On 2014-08-01 01:47, Derek Balling wrote: > > On Jul 31, 2014, at 7:48 PM, Warner <[email protected]> wrote: >>> We are entering LOPSA's tenth year of existence this fall. Myriad >>> other "value propositions" have been posited thus far, and none have >>> come close to providing the value that the lists and IRC do. >> >> I don't discount that additional benefits to the members of LOPSA could >> be valuable. I find that most folks who discount the existing benefits >> do not value community and that is not a problem with LOPSA, that's a >> simply a value conflict. > > I think we value community just fine. The problem is we (as an organization) > give away the community for free so *we* (the org) have devalued the > community. We've set its value at "zero". >
No, we cannot charge for a mailing list! Look at quora, lots of people refuse to participate because they restrict the readership to logged in only. I think the value discussion is good though. I think we should see LOPSA as three arms of the same org: - the mailing list / IRC branch, which is free, and almost free to run, and really does not need directors, director meetings etc... This, any body can join, the list can live when everything else dies. Why not? It's a virtual community, and one of the few high quality one. It totally deserve to live. - the conference branch, that needs a legal framework, insurance etc... and only people paying dues should be able to take advantage of it. If people stop attending conferences, and nobody pays dues any more, well, then that part of LOPSA dies. LOPSA becomes just the virtual community above. - mentoring. I suspect memtoring has a cost and no revenue, this is where we need members to pay out of goodness. Maybe make it clear how much organising mentoring costs, as separated from the rest of LOPSA, and maybe make a yearly amount goal for donation could help. I have been part of an organisation that was hundreds of members, owned hardware, was essentially an ISP before ISPs were a thing etc... There was a rigid legal framework, insurance for the directors, etc... ran monthly meeting for members only (or you had to pay), rented room for those meetings. This was a big organisation. As professional ISPs arrived on the market, and everybody could run Linux at home, we got rid of the modems, then of the hardware, membership fell to 50 or so, and we just started using free meeting room from communities and libraries, and open up meetings to the public, we dropped all the insurances and simplify bylaws. This org still exists today, it's just a bunch of hobbyists meeting every month and sharing a mailing list now. We had great ideas of what LOPSA should be when we started, despite a lot of efforts it hasn't happened. It's been 10 years, there was SAGE before that. If somebody comes up with new ideas, then great, let's look at that, but for now, let's focus on what we are today rather than what we could potentially, maybe, possibly, be. -- Yves. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
