Re: [Fsfe-uk] AFFSAC details

[Marc Eberhard]

On Thu, May 01, 2003 at 09:53:04AM +0100, Andrew Savory wrote:
> Consider the example of a proprietary software vendor who may be
> interested in hearing about Free Software, but for whom membership would
> be a contradiction, or against the vendor's beliefs, or could possibly
> even cause harm for the vendor's business if word got out that the vendor
> was an AFFS member.

We currently only offer personal memberships. Thus it would be an employee
as a private person, not the company itself. Nevertheless, I take your
point.

> Also, given that one of the AFFS's aims is to promote free software, then
> the conference shouldn't just be about "getting current AFFS members into
> a room to talk", it should be about getting *anyone* to come along and
> listen to what we have to say. In that light, having an obligatory
> membership clause on attendance is counter-productive.

I would like to mention, that we do not consider the arrangements for this
year to hold for future years. We've been in quite a bad situation with our
original venue being withdrawn on a very short notice. If you agree, I
propose to discuss future AGMs and conferences at the AGM. I would like to
hear more opinions on this issue.

> My apologies for not mentioning all this sooner, but discussion of this on
> fsfe-uk has been somewhat sparse, and the recent haphazard announcements
> have drawn my attention to it.

Our fault too, sorry! We had to move quickly to find something within the
time limit given in the constitution for the AGM. With more time, it would
have been possible to plan a bigger event, but as things stand, we just
wanted to give members a bit more incentive to attend than only an AGM. We
were afraid that some wouldn't travel just for the AGM only and thus we
wanted to use the opportunity to bring additional talks and discussions in.

However, as I said, this might change in future years into something bigger
and then we should surely reconsider the "member only" policy. At the moment
it is just to keep things simple.

Should someone want to attend the conference without being named or being
listed as a member, please contact address@hidden and I'm sure, we'll
find a suitable arrangement (like a one-off anonymous 10 pound donation to
AFFS or so).

Bye,
Marc
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