local UNIX groups

[George W. Leach]

In article <230 at longway.TIC.COM> jsq at longway.UUCP (John S. Quarterman) writes:
>As I mentioned previously, I will bring up the issue of local chapters
>at the next USENIX Board of Directors meeting, which is in mid-October.

>However, it would be useful if there were specific recommendations for
>what people want local chapters to be (or whether they want them).

     A good starting point would be to poll the existing local user
groups who are listed in ;login:.  Judging from my limited knowledge of
local user groups in Florida and New York, I think one will find that
they vary widely in purpose, organization, membership makeup, etc.....


      In New York there is UniGroup.  I never joined, while I resided in
the area for a variety of reasons, one of which was a membership fee was
charged for which I did not perceive the benefits being worth it.  For
the same reason I never joined a local chapter of the ACM or IEEE.
Upon arriving in Florida about a year ago, I found a local user group
that did not charge any money, was loosely organized and basically under
the total control of the folks who put the effort into showing up each
month at the meetings.  There are other local groups in Florida, who
are organized differently and do things a bit different.  The nice thing
is that each group is free to be what they feel their purpose calls for
without any direction from outside.


       A local user group servers a very different purpose than does the
USENIX Association.  And as such, I really don't see very much for either
to gain from a stronger affiliation than is currently enjoyed.


-- 
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