[Lilux-info] My Resignation as LilUx secretary

Patrick Useldinger wrote: After some reflection, I have decided to resign from my post as a secretary. I felt that Linuxfest organization takes a lot of energy (at least for me, maybe other people are maybe better at this), with very little result. Over the course of the year, I did more _private_ Linux installations (going home to people, or doing it at our weekly Friday evening's meetings) than at our Fest! During the fest I gained a single new customer (Stefano. Other customers were present, but these were people which we already knew, like that guy from InfoLaden...), but during the year, many more (about 6, without even counting those brought in by Cedric an Pitt. And maybe I forgot some, and there were more than 6). So what is really the interest of organizing a Linuxfest for weeks, it is that turns out to not be a bang, but merely a fizzle...? I have thus come to the conclusion, that for me at least, organization of the LiLux events are a huge drain on my personal energy, but with very little result, very little thanks and much negative comments. Thus, I hereby resign from my post as a secretary, effective at our next meeting (end/middle of July, or maybe September if the July meeting is too short), which we should declare to be an "Assemblée Générale Extraordinaire" so that we can hold votes for my replacement. People who have some genial ideas how to dramatically improve our club activities are welcome to come forward and post their candidature as secretary. I fully admit that organization and coordinating is not exactly my strength, and that as a member of the existing committee I might indeed be part of the problem. Sorry for that. But don't panic: I'll still stay aboard as a (non-committee) member, I'm still willing to help with purely technical questions, and I might still help with technical tasks within any organization of an event that the new committee will come up. It's only the top-level organization that I prefer to get out of. Moreover I plan to still stay in charge of LLL which is a success. The boys (Cedric and Pitt) are doing a great task of marketing it to their class mates and schools, with big success. The only drawback is that in the meantime, our LLL is somewhat outdated, due to my lack of time to work on it (... time that I invested in the preparation of the LinuxFest indeed). However, Pitt and Cedric have done some great work taking over large parts of it, and most work on our new Kubuntu-based LLL version which will be ready in the next couple of weeks has been done by them. Thanks alot Pitt and Cedric for your valuable help! Only a couple of custom packages (webmin, userd, spam filter, ldap) are still missing, and I plan to use the time freed by my resignation as the LiLux secretary to provide these last missing parts. From what I can see, LLL is a high return-on-invest activity, which Lilux and is events appeared not to be (at least for me, in its current shape). LLL sites (ens.org.lu, transfair, infoladen) are very interested in the product, and come often with constructive feedback and request for new features! So I take the decision to resign from my LiLux responsibilities, and instead concentrate my efforts to areas where they will bear more fruits. Not only does the LLL initiative seem to interest people, but it is fun too! And the people who are helping with LLL (Cedric and Pitt) are fun to work with! I'm sorry to have go, but maybe a new committee will indeed be able to turn LiLux around, and make it again into the dynamic and successful organization it was meant to be. I wish them all my best. Maybe indeed they will indeed succeed. Organization, coordination, managing, motivating, animating people was never my strength, and so maybe a new committee might indeed by able to solve our issues. In any case, I wish them all the best! And if it does indeed turns out successful then, who knows, maybe I'll get more involved in LiLux again. And if on the other hand it flops too, so be it: in that case it frees everybody for pursuits which are more productive to the cause, or to their private wellbeing! Don't worry, I will still stay on-board as a mere member (non-committee) and continue come to our monthly meetings (maybe no longer to _all_ of them though), occasionally do a presentation, or help with some specific technical issues with event organization, should anybody have a question. I also will keep my internal organization notes available around for about a year at the disposal of whoever needs that info (task lists, contact Rossi customer numbers, statistics of past drink consumption where available etc.), whoever it will be. Also, I'm still open to the occasional, fun, non-Linux activities that may come up: fun evenings together, grill events, cinema, trips to concerts or elsewhere. And if private people have specific questions about Linux, I'm still available to help (if I know the answer, that is. Else I gladly refer to somebody who might now it) With my decision, I'm not trying to influence the other exiting committee members. To each his own decision to stay or leave. If Pierre also decides that it is too much for him to handle too, we may now have an incentive of having to look for a "real" meeting room (as Pascal suggests). But each existing committee member has to decide for himself whether he stays, or prefers to leave his seat to fresh blood. On a positive note: all people who were there (Pierre, Eric, Yvon, Thierry, Laurent, Pierre, Cedric, Fernand, ...) did indeed a great job helping _during_ the event! Thanks very much for your help, that one aspect seemed to be working so much better this time that the previous years. What I especially loved were people who were volunteering to come for the post-Fest cleanup (i.e. the least fun part of it)! Many thanks! It was only the help _before_ the fest (preparation) that was seriously lacking. Only Pierre (preparing rooms, getting authorization from his boss etc), Eric (free beer), Alex and me (general organization) were seriously helping _before_ the fest. But that's not enough. It's too much of a burden on just 4 people. Please post your candidatures for secretary to the lilux-admin list. If other existing committee members prefer to resign as well, please also post the list, so that we can get replacement candidatures for these as well. And I am sure, even if Pierre resigns, he too will still be fairplay enough to keep the LGL's doors open to us, until a "real meeting location" is found. Thanks for your time, and best wishes for the future for the new committee! Alain