<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Melissa Draper wrote: <blockquote cite="mid:1268012688.3561.345.camel@pegasus" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">On Mon, 2010-03-08 at 11:25 +1100, Andrew Swinn wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Just a quick 2 cents worth on the whole committee thing. I would agree that having an overall president plus a representive from each state would be the way to go. </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""> Linux Australia has gone through this discussion regularly over the years. The conclusion has always been that it's not feasible. Why? Because you have to find, for each state (and territory), someone actually capable and willing to do the role. In a country like Australia, that means finding someone from NSW, Vic, QLD, WA, SA, Tas, ACT. ...</pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">So firstly I think we should organise the first thing, getting a president/leader/whatever put in place plus state reps, then letting those elected/appointed people work on organising the rest. One of the big issues with community groups is getting caught up in the politics of it all. Those age old requirements for president/treasurer/minutes/commitees out the wazoo all scare new people away. People are extroadinarily time limited today so keeping it short and simple is what should be focused on. </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""> Once you have a committee you /are/ caught up in the politics. A committee is political no matter which way you spin it and offices do have requirements.</pre> </blockquote> I have to agree with Melissa on this one.  The position(s) need(s) to be given to the person(s) actually able to do the job.  Perhaps if people are looking for a contact person for each state, we need to have an out-of-band/unofficial/less-official role which is more along the lines of what people are looking for with the election-style deal. I personally couldn't be bothered jumping through the hoops (not to mention what seems to me to be a ridiculous amount of self-promotion) required to be on the LoCo leadership - i have enough to do between switching between two jobs and keeping a number of different clients above water.  However, i would be happy to be a contact for people to talk to about Ubuntu, and i would be happy to organise meetups like we've had recently here in Brisbane. Paul </body> </html>