Todd Plesco Campaign Statement

Dec 3 18:02 UTC 2004

You'd find me a very active, persistent, and experienced board member.
I am a constant participant in the conferences and in party on Grex. 
Experience tells me the board should be more active in finding ways to 
combat spam and loss of members.

I was treasurer for Arbornet. 
I would be glad to be treasurer for Grex -- wouldn't mind it a
bit. Paying bills and doing monthly balance sheets is nothing new to me.

I have been on the board of Arbornet as President and other positions.
I was responsible in the oversight and project management of moving
M-Net to colocation at WWNet, moving the Arbornet office out of the 
highpriced New Center, organizing brunch fundraisers, and doing the first 
ever snail mail fundseeking from mailing lists provided from outside 
sources. I even oversaw the rebuild/acquisition of the new M-Net 
hardware in 2000 after our system was badly damaged after a hacking 
incident. My background with hardware and software is extensive.

I've worked on Sun server hardware (I donated a Sun 3 server to Grex 
back in 1997).  I currently work around IBM and various OSes from AIX to 
Linux and FreeBSD.  Most of my software experience involves websites and 
scripting.

My experience in politics and nonprofits is very diverse.  I've 
served on the SecureWorld Expo 2004 Seattle Executive Steering Council, 
Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post boards, volunteered with
Veterans for Common Sense and Gulf War Veterans organizations, and am 
even a member of the Military Order of the Cootie (MOC) which is the 
honor degree bestowed upon the elite VFW members who have served as 
VFW leadership. 

Vote for me and I'll stick to an agenda to see the spam gets blocked, the 
new system comes up, and the membership improves.  I'll get things done.

response 2 of 38:

Dec 4 02:21 UTC 2004

Tod, how would you suggest increasing membership, apart from getting NextGrex
online and getting a spam filter going?  

response 4 of 38:

Dec 4 06:46 UTC 2004

re #2
Thank you for the great question, Sindi.  I think a person seeks membership
because they feel compelled to contribute to something they want to belong
and be a part of.  While being a public access system on the Internet may
attract those actively seeking it, I think there needs to be some proactive
canvassing.  I also think there needs to be a dialogue to retain the status
quo with existing users.

response 6 of 38:

Dec 4 21:53 UTC 2004

A quarterly newsletter in both electronic and paper format would be a good
way to show that Grex is active and to let people know what the latest
projects and initiatives are.  I also think it wouldn't hurt to get a snail
mail mailing list from a similar institution of known donors and send them
an introduction along with an invitation.  Editorials that mention Grex
wouldn't hurt...mazine, newspaper, trademag, or otherwise.

response 8 of 38:

Dec 5 18:42 UTC 2004

tod      Otis Spunkmeyer       sc        Dec  3 12:23 Seattle    866-867-5245

User     Started          Channel
tod      Dec  3 13:48:29  party (shelled to bbs)

At this time you've been monopolizing a login session for two days,
flouting Grex's policy on idle users.  Why should anyone vote for
a candidate who regards policy as something to be sneered at?

response 10 of 38:

Dec 6 06:04 UTC 2004

Not only that, but he is *actively* monitoring both party and bbs, effectively
having at-the-minute information of anything which is happening on GreX.  How
much can you say for your meager contribution, russ?

response 12 of 38:

Dec 6 12:21 UTC 2004

Re #6:  Some years back there was talk in Coop of putting out a Grex
newsletter.  It never happened.  The problem was not that people
thought it was a bad idea - it was lack of volunteers.  It's easy
to come up with ideas for nice things to do, much harder to find
people to do them.  Todd, would you be willing to set up the
newsletter and undertake the publicity efforts you describe, at
least for long enough to establish proof-of-concept?

response 14 of 38:

Dec 6 18:35 UTC 2004

Todd, you ran for and were elected to the board of directors of 
Arbornet 3 previous times, but resigned before completing each of those 
terms.  How should a voter view this record with regard to Grex?

Currently, you are serving a term on the Board of Arbornet as a remote 
director, and are listed as the vice president.  The Board of Arbornet 
has never met during your current term, and so I don't know if you are 
really the vice president any more, but in the absence of the previous 
outgoing president, it would seem to me his duties fell to you.  Why 
didn't you perform, or at least attempt to perform, those duties?  Or 
if you did, what did you do and why didn't you succeed?  How can you be 
expected to serve on the Grex board better than you have for Arbornet 
(the parent organization of M-Net)?

How will you allocate your efforts when there is a conflict between 
what is required for Arbornet and Grex?  For example, if there are 
Board meetings for both on the same day, which will you prioritize 
first?

You have talked about initiatives for Arbornet, in election items, that 
you say you will do for Grex, but I haven't noticed that anything has 
happened.  (See www.arbornet.org, conf:elect03, item:4 for an 
example).  Why not?  Why should Grex voters have more confidence in you 
than you have shown you can handle for Arbornet?

response 16 of 38:

Dec 6 19:24 UTC 2004

I also have a question regarding your practice of coming through
at intervals, and erasing all of your (many, many) previous posts.
This is a great inconvenience to users who don't know how to simply
"fix" their participation lists.  Is this something you'll continue
to do if elected to the board?

response 18 of 38:

Dec 6 20:47 UTC 2004

Todd, I have always felt that Arbornet needed you at the time you 
referred to (actually I think it was 1993).  And it needed polygon as 
well.  Linda Clippert and I hung in there but you didn't.  It was a 
long time ago, it was unquestionably a tough time, and you certainly 
weren't the only one who ran out of the burning building.  I don't 
think that should be a big issue now, over 10 years later.

However, *three* resignations needs some explanation.

So does your most recent term with no significant activity from you 
while serving on the Arbornet Board, in my opinion.  You have a 
prominent position and share a large amount of responsibility for what 
has happened during that term, wouldn't you say?

I think your record over time is pretty awful, though I agree there are 
some positive things you have done.  I would prefer to see some 
positive leadership from you as a Grex user, before deciding to ignore 
your past and present with Arbornet and giving you my vote for shot #5 
as an elected Board member.

response 20 of 38:

Dec 6 21:38 UTC 2004

re #18
My experience in nonprofits is not limited to Arbornet.  Arbornet stinks.  I
would not recommend my worst enemy to waste their time there.
If you go back and re-read #0, then you'll see Arbornet is not the only
place I've been volunteering time to nonprofits.

My "record over time" with Arbornet spans 10 years.  Your biggest complaint
is that I bailed on a rigged election after a long dialogue with keats and 
polygon about making such a decision.  I think I did what any sane person
would have done.  If you're out to toot your own horn for jumping onto
an election for a completely empty board because Linda wouldn't resign
then knock yourself out.  I wasn't interested in joining in on collusion. 

Now, you would like to portray an accusation that I've been 
inactive in my recent term is also unfounded.  I was the first to talk to
Rex about moving the system to a2hosting.com on a rack server and we're
well on our way to doing that with ZERO operating expenses henceforth. 
Arbornet remains a 501(c)3 after narrowly escaping a dissolution which I
was able to get the State of Michigan to back Arbornet out of.  If
that is inactivity then I guess I can't do any better.  In regard to the
userbase and culture of Arbornet, I'm done. Finished. Finito. Ispravit.
I believe a board member has fiduciary responsibility to the membership of
whatever organization they are entrusted but once the public confidence
in said value is null and void then its academic wheel spinning.  I've
done what I can for Arbornet and it will be there for years to come but
I can't change the tide in the ascerbic atmosphere it encourages at this
point.  That will take a camp counselor, drill instructor, and hit squad
to make those problems go away any time soon.

John, feel free to talk about "ignore past & present" in regards to Arbornet
but I really fail to see where I've done so bad in light of what system
and culture we're talking about.

response 22 of 38:

Dec 6 21:45 UTC 2004

19:  I think that if something like that was done, and done in a
respectful way (assuming nonresponses ARE responses and actively
avoiding multiple mailings to the same recipients), that it would not be
a problem, and might be useful.  I would not jump to implement
suggestions made as a result of that process, but I would certainly make
them fodder for discussion with the aim of making the system more
responsive to the needs of its users and supporters.  You have to keep
in mind that management by majority rule is not a terribly efficient
system, but it is not immune to improvement either.

response 24 of 38:

Dec 7 04:24 UTC 2004

Stop being slutty, Russ.