[wellylug] Formalising WellyLUG

Colin Klenner colink at clear.net.nz
Tue Jan 20 07:13:12 NZDT 2004


In response to points raised by Donald Gordon today:

By "Rules" do you mean "Constitution", or is there some reason for
avoiding that word?
        - Generally Incorporated Societies or companies use the term
        Constitution. 
        Informal clubs and smaller organisations follow the advice of
        the Registrar of Incorporated Societies and refer to them as
        Rules, generally being a description of what is acceptable
        behaviour by the club as a whole.
        
Rule 2
Is "words importing the masculine gender include the feminine gender;
and words importing the singular number include the plural and vice
versa." really necessary?  There's only one gender-specific word in the
entire document ('him') that I could easily find and that could be
changed.  And does the singular/plural bit mean that by President you
mean Presidents, etc?
        - Let's Rule this out, then (excuse the pun)!

Rule 3
What does "fostering the spirit of Linux/OSS" mean?
        - Hmmm ... Yes I see your point - too vague. Do we need this
        one?

Rule 4
Doesn't this make becoming a member somewhat complex (and place
unnecessary load on the committee)?  Why just not let anyone join, or
specify criteria if you must (e.g. people chucked out can't come back
unless the Committee says so, etc)?
        - Agreed. How about:
        "A person shall become a member on registration of membership
        with the Secretary, acceptance by the Committee, and meeting
        membership requirements from Rule 8." ?


Rule 5
Does this mean that if I tell someone to use Oracle I can't be a member
of WLUG (see 3b)?  IMHO 5a is probably unnecessary.
        - The Objects in (3) only say about encouraging people and
        exchanging ideas,it does not bind anyone to do so.

Rule 7
Being more specific about why people can be expelled is probably a good
idea.
        - Ok, fair comment. Let's have suggested words to replace this
        bit?

Rule 8
8a: there is no 8a!
        - Oops!  Will correct.
8b: subscription, not Joining Fee.
        - Oops again. I thought this had been corrected - you are
        correct.
8c: subscriptions are probably better set and then changed if need be,
rather than requiring a vote on them every year, IMHO.
        - In my experience the committee recommends at the AGM whether
        there should be a change and, if so, what to. The members then
        accept or debate as needed. I do not expect the subs will amount
        to much, if anything, but felt inclusion was warranted rather
        than adding more rules later. But let's consider all options.

8e: I assume you mean one vote per item, or similar: does this even need
to be explicitly mentioned?
        - You are correct - one vote per person per item. If it is
        explicit then there can be no confusion.

I suspect that cutting rules 5 and 8 up into "Membership", and folding
the GM bits into rule 16.
        - Can you clarify, please? It if simplifies this further then
        let's see if it works.

Rule 9
9b: why?
        - Suggested and open to change.
9c: I assume that people will find out about the AGM before the
Secretary sends notice (16c); otherwise how do you nominate people in
advance?
        - Good point. Let's discuss and clarify if this needs to be in
        the Rules?
9e: Doesn't handle the case of massive loss of committee members.
        - In which case the Committee can choose to call for more
        members to participate in the Committee until an election is
        held. There is always the extreme case that will be difficult to
        handle. Let's hope it does not come to that.

9a and 10 intersect: any way of folding 10 into 9?
        - Make 10 = 9(f) ?

Rule 12
12a: physical book for a computer-related club?
        - No. Actually this slipped through. It could be  a disk or CD
        or some such containing Minutes in some standard document
        format. This is one of those things that is picky, I suppose,
        but Minutes once recorded should not be able to be changed. 

Rule 16
16b: no printed ballots allowed?
        - Open to change here.

Rule 21
        - Only needed if the LUG becomes Inc. Otherwise this can be
        deleted.

I hope this helps the discussion and understanding generally. 

-- 
Colin Klenner <colink at clear.net.nz>
Wellington, New Zealand
phone +64 4 388 3835
fax +64 4 380 8404




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