Nadav Har'El wrote:
On Sat, Dec 03, 2005, Dotan wrote about "Re: An out of the box solution?":
I'll rephrase it here too "As individuals none of hamakors members
publish the discussions on web forums."
But this is plain false. Many Hamakor members frequent various existing
forums and discuss a host of free-software issues. Even many Hamakor-
specific announcments and discussions were held in forums like Whatsup
and Linmagazine (for example). Remember, just as an example, your blog
entry to which I replied, and then other Hamakor members and board members
commented? What do you call that, if not discussing things on forums?
Say "yes this is acceptable" and I might bother to make the effort.
It is obviously not my place to say whether or not this is acceptable (I'm
not even on the board). Alon told you in a previous email that it's even
not his place (as a board member) to tell you if to do it or not. You
simply have to do it, and make sure you don't cause any problems (such as
a barrage of spams, or whatever) to the existing setup. Alon said it was
already decided that there is no privacy issue (that it was already decided
that the discussions@ list is public), and it was ok with them.
So, if you want, I'm saying "yes this is acceptable". Go do it.
I already replayed that I'll might check it and even gave a target date
(when I think I'll get to do that) of three weeks from now (when the W2L
will be over)
for the last few months I tend not to and I prefer to slowly disconnect my
relations with Hamakor and concentrate on doing."
in replay to Alons inquary "Are you running for board?"
You may now ask "then why do you care" and my only explanation will be
"it's a habit"
It surprises me greatly that during your JLC experience you didn't notice
one of the greatest features of an Amuta - it can collect money, and then
use it in bulks to fund worthy expenses. Didn't you find the money that
came from Hamakor to help your W2L even a bit useful?
It was useful but yet I find the overhead not worthy. I belive that if I
invested the time in looking for sponsors the reasult might have been
better. However so this is only a belief that wasn't tested yet (maybe
next year or in teh JLC summer series).
If you feel that while trying to get money from Hamakor you had to deal
with "bad" people, having "bad" processes, wasting your time, or whatever,
then the solution is replacing these people; The solution is not to throw
out the baby with the bathwater, and ignore or disolve the Amuta. Because
having an Amuta can be of genuine help in many cases.
As I try to explain time and again, another pro of having an Amuta is that
it gives other bodies someone to deal with. For example, when ISOC-IL
(The Israeli Internet Society) wanted to donate a substantial amount of
money to free software projects, and was looking for appropriate projects,
it approached Hamakor to ask for help in choosing these projects. They
contacted the board (which we elected to represent the Amuta), and the
board chose two other volunteers (Edi and myself) to actually help ISOC-IL.
In about a month, the winning projects will be announced. This cooperation,
perhaps one of the most exciting that has happened in recent years in Israel,
could not have happened without Hamakor existing, or it would have happened
but the winning projects would have been chosen less wisely (because the
ISOC-IL people would not know who to consult on which projects to choose).
If this doesn't convince you that an Amuta is useful, important, and perhaps
even necessary, then I don't know what will. If you think an Amuta is
useful, but the way it currently acts is *not* useful, then there is only
one solution: become a member, and vote for better (in your opinion)
board members who will make the changes you expect.
I'm sure it can do a lot of good currently I don't know of nominates for
the board and if I'll go it might cost in the JLC functioning and this
is a club that over the yaer got to hold a lecture every other week, a
Saturday night meeting every other weekend, two "welcome.." series (the
current one is the third) and run a joint effort to introduce FOSS to
schools with the Leyada highschool.
Anyway, what it takes to call for elections? are nominates need to be
called in advance?
Dotan
