose of LUGSB is to raise awareness of the Linux
> operating
> > system, Open Source technologies, and Free (as in Freedom) Software by
> > conducting regular colloquia to members of the Stony Brook community. A
> > second purpose is to provide an open and supportive environment to all
> who
> > wish to understand, and learn how to use Free Software.
> >
> > I'm not sure if this is enough to make SSC/USG happy. Again, please send
> > your comments.
>
> Sounds good to me!
>
> The timing is unfortunate, but I don't think we'll be able to change their
> minds.  Updating Article II, at least slighty, as above, will give us a
> better position: "you had complaints, we fixed them", as opposed to "you
> had
> complaints, but you were wrong, and we are right", so we did nothing".
>
> Ben Kudria
> --
> http://ben.kudria.net | Jabber: ben at kudria.net
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