Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!uwvax!umn-d-ub!umn-cs!davidli
From: davidli@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu (Dave Meile)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: DECUS asked us to put this here...
Message-ID: <4897@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu>
Date: 18 Apr 88 14:04:08 GMT
References: <95rrk@byuvax.bitnet>
Reply-To: davidli@umn-cs.UUCP (Dave Meile)
Organization: Flying Taoist Graphics
Lines: 39

In article <95rrk@byuvax.bitnet> rrk@byuvax.bitnet writes:
>Sorry to disillusion you...
>
>DECUS is NOT a non-profit organization.  It is heavily subsidized by DEC
>for the sole purpose of advancing DEC. 

My understanding is that DECUS is funded by revenues generated from such
things as Seminars and Symposiums and Library sales.  It is true that DEC
provides demonstration equipment and people as resources for these things,
but declaring it as "DEC's advance men" does a disservice to those who
volunteer their time and efforts to DECUS.

>                                                       DECUS chapters are
>very restricted by DEC as to what they can and can not allow to be presented
>in LUG meetings, and since LUGS aren't even allowed DEC funds to pay for
>mailings, they get nothing for their existence as official LUGS except lots
>of restrictions and an occasional tape distribution, which they could get
>for free anyway by contacting the right people. 

As former Chair and Principal Instigator of our own Local User Group (MNvax),
I must disagree.  DEC has no say in what we can and cannot present at LUG
meetings.  Certain bylaws of DECUS prevent things such as sales pitches at
meetings -- including sales pitches by DEC.  LUG meetings revolve around the
needs of the members who attend them, not the needs of DEC (or of DECUS,
for that matter).  Those few restrictions placed upon us by the national
DECUS are not impossible to live with.  There *is* a mechanism within the
LUG Organization as a whole to obtain funds for mailings (NOT from DEC --but 
then DEC is NOT DECUS...get that through your head).

>                                       the unofficial LUG can have other
>sales people visit (besides DEC's) to better serve the needs of the members.

Perhaps this is your view of what a user group should be, but I would find
listening to a sales pitch "en masse" pretty boring.  Most of our general
meetings at MNvax do not revolve around a particular product in the first
place.  For example, our last meeting was a discussion of Project Management,
and the meeting coming up will cover networking on a wide scale.

-- Dave Meile