Manifesto


The "Like-Minded Souls" team
The Like-Minded Souls (LMS) team are a group of PCUG members who are collectively standing for election to the PCUG Committee for 2004-2005. Our team includes a balance of members with previous Committee experience, TIP system administrators, and importantly some new faces with new ideas and initiatives for the Group.

Who are the LMS team? {Click for profile}
John Saxon - President
Jeremy Bishop - Vice President
Anne Greiner - Secretary
Keith Sayers -Treasurer
Terry Bibo
Ann Byrne
Mike Dinn
Trevor Frew
Rick Geary
Al Kabaila
Michael Lightfoot
Ted Macarthur
Allan Mikkelsen

Why are the LMS team standing for election?
We are standing for election - collectively as a group - because we share a concern that a continuing decline in PCUG membership and TIP subscribers will ultimately result in the Group being wound-up, unless the Group is re-invigorated with new initiatives and membership numbers are stabilised. In particular, we are concerned about the poor relationship between the TIP system administrators and the Internet Services Sub-Committee (ISSC).

The members of the LMS team have deliberately come together to address these issues by improving communication and consultation with members and volunteers and by ensuring that the TIP system administrators are adequately represented on the Committee. 

LMS Principles
If elected, the LMS team intends that the Committee should operate with greater openness and transparency. Whilst there will necessarily be exceptions for commercial-in-confidence and privacy issues, our intention is that Committee minutes and other decisions affecting the PCUG membership should be more easily accessible and available to the membership than at present. We hope to publish draft minutes on the web within 7 days of each meeting.

We believe that different functional areas of PCUG, for example, TIP and ADSL internet services, and the PCUG Centre and Training activities, should pay their own way, and that financial cross-subsidisation of one area by another should be minimised. 

We believe that PCUG is at the stage where if TIP were to fail or be shut down, then the longer-term viability of PCUG itself will be in question. Hence, in order to ensure the longer-term viability of PCUG, we must make TIP and other Internet services as competitive as possible, and finances permitting, competitive with equivalent services offered by commercial ISP's.

In the process of making TIP more competitive, we must not forget or lose sight of the range of other PCUG issues and services that are of importance to our membership - the "Users Helping Users" motto on which the Group was founded, the PCUG Centre and Training Room, and improving the all important "value-for-money" aspect of Group membership.

LMS Plans
The LMS team have developed a 10-point plan covering the main objectives and aims of the team:
  1. On taking office, we will conduct a detailed review of the accounts and financial position of the Group, and use this to finalise our 2004-2005 plan and operating budget for the remainder of the year.  We aim to publish the 2004-2005 plan and budget by the end of November 2004, so that members can see in more detail what we intend to do.
  2. We will publish progress reports, including budget details, on a quarterly basis, so that members can judge our progress and provide feedback.
  3. We intend to conduct two detailed surveys of the membership, focussing on Internet services and membership benefits, which will guide our actions for points (4) and (5) below.
  4. We aim to enhance and re-vitalise PCUG membership benefits, to provide better value-for-money for your membership fees.
  5. We will undertake a comprehensive review of Internet service pricing, with the intent of introducing significantly improved Internet plans and services by February 2005.
  6. For Internet service subscribers, we aim to introduce effective spam and virus filtering on a per-user basis, with fine-grained controls of the filtering, by February 2005.
  7. We aim to increase the profile of PCUG by utilising local media, by investigating re-establishment of the radio program, and working with local media to get the PCUG referenced as a local source of expertise for computer related stories.
  8. We will continue the improvement of facilities for members in the PCUG Centre and investigate methods of increasing their availability to members by the use of more volunteers.
  9. We will restore the team of experienced members who are willing to assist members in their homes or to provide computer fixing services for a nominal fee. (Previously known as the HIT team)
  10. We are dedicated to helping new (or struggling) PC users with basic computer training in a class situation on a regular basis, and also where necessary to train on a one on one basis in the member's home on a 'one-on-one' basis for a nominal fee.
Voting
If you like what you've read, we encourage you to vote for members of the LMS team by attending the Annual General Meeting at 7.30pm on Monday 27th September 2004 at the Manning Clarke Theatre 3, Australian National University. Your support and vote will make a difference to the PCUG!

Questions?
If you have any questions, please contact one of the following "Like-Minded Souls":
Name
Email address
Phone number
Terry Bibo tbibo@pcug.org.au 0414 293 675 (0830-2030)
Jeremy Bishop
jeremyb@pcug.org.au
N/A (Yet - will return from USA in OCT)
Ann Byrne boop@pcug.org.au 6282 2536 (Any reasonable hour)
Mike Dinn
mdinn@pcug.org.au
6281 4877 (Any reasonable hour)
Trevor Frew tfrew2@dodo.com.au
6258 1183 (Any reasonable hour)
Rick Geary genairco@mpx.com.au 6294 4989 (Any reasonable hour)
Anne Greiner agreiner@pcug.org.au 6288 2810 (Any reasonable hour)
Al Kabaila akabaila@pcug.org.au 6161 2062 (Any reasonable hour)
Michael Lightfoot michael.lightfoot@canb.auug.org.au 6258 8185 (0730-2200)
Ted Macarthur ebm@pcug.org.au 6286 3536 (1700-1745 weekdays only)
Allan Mikkelsen
amikkels@pcug.org.au 6278 3164 (Any reasonable hour)
John Saxon
jsaxon@pcug.org.au
6161 1524 (0730 - 1900 please)
Keith Sayers kmsayers@pcug.org.au 6258 3268 (Any reasonable hour)