Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bbn!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!ucbvax!ICDC.LLNL.GOV!OBERMAN
From: OBERMAN@ICDC.LLNL.GOV ("Kevin Oberman, LLNL, 422-6955, L-156", 415)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: DECUS asked us to put this here...
Message-ID: <8805152233.AA04346@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 20 Apr 88 17:08:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 57

>DECUS is NOT a non-profit organization.  It is heavily subsidized by DEC
>for the sole purpose of advancing DEC.  DECUS contributions are NOT a tax
>writeoff for DEC, and that is why membership is free.  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.  The hassle of the LUG
>librarian to send his own tape to get a copy of the latest stuff is often
>as great as it would be if he were not the librarian of an official LUG.
>
>So why be an official LUG?  In my opinion (I'd enjoy hearing others) it
>is a lot better to not be official.  Individual members can still be national
>DECUS members (and still for free) and the unofficial LUG can have other
>sales people visit (besides DEC's) to better serve the needs of the members.
>Does anyone still seriously contend that DEC has ALL the answers, or has
>them NOW?

As a former LUG chairman (LLNLLUG), I was very suprised by some of the
statements made in this posting.

1. DECUS is subsidized by DEC. It's non-profit status is rather fuzzy. In
some respects it is treated as non-profit. On others it is not. Call your
local CPA for further obfuscation.

2. It is not what I call heavily subsidized. The vast portion of the DECUS
annual budget is generated by DECUS activities, mostly the US symposia.

3. There are some official limits on what ANYONE can present in a DECUS
LUG meeting. LUGs are not intended to be sales forums for DEC or anyone
else. That does not mean we can't (and don't) have sales representatives
from various vendors attending LUG meetings and making presentations. We
do prohibit the presentation of price and delivery information at the meetings,
but have no problem with queries about those items after we adjourn. And
we apply this rule to DEC as well. One of the stongest points made by the
National LUG Organization when we formed our LUG was that we should not
allow DEC to turn us into an arm of their sales organization.

4. DECUS provides funds for the printing and distribution of a LUG newsletter.
With a membership of about 200 and a typical newsletter of about 40 pages,
this is not insignificant.

5. People can find an official LUG. I have received many calls from interested
parties who get my name from the DECUS office. If you are not an official
LUG, how are those who buy DEC equipment ever supposed to find you?

Clearly, my vote is for an official LUG.

					R. Kevin Oberman
					Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
					Internet: oberman@icdc.llnl.gov
   					(415) 422-6955

Disclaimer: Don't take this too seriously. I just like to improve my typing
and probably don't really know anything useful about anything. And I may
be biased, too.
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