[Steering Committee] A Change Proposal

[Paul Smith]

1) Use reverse pyramid, ie most important points first, and work down to
least important.  People must likely won't read all of this email. I think
loosing a sponsor, and sponsors harder to come by is rather important.
2) Loose the word ameliorate.
3) You did a better job writing this than I could have done.

On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 9:34 AM, Jason Lee <jason at steeplesoft.com> wrote:

> OK, fellas.  Proof-reading time.  I'd like to send this out today or
> tomorrow, so please give me feedback as soon as possible.  Thanks!
>
>
> =====
>
> One of the things we in the JUG leadership have always tried to stress is
> that this is *our* group.  While there may be a few of us making the
> decisions, all are welcome to come to the meeting and help us make those
> decisions, even taking over leadership if so desired.  That being the case,
> we try to operate the JUG with complete transparently.  To that end, I'd
> like to take some time to discuss the state of things concerning our group.
>
> As you may recall, late last year, we incorporated the JUG, which, among
> other things, has allowed us to open and maintain a bank account.  As a
> result of that move and the resulting, if meager, account balance, we have
> been able to entertain larger, more long-term arrangements.  One such
> arrangement, which we're still in the process of finalizing, is a
> multi-month agreement with the Oklahoma City Coworking Collaborative, or
> CoCo.  As many of you have seen, Derrick and his team have built a fantastic
> facility in downtown Oklahoma City that solves a number of issues for us,
> the most pressing of which has been space.  At several of our last meetings
> at the University of Phoenix, we were standing room only.  To ameliorate
> that issue there would have doubled our costs.  The CoCo gives us much more
> room, at only a modest increase in costs.  The CoCo also provides for the
> recording and hosting of meeting videos, as well as a more central location,
> which helps out those on the south side of the city.
>
> For those reasons, we feel such a partnership with the CoCo is a boon to
> the JUG.  At the same time, we are able to help out Derrick and crew who
> have been very active and supportive of not only the JUG, but several other
> user groups in the area.  The catch is that such an agreement requires an
> upfront payment for the facilities rental, which is a normal and not
> unreasonable arrangement.  What that means is that the lion's share of our
> current funds are now committed to this partnership, leaving us with only a
> small sum left.  Seeing this small amount, the SC discussed Tuesday what we
> should do to make sure that we can continue to operate.  While it is true
> that in the past we've gone month to month in our funding, given the
> volatility in the market and the loss of one of our sponsors, we feel that
> it would be prudent to take steps to insure that we're not spending money we
> may not get in the future.
>
> Having said all of that, we came up with a number of options for the
> membership to discuss, select, etc.  Aside from the facilities rental, we
> have two other regular expenses, door prizes and food.  With food being the
> larger of the two, our proposals focused on that.  They are:
>
> 1) We no longer provide lunch, and expect each attendee to bring his lunch.
> 2) We continue to provide lunch, but require that each attendee pay a flat
> fee for lunch, say, $5.
> 3) We move to a paid membership model, wherein members would continue to
> get a "free" meal at each meeting but non-members would be required to pay
> for the meal at each meeting.
> 4) Someone in the group donates the food. Or, alternately, the
> entrepreneurial might find a nice business opportunity here.
> 5) Continue business as usual and then suspend operations should funding
> dry up.
>
> There are likely other options.  If one comes to mind, please feel free to
> propose it.  We decided that, given the time frame, nothing will change for
> the June meeting, but, starting with the July meeting, one of these
> proposals (or, perhaps, one suggested by the general membership) will be
> implemented, so if you have a strong feeling one way or another, now is the
> time to make your voice heard.  The decision on which option to adopt will
> likely be made at next month's Steering Committee meeting, so if you've been
> thinking about coming, now is the time.  That's the best way to get involved
> in the decision-making process for the JUG.
>
> Our hope, of course, is the economy begins to swing back up and that our
> awesome local sponsors will still be in the position to partner with us.
>  While there may be signs showing that that will happen in the near term, we
> felt it best not to do "deficit spending" and implement a strategy to insure
> the continued operations of the JUG.  All of us on the SC feel that we get
> value from the JUG, hoping, of course, that everyone else feels the same, so
> it is in the best interest of all involved that the JUG continue to meet.
>  It is our hope that this proposal will do just that.
>
> Thanks for taking the time to read this giant missive.  Your feedback is
> greatly welcome.
>
> Jason Lee, SCJP
> Senior Java Developer, Sun Microsystems
> Mojarra and Mojarra Scales Dev Team
> https://mojarra.dev.java.net
> https://scales.dev.java.net
> http://blogs.steeplesoft.com
>
>
>
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>
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