[UK-TUG] Successor organisations for the UK TeX Users Group

[Jay Hammond]

Dear members,

now the SGM is over, I'm allowed a personal opinion.

Jonathan Fine  offers a successor organisation to UKTUG. He does not now 
seem to need the discussions on  successors to UKTUG  with you that he 
was so keen to have  during the SGM.

I believe that you (members ) DO need discussions.  1) where to have 
discussions and 2) discussions about what the replacement organisation 
is to be (should you want one)  Consider  Leadership. Structure.

Choose your leaders wisely.

I have a very personal opinion. My experience of JF as a chair is that 
he manages the role pretty well  at a technical level. (better than me.) 
I don't rate his political skills, or consensus building. That does not 
matter too much if you want to do things his way.  His way? My opinion 
is that Jonathan Fine has a limited view of TeX.  TeX not related to 
mathematics is not a priority for him. Mathematics that uses TeX is. 
There are literary scholars, political analysts,  historians, chemists, 
biologists, and many more subject specialists using TeX with little or 
no maths, but complex requirements unmet (or not met as well)  by other 
software. My background is in linguistics.

I think that Jonathan Fine would agree with me that when he is on the 
committee, but not the chair (leader...) of the organisation, the whole 
committee, himself included,  becomes uncomfortable*. It was my 
experience (twice, in different decades). Other past committee members 
(from different decades to me) also reported similar discomfort* to me. 
As I said, that's not a problem if Jonathan Fine is the Chair, and is 
given his head.

What is your specialist interest in TeX?

I hope you have fruitful discussions.

Jay Hammond

* this may be an understatement. I don't want to clarify.


On 06/11/2021 14:12, Jonathan Fine wrote:
> [...] new possibilities.[...]
>
> I'm working with others to use Microsoft Github and Google Groups as a 
> platform for our  [sic]  continuation and revival. You'll find us at 
> https://uk-tex-users.github.io/. We have a special interest in 
> accessibility.
>
> Wishing you Happy TeXing
>
> Jonathan Fine
> [...]

-- 
Email use jay at jjnr.uk