🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <FAIGIN.92Aug3103918@soldan.aero.org> faigin@aero.org (Daniel P. Faigin) writes:
>Everyone says: I wouldn't do it the way they do it. Well, if you don't like
>it, GET OFF YOUR DUFF AND DO IT YOUR WAY. ACM runs on volunteers...

   ...and dues, SIG fees, sale of the mailing list to insurance and credit
card companies, etc.  It's a monetary transaction, and like any other
monetary transaction, if one party doesn't get what s/he pays for, s/he
has every right to complain.

> ...If you care about an organization -- if you want
>to do more than just write a check -- if you make the organization actually
>serve you in a useful manner -- get involved.

   Since some of us out here don't have infinite time on our hands, we have
to prioritize our activities.  This means that we may not have free time
to volunteer extensively for any one specific activity, such as the local
ACM chapter.  So, we give of our time to some activites, and "merely"
pay our dues for others.  If we didn't care, we wouldn't do so.  And
because we care enough to continue paying for the service involved, we
occasionally take the time and make the effort to offer constructive
criticism.  I believe it's quite counterproductive to meet that constructive
criticism with martyristic jingoism, especially when the criticism comes
from a paying member.

>We can't go through our lives expecting to be served. For what you give, you
>will receive back ten-fold.

   In that case, I'll terminate my membership right now (I can read all the
ACM publications I care to across the street at the library), and take my
approximately $25000 in small bills.  And don't tell the IRS, please,
because since I can no longer deduct my ACM dues from my income, I don't
feel I should pay taxes on my ten-fold payout.

   Incidentally, the new CACM is ugly and less readable to this paying
member, too.  Since you're a volunteer, could you inform the proper
people?  Thanks.
--
Joel "Silent Unassuming Volunteer" P.