<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 9:40 AM, colin mcdermott <<a href="mailto:colinjamesmcdermott@gmail.com">colinjamesmcdermott@gmail.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Hi All >> The ubuntu-au community is not lacking structure - it's lacking motivated people. Get out there - do stuff to promote Ubuntu in Australia. If you do enough, you'll become known within the Ubuntu-au community, and the leadership or power (or whatever you want to call it) that you worry about will be shared with you. This model is fundamentally Undemocratic. While I agree that it is better to be an active member then a complaining member I must shoot down the notion of power being dispersed as a whim. The Community should be appointing it's own members through an elected process. Not having the leadership appoint people on a whim! I ask that if the current model is appointment based that it be refuted and regular elections called. The group should embody the spirit of Ubuntu! Cheers Colin McDermott </blockquote></div> Colin, yes I agree. Ubuntu the philosophy <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(philosophy)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(philosophy)</a> I like the Zulu take on 'leadership' "A leader who has "unhu" is selfless and consults widely and listens to his subjects. He or she does not adopt a lifestyle that is different from his subjects and lives among his subjects and shares what he owns. A leader who has "unhu" does not lead but allows the people to lead themselves and cannot impose his will on his people, which is incompatible with "unhu"." This does not to say that a 'Leader' is not required, but that he/she 'Represents' the wishes of his/her people. BTW 'unhu' is 'Ubuntu' in the 'Shona' language which is spoken in Zimbabwe. (I learned something new today) Cheers, Andrew G.