[UK-TUG] Chair's statement 2

[Jay Hammond]

Dear Members,

I am pleased and relieved that UKTUG is being dissolved. Thank you again 
for having done the right thing. I am also grateful that so many of you 
chose to participate and vote at the SGM. Dissolution is now 
uncontroversial. It’s an emotional pull for me, and it may be for many 
of you. But the right thing to do.

There is a lot of detail to cover in dissolution. I hope that members 
will help the committee manage the transition by restraining their use 
of UKTUG, and by arranging to use the alternative facilities committee 
has already put in place.

The committee will be working on dissolution. The constitution does not 
enable you to steer that process. You have already directed that funds 
should go to TUG and DANTE equally. That is the extent of your formal 
input into the process. Thank you for doing that. It is a significant help.

Since UKTUG is in dissolution, there will be no further meetings. 
Specifically there willnot be an AGM. You have already had reportsfrom 
officers. I’ll take this opportunity to thank the others on the 
committee for their dedication and work on behalf of UKTUG. The other 
business of an AGM would have been forward looking.

Topics:

Communications

TeX-live DVD’s

UKTUG-announce

-------

Communications:

These are not fully worked out. During dissolution, the address

UKTUG-Committee <uktug-committee at tug.org>

will continue for a while. The date of its closure isn’t known yet. My 
alternative email address of olivia at jjnr.uk can be used in dire 
circumstances. I cannot and do not want to deal with a high volume of 
mail. I don’t promise to respond at all. I’ll be the judge of what I 
deal with. This sounds harsh, but it’s my email address, and I have had 
a bruising experience chairing the SGM. I’m sure most of you are 
sensible and friendly. My friends in UKTUG can, of course, contact me as 
usual.

I propose for now that uktug-announce continue as it was before the SGM 
with some changes. The changes are below under “UKTUG-Announce”

UKTUG announce will be used for service messages: which was its original 
purpose.  I’d like members to know of the major milestones in 
dissolution. The end of dissolution and notice of the stopping of 
UKTUG-announce are two messages that I expect members to read with interest.

Contacting members, organising meetings

The membership list will have to be deleted as part of dissolution.

If on this list, you can agree where to congregate in future, that looks 
like the best option. Some members won’t even post here. So they will 
need persuading to use another forum. If you can’t quickly agree where 
to go, I urge you to agree where the lengthier discussions should take 
place as a priority. For instance there is:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/665112611139250 UK TeX Users Forum 
abbvr. UKTUF

I know numbers of you don’t like Facebook. But there, some of you could 
discuss a more suitable forum.

I expect Jonathan Fine will offer several of his fora to consider. You 
will have to judge the options.





Getting DVD’s of TeXLive in future.

There are about 30 members who had TeXLive on DVD this year. If you want 
this low cost but nevertheless pay-for service, please contact Keiran 
Harcombe <kjharcombe at hey.com> As far as I know it is not-for-profit. 
Just a kindness asking you to cover costs. Kieran will explain I’m sure.





UKTUG-announce

It’s hoped to put out a service message giving the date of closure of 
UKTUG announce. It will be switched off after the last service message 
has gone out, announcing the imminent completion of dissolution. For 
clarity, UKTUG-announce will be providing announcements until 
dissolution is nearly finished. Do not expect many service messages. 
It’s not going to be a blog.

 From Saturday uktug-announce will revert to the laxer rules it has 
recently had outside of its use for meetings.

The secretary and I hope that it will not be abused or dominated or 
monopolised, but used cooperatively and fairly. Our hopes were dashed at 
the SGM. The committee will not spend time moderating UKTUG announce in 
detail.

Each individual member will have to self-censor, and judge the “feeling 
of the meeting” for themselves.





If members as a whole, or at least those using UKTUG announce can 
restrain the rare members who do not behave properly, then no action 
need be taken by the committee. If not, all will suffer when technical 
measures are taken to prevent abuse. The measures will be simple, quick 
to implement and will necessarily be broad brush. There is no attempt to 
offer any service. Or to be fair. Rather UKTUG announce will be left 
switched on and available for members to post only if no problems arise. 
Should they arise, it could be that all ordinary members will be blocked 
from posting. UKTUG announce would then revert to providing service 
messages only.

There is a lot of detail to cover in dissolution. I hope that members 
will help the committee manage the transition by restraining their use 
of UKTUG, and by arranging to use the alternative facilities committee 
has put in place.

Jay Hammond







-- Email use olivia at jjnr.uk
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://tug.org/pipermail/uktug-announce/attachments/20211105/8c5d1998/attachment.html>