🚀 go-pugleaf

The replies to my recent post about the EFF-national
reorganization all express the view that an extremely loose
'confederation' of groups is the way to go. I don't
disagree--such qualms as I have are concerned with nuances of
just how this confederation will work.  And these kind of details
will have to be worked out over time.

After having been told a few times, I finally figured out that
EFF's statement that they aren't going to form chapters means
that they aren't going  to form chapters.

I reiterate that, in my opinion, EFF *should* be a grassroots
organization. Again, my reason for thinking so is that otherwise,
we risk squandering a lot of potential leverage in the political
arena.  *How* we become a grassroots org. is another question.
Maybe we can do it with the structure as it has recently been
defined as Danny Weizner suggests.

It's going to be interesting to see if he's right--that we can be
nearly as politically effective through e-mail as we would if EFF
represented several hundred thousand 'members.'

As I 've said before, I think it would be useful for whoever at
EFF is most interested in grassroots organizing to go over to the
NRA and find out how they've done it. They have (as I remember)
about 2 million members.  They do a lot of educating and other
work at the local level, and politically they have real clout.
Potentially, EFF should be able to do at least equally as well in
the political arena. I think it would be a shame if we can, and
don't.

Without disparaging  *at all* the importance  of the legal
battles EFF is concentrating on, I'm afraid of relying on the
courts as the *sole* protectors of cyberspace.  Anyone who knows
what staunch defenders of the Second Amendment they've been for
the last half-century will know why.

I realize this is a minority opinion, but that's ok.

One other point, is the use of the phrase "Electronic Frontier."
Fig writes:

>There is nothing we can do to prevent groups from using <
>Electronic Frontier.  We hope they will not do it dishonor.<

It should be a simple matter to register the name.  After that,
it wouldn't seem onerous to me for EFF to put out a one-page
statement of purpose and ethics and require (request?) that any
organization using "Electronic Frontier" in its name subscribe to
the statement.  At least, when some group goes off the deep end,
EFF would have some way of dissociating  themselves from it.

Dick