Thanks Pete. For what it's worth I had emailed Ms. Meizel two months ago, having seen her name mentioned in the Enterprise regarding her dissatisfaction with the school board's mis-handling of computer security decisions and its negative impact on use of non-Windows platforms. My email was an offer to help in a couple of ways. I thought it was nicely worded and more than worthy of a reply.
She never replied. Perhaps I had the wrong email address. Perhaps her email service has a problem. I guess it's possible, but there was no bounce. On another note, thank you for the high praise -- but you should all know that it's been very easy and inexpensive for me to provide a server for LUGOD. I know that others have contributed much more than I have. Cheers, -- Rod http://www.sunsetsystems.com/ On Thursday 05 December 2002 11:32 am, Peter Jay Salzman wrote: > addenda: > > 1. > the rooms we wanted to use were *empty* most of the time. there were a > number of them, and they were hardly used. i think the council just > needed a little push to give us our request. > > > > 2. > this is about the time richard lowenberg of DCN started talking with > LUGOD. he actually came to the council meeting with us. although we > hadn't really done anything with DCN at that time (we have since had a > very good and productive relationship with DCN) he came with us and sat > in our corner. he even consoled us when we got turned down. richard > and DCN has been a very good friend to LUGOD. > > > > 3. > this is also the time that joel baumert and zworld came to our rescue > with the meeting space at zworld. > > i can't say enough good things about joel; to even try would be doomed > to failure. but i will say this: joel and you (rod) are the two people > who have made some of the biggest differences to LUGOD. > > when things got really bad and seemed hopeless, i was ready to give up > and declare LUGOD dead. rod came through with LUGOD's mailing list and > web hosting. joel came through with a meeting place when our membership > swelled to 50 and more. > > in my heart, i wish there were more we could do for joel, zworld, rod > and sunset systems. it's safe to say that LUGOD would be a shadow of > what it is right now without these people. > > > now if i can only find someone to donate a projector... ;-) > > > pete > > > > begin Peter Jay Salzman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > i'll write a piece on this. i've been meaning to do it for a long time > > now. the general gist of it is that we had some very good hardware > > donated to the local high school where she works. > > > > a month or two later we were trying to convince the city of davis to > > give us a room for our meetings. we wanted someone to be there to say > > "look at what lugod has done. they're good for the city. they've done > > all this good stuff for us. it's in the city's best interest to help > > this fledging group out. they're doing good work and will be good for > > the city of davis.". > > > > not only did she not say "yes", she didn't even have the courtesy of > > saying "no". she simply ignored repeated pleas by bill and i to help us > > out. > > > > we ended up going to the city council with nobody to vouch that we had > > done anything worthwhile for the city. she knew the council members. > > she was friends with them. they would've listened to her. > > > > in the end, the council denied our request. things were getting very > > urgent for us because our membership had swelled to about 30 at the > > time, and we were seriously cramped for meeting space at the local pizza > > joint that we were holding meetings at. it was so bad that we were > > getting ready to start telling people NOT to come to our meetings > > because we simply didn't have room for everyone. > > > > that had really hurt us. especially after the hardware donations from > > VA Linux that we had arranged. > > > > > > there were other things too. > > > > > > we figured that after the hardware donations we'd have people go to the > > local highschool and have "after school" classes on things like system > > administration, networking, and programming. we'd have people come to > > give classes, talks and help students become acquainted with linux and > > the kinds of fun stuff that you can do with linux. we were really > > looking forward to it, since a high school is a perfect venue for that > > kind of thing. it was really good linux advocacy, which is what lugod > > does best. > > > > in the end, we got some really good members from the high school like > > ryan and gabe. but frankly, ryan and gabe would be special people > > whether lugod existed or not. some people are just like that. we had > > wanted to reach the people who may not have had the fortune of getting > > to know linux. the potential for new members and new converts to linux > > from microsoft was vast. we were totally optimistic: bigger meeting > > room, high quality people from the highschool and a huge influx of new > > linux converts. > > > > before the hardware donations, she loved the idea and seemed totally > > excited about it. after the donations, she sent one or two emails > > about the idea and then ignored all other contact we made with her. > > > > > > there were other things too. > > > > > > then there were reports that people were denied access to the machines > > that were donated. i don't know the details, but there were concerns > > raised over who was getting access to the hardware and for what > > purposes. we wanted shell accounts for everyone so people could play > > with linux. maybe a webserver to help teach people how to admin apache > > installations. we never intended the machines to be used by a small > > select group of people. linux isn't about "special groups of people", > > and neither is education. > > > > again, we tried to contact her to find out what was happening. again, > > she didn't even have the courtesy to reply. dead silence. even if our > > concerns were groundless, i don't think we deserved to be ignored. > > > > > > there were other things too. > > > > > > anyway, this is starting to become the piece i was intending to write. > > i'll just end it here and write the story up in the next few days. i'll > > email the list when i'm done. > > > > > > i don't think any one person has ignored as many of my emails as janet > > meizel. she was our best friend before the donations and wanted to have > > nothing to do with us after the donations. > > > > that's why i find it ironic that she had requested lert service. > > > > pete > > > > > > > > begin Rod Roark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > > Why did LUGOD need her? What did she do? > > > > > > -- Rod > > > > > > On Thursday 05 December 2002 10:15 am, Peter Jay Salzman wrote: > > > > nobody has treated LUGOD worse than janet meizel. she totally > > > > snubbed us when we needed her most. > > > > > > > > she backstabbed LUGOD, a non-profit organization that gets computers > > > > donated to the local highschool and tons of modern computer books to > > > > an aging public library...it's shameful. > > > > > > > > i find it funny she asked for LERT assistance. the woman has balls, > > > > that's for sure. _______________________________________________ vox-tech mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech