FSG, ACM, recap of the meeting
Tim Bielawa
First, sorry if anyone is getting multiple copies of this!
Second, this email is about the administrative meeting held between
the ACM and FSG today at which we evaluated ourselves critically and
then started looking forward: trying to take what we learned about our
past, and apply it to improving our future. So! to all the interested
parties who have been asking again and again (and I thank everyone who
has been asking ;) "is FSG is still alive?", and if we will be doing
anything -- this email is a most definite YES! Expect us to be back
with full force in the coming months and semesters!
.......Recap of meeting follows....
Thanks to everyone who showed up at the meeting. There was a very
positive feeling about the whole thing. A lot of good brainstorming
happened. Andrew should be emailing out the minutes from the meeting
some time soon.
I'm personally most pleased with how constructive and honest we were
with evaluation of the past performance of FSG, and ACM too. A lot of
great discussion about personal and group responsibility happened. We
were able to recognize the good things that happened last semester, as
well as where we went wrong. Furthermore, we were able to touch on a
lot of ways we can use what we learned to improve our performance both
individually, and as groups next semester.
That last sentence is the most important part to me, what we learned.
We recognized that the FSG was stretching itself so thin that it was
starting to rip apart. We tried to be everywhere, do everything, and
do it all the time. We know we can't do that anymore if we want to be
successful in achieving our goals[1].
On the positive side of things I think we (FSG) were most successful
in creating an interested body for our causes. We were able to gain
respect at a university wide level with OIT and the College of
Engineering. We even had a front page article in the Daily Athenaeum
[2]. Our shortcomings were, in brief, most certainly overworking
ourselves by taking on so many projects which we weren't able to
humanly follow through with.
We're a very ambitious group, we have high goals, very high. and a lot
of obstacles in our way to completion.
But like the very communities that build the Software we're working to
raise awareness about: we must work together. Only with the strength
of a group of dedicated peoples supporting each other can we reach our
goals.
Thanks for taking the time to read this! I look forward to working
together with you all in the upcoming weeks and months.......
Take care! And keep looking for updates,
- ---Tim 'Shaggy' Bielawa
WVU Free Software Group President
http://fsag.wvuopensource.org
304-685-8389
- - References -
[1] http://fsag.wvuopensource.org/?q=node/4 About us, mission statement
[2] http://www.da.wvu.edu/show_article.php?story_id=38939 Article
about FSG in the DA