🚀 go-pugleaf

I have nominated for the position of President of AUUG.
The following issues are of concern to me.

1. Technical/Commercial polarization.

  I am concerned that the current polarization amongst some
  members re the technical v commercial orientation of AUUG 
  should not cause a split in the AUUG ranks.  AUUG should
  represent the interests of both the technical and the
  commercial community.   It's nice to romanticize about "the
  way AUUG used to be" when Unix was a topic of some academic
  interest in Universities.  But it is also important to cater
  for the needs of people, both technical and management,
  who have been introduced to Unix fairly recently under the
  Open Systems push.
  
  Australia is too small a country to small to support 2 different 
  Unix User groups, and AUUG should clearly recognize that it should
  provide services to both communities.  This could be done in
  several ways:

    . more technical forums, organized on a regional basis;
    . several different newsgroups under aus.auug to cater
	for various special interest groups.

  I believe that more benefits will accrue to all AUUG members if
  we are able to meet the needs of both the original and the new
  kinds of AUUG member.

2. Neutrality of AUUG
  
  It is important that AUUG be independent of Unix political 
  factions (UI, OSF etc), as well as hardware vendor independent.
  It is therefore desirable that the executive have
  representatives from the various groupings that make up the
  AUUG community, and important that the President (the
  spokesperson) be as 'neutral' as possible.

  Softway, of which I am Managing Director, is recognised as
  being vendor neutral.
  
  
3. Liaison with other Professional Organizations
  
  There are other professional organizations within Australia
  with overlap in the software area - ACS, IEEE, IREE, and IE Aust.
  AUUG should liaise with these bodies and cooperate where
  appropriate in seminars, conferences, etc.

  As well as being an AUUG member, I am a member of the ACS
  and the IEEE, and have strong connections with the IREE and 
  IE(Aust).
  
4. Distributed AUUG
  
  Australia's distances make it essential to devolve more AUUG
  activities along State lines, with the formalization of
  local chapters.  This is happening now in an ad-hoc capacity.
  I will work to encourage the formation of strong local chapters
  and to support the activities of the existing local organisations.


Personal details:

I am Managing Director of Softway Pty Ltd in Sydney.  I am not 
a kernel hacker, but have been associated with Unix since
1975 when it arrived at The University of NSW.

I believe that Softway represents AUUG in miniature: we are
a commercial organization (I have grey hairs to prove it...),
but as a company we have a collective technical expertise
which (I believe) has the respect of the Unix technical community.
As such I understand the needs of the technical and commercial 
factions within the AUUG community.


Phil McCrea
-- 
Phil McCrea - Softway Pty Ltd	(phil@softway.sw.oz.au)

PHONE:	+61-2-698-2322     ADDRESS: 79 Myrtle Street
FAX:	+61-2-699-9174	            Chippendale NSW 2008, AUSTRALIA