[Lopsa-regional-project] Defining relationships

[Ben Rockwood]

I don't want to rain on the parade, I'm excited about the possibilities 
that LOPSA has before it, but.....  the list below feels more like a 
"reasons not to bother affiliating with LOPSA" list.  When I read the 
first part of the post (definitions) I thought "kool, maybe SVOSUG could 
become a LOPSA affiliate" but there appears to be some strings.

The ideas presented below seem to outline how LOPSA can benefit from 
local user groups but not how local user groups can benifit from 
association/affiliation with LOPSA.  The question must be asked "What 
does the UG get out of the deal?"

benr.

(PS: I hope no one takes this post in any way as negative, just trying 
to look at it from the standpoint of the local user group.)

* SVOSUG = Silicon Valley OpenSolaris Users Group

Eric Eisenhart wrote:

>So, let's try and define those relationships...
>
>0) LOPSA Associated group
>   Any of the following.
>1) LOPSA Local Chapters
>   That is a local sub-group of LOPSA.
>2) LOPSA Affiliates
>   Local groups that have a relationship of some sort with LOPSA, but aren't
>   part of LOPSA
>3) Unaffiliated SA groups
>4) SA-related groups.  (such as user groups)
>
>(the following are all just suggestions, of course)
>
>Things LOPSA can do now:
>A) provide mailing lists
>   I seem to recall somebody mentioning this could be done.  And I also seem
>   to recall hearing that LOPSA was willing to do this for any member.
>
>Things LOPSA could maybe do some day:
>B) Liason
>   A local group should always have a single primary contact within LOPSA. 
>   And they should know how to reach a backup contact if the primary isn't
>   available.  The backup could maybe be the mailing list all liasons are
>   on, the liason one level up in the regional groups hierarchy within
>   LOPSA, or maybe just the LOPSA board.
>C) Web space
>   http://lopsa.org/foo/, http://foo.lopsa.org/, http://foo.org/.
>   If drupal can do domains, this could be reasonably simple.  Each site
>   basically needs a main page with some basic introductory material, event
>   module with calendar (so there's always a list of the next few months
>   worth of events on their page) and a few reasonably static pages (map
>   and directions to meeting location, mailing list info, irc channel info
>   if they have their own, etc.)
>D) Money handling
>   If a group wants to do things that require money and therefore wants to
>   have membership require money, that gets complicated quickly.  Maybe if
>   you're a LOPSA local chapter you can set a price on annual membership
>   dues and that's added to the person's annual LOPSA membership dues? 
>   $40/year for just LOPSA, $50/year for LOPSA and LOPSA-foo?  (and then the 
>   foo group gets $10/year/member)
>E) Other financial assistance
>F) Directory listing.
>   A directory of groups.  I'd like to see it be a directory of as many SA
>   groups as possible, either divided up into sub-lists by type or with
>   some type of indicator as to the relationship to LOPSA.  Maybe even
>   self-service like http://lugww.counter.li.org/.
>G) LOPSA name
>   Use of "LOPSA" in their name.  Presumably only for LOPSA Chapters.
>H) LOPSA branding Allow LOPSA Chapters to use the LOPSA logo, font and other
>   branding?  Not just for linking like https://lopsa.org/node/121 but for
>   their own logo, etc.
>I) Speaker assistance
>   A speaker's bureau?  Eventually maybe financial assistance for speakers
>   with travel expenses?
>J) Help running their organization?
>K) IRC channel on irc.lopsa.org?
>   I imagine this is easy, but I could be wrong.  irc.freenode.net is an
>   option for local groups, too.  If I'm running the LOPSA-Foo chapter of
>   LOPSA, I probably want to have #foo on irc.lopsa.org.
>
>Things LOPSA could consider requiring of groups:
>  I) Liason
>     LOPSA should always have a single primary contact within a local group
>     they're affiliated with.  And a backup contact, maybe their steering 
>     committee.
> II) Link back to LOPSA, referring to LOPSA in other communications, etc.
>III) Require all members of the local group to be members of LOPSA
> IV) Require some minimum amount of members of the local group to be members
>     of LOPSA.
>  V) Not to be associated with SAGE.  
>     I don't like this one, but given http://www.sage.org/groups/ it seems
>     like it might come up eventually anyways.  Personally, I think if a
>     group was to be associated with both LOPSA and SAGE that should be
>     fine.  Probably naturally happens for LOPSA Chapters anyways.
> VI) Consistent with LOPSA
>     Goals consistent with LOPSA, non-profit, open membership, etc...
>  
>
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