PSYDAVE@UBVMS.BITNET (Dave Straitiff) (05/08/88)
I would like to turn the DECUS conversation around a bit.
DECUS makes money, true. Where do you think that money goes?
It goes back into services for DECUS members. DEC does not
provide any direct financial support. They provide us with a
staff and facilities. They also pay the symposium registration
fees for DEC employees. Just like any of our employers pay ours.
In general, I would be careful about throwing stones at
DECUS. It is a volunteer organization that serves a great number
of people. I have dedicated a great deal of my personal time to
help DECUS run. I think all the people involved deserve a great
deal of credit.
An effective LUG is the rawest form of DECUS. It offers people
in a geographic area, a chance to meet face to face. Effective is
the key point here. To be effective, the LUG needs motivated leaders.
If you don't like the way your LUG is run, then run for an office.
Many facts are incorrect in the article against LUGs. First off,
DEC has no say in who speaks at your meeting. It is in the LUG's
best interest though to maintain relations with the local office.
That support can be by offering a counterpart, hosting meetings,
and doing mailings. On the tape issue. Those tapes are not cheap
if you purchase them. LUGs have the right to distribute them to
members. Local companies donate all the media for our library at
the Western New York LUG. Our librarian mails the tapes in and they
are returned with loads of USEFUL and FREE software. How much easier
could it be? DECUS even pays the return postage.
The newsletter promotion is not hurting anyone. They will not
exist at all if people don't subscribe. I see the newsletter serving
the same purpose as this bulletin board. I can't see any reason to
not use this medium to promote them. The intentions are totally
honorable.
On a final note, DEC is the first to acknowledge that they are
not the only game in town. DECUS is around because a lot of people
own DEC computers, and would like meet with others to talk about them.
DECUS can not be all things to all people. It serves its purpose well!
What reason could anyone have to take shots at DECUS?
David M. Straitiff
Western New York LUG Chair
North East Seminars Representative
=========================================================================
David M. Straitiff Bitnet: PSYDAVE@UBVMS
Speech Research Laboratory Phone: (716)689-8093
Department of Psychology
State University of New York at Buffalo
Buffalo, New York 14260
=========================================================================rrk@byuvax.bitnet (05/17/88)
In addition to this posting, I received one other message about the inacuracies
of my previous posting questioning the value of a local DEC user's group's
being an official DECUS LUG. I think the private message I received hit
the nail on the head when it said something like "I think you must have
been out of the DECUS organization for a couple of years--it has changed
quite a bit in the past couple of years." It has been about two years since
I have been involved. I am glad to hear that things are much better than
they were and that the association of the LUG with the national organization
is now (according to all reports I have received) worth the trouble. If
anyone else has any more positive or negative experiences (they should probably
be more recent than my experiences to be of any value) to report, I, for one,
would enjoy hearing more about the advantages of the association between the
national organization and the LUG, as only one message I have seen has done
a good job of showing. I was careful to state in my previous posting that
I didn't question the value of individual membership in the national
organization or individual membership and active participation in the LUG.
I do appreciate the responses received, and I'm sorry if I gave an outdated
picture of the association between the national organization and the LUG.
I'm glad that there were thoughtful responses to my posting.
Is it really true that DEC provides no financial support to the national
organization other than membership dues for employees? That would mean
that all the DECUS mail I receive is funded by either the national organization
symposium entrance fees or by tape production charges. Since I can't identify
where I first heard that--I thought it was just "common knowledge"--I may have
been wrong there as well. I apologize for any misrepresentation I may have
given. Keep up the good work in DECUS.
AMMON::RAY