Re: [Linux-aus] LA ctte meeting summary 2005/02/13

[Jeff Waugh <jdub@perkypants.org>]

<quote who="Bret Busby">

> And, perhaps, the issue of locations for conferences, and the way that
> they are decided, should be determined by the membership of Linux
> Australia, as opposed to being decided by the committee, to reduce
> disenfranchisement and inability to attend. A possibility, as an example,
> is a rotational allocation (eg, each state gets to host the conference,
> once every seven years, for example, in the rotating order Brisbane then
> Sydney then Canberra then Melbourne then Hobart then Adelaide then Perth
> then Adelaide (or Darwin) then starting again with Brisbane).Similarly,
> with the deciding when the conferences are to be held, it may be better
> for the membership as a whole, rather than the committee, making the
> decision.

I disagree with these suggestions:

 * We delegate decisions such as these to the elected committee, so that the
   entire organisation is not ground to a halt in {mind,end}less debate.

 * A rotational conference would mean throwing out the "best proposal wins"
   method we're using at the moment, and result in lower quality events run
   by teams who didn't have to prove their mettle. I'd predict that after a
   few bum conferences, we'd end up choosing a reliable, distributed team,
   but they would suffer from burn out, lack of inspiration, and most of
   them wouldn't be from the host city.

linux.conf.au really benefits from having a fresh and fired up local team
putting it together. It totally avoids the cookie-cutter sameness of other
conferences. It's stressful, but it's a hell of a fun job. After a few years
off, I think I'm almost ready to do it again. :-)

- Jeff

-- 
UbuntuDownUnder: April 25th-30th                      http://www.ubuntu.com/
 
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