Subject:
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Re: Request For Comments: Proposal to set up a club for UK Fans of LEGO
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.loc.uk
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Date:
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Thu, 13 Jun 2002 13:47:34 GMT
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Viewed:
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1119 times
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In lugnet.loc.uk, Tony Priestman writes:
> Yep.
>
> If expenses are outside the remit of the club, everyone will have to meet
> their own.
>
> If this was in the constitution, another part could say if it was decided at
> some point that funds were required for a project, a one off subscription
> could be called for. Or not. I imagine that this is the sort of thing we'll
> have to agree on when voting to decide what the club will do.
>
> Given that the intention is to run the club by concensus, this doesn't sound
> too outlandish, does it?
I think fundamentally what we need is a method of electing representatives
of the membership, making decisions as a group or as delegated to the
representatives, but most importantly a way of ensuring that members will
abide by the outcome of those decisions.
'Consensus' to me implies general agreement, which rarely works around here.
I think it has to be an electoral process with voting to take decisions, and
with commitment to abide by the outcome even if you as an individual voted
against it.
Collecting subscriptions is one way of ensuring commitment, but with nothing
much concrete to offer in return that may be hard. One-off levies may also
be hard to collect from all members. I offer the suggestion of starting
with subscriptions of £0.00, so that the option is there to raise the cost
of subscription should it become necessary.
Then again, perhaps no-one will want to stand for election if there's not
going to be any possibility of individual expenses being paid for club
matters. In that case we would need a subscription cost.
Assuming we have committed membership, how do we go about providing
preferential services to members, rather than non-members? The only way I
can think of doing this is by informing them with some sort of mass e-mail
newsletter. Again we get onto the issue of splitting the discussion from
Lugnet, but I think it can work if handled appropriately.
What I would suggest is that an e-mail newsletter is used by the club
committee to announce club events, and something like the Yahoo board can be
used to hammer out strictly private club matters. Is it possible to have an
e-mailing discussion board that lets you opt out of specific threads after a
time? And that would let the committee override private settings to
announce to all subscribers?
Any other general club discussion can still take place in Lugnet. That way
the UK community can see and contribute, but specific details of club
activities can be announced to members only.
Agreements reached with third parties (e.g. retailers, TLG, LLW) would be
made available according to the terms of the agreement. For example, the
UKAFOL discount may have been arrived at for UKAFOLs in general, but a
special shop discount may be arranged for (paid-up?) subscribers only.
We would need some sort of annual re-statement of commitment from members,
if not an actual fee.
I'm not sure whether the club should control individual members fests or
not. On the one hand, they could be financed from subscriptions, or the
club could charge and absorb any profit or loss. On the other hand, the
organiser may wish to handle matters and personally profit from the event -
or at least take some compensation for the effort involved.
I think I would favour club control though, so that venues are booked and
dates are fixed well in advance, and people are notified and commitments
obtained from members at least. I think the hardest thing with a fest is
not the organising of the venue, but the juggling of vague hints of
attendance or assistance. With a structured method of notification, cost
spreading and peer exposure of members' commitments this could improve
considerably.
Jason J Railton
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