Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!mtxinu!ed
From: ed@mtxinu.COM (Ed Gould)
Newsgroups: comp.org.usenix
Subject: Re: Places to hold conferences
Message-ID: <1991Jul1.022326.16476@mtxinu.COM>
Date: 1 Jul 91 02:23:26 GMT
References: <15155@ector.cs.purdue.edu> <2106@limbo.Intuitive.Com>
Reply-To: ed@mtxinu.com (Ed Gould)
Organization: mt Xinu, Berkeley
Lines: 45

>Even Usenix itself: not only have they voted against having events
>in Arizona, as Gene points out, but they've also voted against (or, 
>to be more correct, "punted on voting") having a South African
>university join the organization.

This is simply not true.  There was no vote against holding any
event in Arizona.  There was speculation, on the part of the
Executive Director, that getting approval of such a site from the
Board was unlikely.  Whether that speculation reflects the true
state of affairs is not at all obvious to me.

For example, I'm quite clear as to my own position on attending an
event in Arizona, given the current state of their laws, but I'm
not at all certain how I would vote with regard to scheduling such
an event.  If I became convinced that a significant fraction of
the potential attendees would not go, then that would sway my
position, since a severely underattended event can cost the
Association a lot of money.

My position regarding Louisiana is less clear, for the simple reason
that I find the actions of their legislature to be substantially
more egregious than those of the Arizona legislature.  There are
some things that I find so reprehensible that I believe that I must
do everything in my power to oppose.

I have found this discussion to be most interesting, and I take
seriously all of the opinions expressed.  Please continue.

With regard to South Africa, the Board did not "punt on voting"
about the University of Capetown.  What they did was decline to
expend further resources to investigate whether or not allowing
that institution to join would violate U.S. law.  There are laws
on the books (now, and at the time the vote was taken) restricting
commerce with South Africa.  A first-level look at those statutes
by the USENIX attorney left the Board unclear as to whether it
would be in violation if it were to accept the membership application
from the University of Capetown.  (I was in attendance at the meeting
at which that decision was taken, but I was not then a member of the
Board.)

-- 
Ed Gould			No longer formally affiliated with,
ed@mtxinu.COM			and certainly not speaking for, mt Xinu.

"I'll fight them as a woman, not a lady.  I'll fight them as an engineer."