[Cumbria] The last word

[Chris Plant]

On Sat, 2003-01-11 at 22:41, Gleaston Water Mill wrote: 
> Now the bun fight seems to have settled and I have been on the end of
> some of the posts (albeit indirectly), its time to have my say.
> 
> I think that good debate is healthy, but I dont believe that there is
> room for bad manners or language (everyone) and making comparisons
> with groups which are worse is no excuse.
> 
> Please also be factual if you want to criticise. So Chris, with
> reference to your posting of 6th Jan, the facts are as follows:
> 
>  
> Please remember that I had the initiative to form the group and
> Jamie attended the first meetings. As best qualified, and at his
> request, control of the website was passed to him from day one. 
> The early meetings were good, they were structured, and except for
> Jamie and Dan Andersson we were all beginners.Dan is 'guru' standard
> and also a good instructor - a rare combination!

Can I just clear something up, do you feel that myself and Jamie caused
any problems ?

> 
> <<I am glad that the LUG has finally been revived and new life and
> viewpoints have been injected by the people from Kendal and the other
> parts of the county.......>>
> It never really stopped. Some of us continued to meet occassionally,
> but after Jamie went to uni the website never got updated and we did
> not have access to it.

Well, as far as I am concerned that is dead.  Did you update LXF - No. 
Did you update the site - No.

> <<The effort put in by these people, to grab the mailing list and
> website from Mike's control, under which it was quite clearly
> dying.....>>
> 'These people' were Ken Hough, Dave Murphy and myself. There was no
> question of grabbing the website from my control  -  I didn't have it.
> I did agree with Dave that we should get the access codes and he would
> take over control and start a mailing list which didn't exist.

Ar, so you did have access to the website, you just didn't bother 
putting the effort it to get the passwords reset.

> We also discussed the difficulties of running a group with mixed
> skills and suggested that this could be talked over at one of the
> meetings.

Everyone now knows I fully support Paul's position, I do not wish to
formally split the LUG, but I do want to see another point of contact
established for users who aren't being best served by the LUG in its
current format.

> No one seemed interested at the last meeting when we were 'eyeball to
> eyeball' although I tried on several occasions to inject some
> structure.

I was only aware of your samba presentation being pre-planned.

> I personally do not support involving everyone in a presentation and
> have no problem with forming smaller interest groups within a main
> meeting. However so as I don't waste my time I would like to know what
> people want from the meetings or there is no point in having them.
> 
The vibe I have been getting when I suggest I just want to talk isn't
very favourable.  I have no problem with people delivering presentations
on any subject, but I would like to reserve the right to discuss other
things in person while a presentation I have no interest in goes on.

> I find this comment particularly galling, and the main reason why I
> decided to make this posting.
> When we were reviving the group, I discussed venue with both Ken and
> Dave, both of whom have a considerable journey. I suggested that we
> should have meetings better suited to their locations, but they were
> happy to continue at the mill and review alternative locations later.
> Frankly, I think it is 'pretty damn decent' of me to make the facility
> available. Just bear in mind that I pay the costs for heating,
> lighting and cleaning etc. which I am happy to continue to do. Rather
> than abuse my hospitality, maybe you would prefer to host the meetings
> or find a new venue?

I have no problem with the use of the Mill, and would like to thank you
for the LUG's use of it, but if I had reborn the LUG, and I lived in
Workington, I wouldn't be inclined to travel to somewhere that is
difficult to reach from Barrow, let alone Workington.

-- 
Chris Plant <chris@monkeyircd.org>