[wellylug] Formalising WellyLUG

[Donald Gordon]

On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 11:48:26 +1300 (NZDT) "Jamie Dobbs" <jamie.dobbs at orcon.net.nz> wrote:

> >
> > I find 5 pages of rules uncomfortable.
> > I don't think I'll be joining.
> >
> I also find this amount of 'rules' uncomfortable and wonder why there is a
> need for such a complex set of rules?
> My view is that the group has existed well enough so far without having to
> formalise it, so why do we need to do so now?

Formalisation can be a good thing.

Without some sort of structure, you end up with such fun things as
arguments about decisions on mailing lists (which go on, and on, and on
- there's no way to reach a conclusion), no clear way to handle sudden
unavailability of key members, ambiguity about how to deal with assets
the group may posess, etc.

However, formalisation *can* bring problems; there's nothing worse than
committee members who will argue for hours about if something is a good
idea or not, but won't actually *do* anything, or overly complex or long
processes that need to be followed by the members of the group who
actually get things done.  Keeping formal structures simple and
lightweight is a reasonable thing to do, IMHO.

donald
(who has some experience with this sort of thing, having been on the
committee of the VUW Computer Club for the last two years)