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1996 Board Candidate Survey
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Dec 3 09:18 UTC 1996 |
Following is a 15-question survey I sent out to Grex's board
candidates a little over a week ago. I hope it will help voters
make more informed choices. Answers were limited to 5 lines by
80 characters. I reformatted the answers and grouped the
candidates answers by question, in alphabetical order by login
id. This year's candidates are:
chelsea (Mary Remmers)
dang (Daniel Gryniewicz)
janc (Jan Wolter)
nsiddall (Nat Siddall)
popcorn (Valerie Mates)
scg (Steve Gibbard)
tsty (TS Taylor)
Personal Stuff
--------------
1. Please say a bit about yourself (some ideas: interests, career,
education, age, family, politics, religion, or whatever).
chelsea: I'm a woman, wife, mother, daughter, sister, nurse, co-homemaker,
cellist, gardener, reader, cook, voter, atheist, avid moviegoer,
and classical music lover. I'm a staunch advocate for Free Speech
and practiced tolerance. I have a somewhat sarcastic sense of
humor, but hey, not everyone can be sweet and lovable. ;-)
dang: I'm 19 years old, I'm a student at the university of Michigan. I'm
studying Physics and Computer Science. My time these days is spent
in doing school work, working at T and B Computing, reading,
Grexing, spending time with my Girlfriend Janette (nette), and
playing with my and other peoples computers, not necessarily in
that order.
janc: I'm a thirty-seven year old unmarried man, formerly a professor of
computer science, now a professional volunteer. My single biggest
interest is in virtual communities. I have participated in M-Net,
Grex, HVCN, TCFN, The River, The Spring, Utne Cafe and Electronic
Minds. I'm also interested in ecology. Find out more about me at
http://www.izzy.net/~janc.
nsiddall: Single white male, love walks on the beach...oh, wait, where am I?
Uh, grad student in business, very worldly, interested in
everything but computers.
popcorn: Things that describe me: a free-lance computer programmer and web
page designer; one of the 12 original Grex founders; a member of
the Grex staff; one of the people on Grex who answers lots of
"write help" requests; an ardent feminist; a enthusiastic reader of
SF; a frequent Saturday Morning Grex walker; a very liberal
Democrat.
scg: When I started Grexing four years ago, I was a high school student
who liked computers, but didn't know much about them. Now, largely
thanks to Grex, I've learned enough to become a professional
network administrator, as well as a Grex staffer. When I get away
from computers, I'm also interested in bikes, politics, history,
and various other things.
tsty: born and raised in southwest missouri - the "show me" state - and
maintain a lot of that attitude to this day. worked since i
received a bicycle for Christmas at 7 ("now you can deliver
newspapers and earn your way in the world.") mostly self-employed
since then with adventurous excursions through general motors
(cadillac), u.s.army (hawk missle/radar), tv, radio & newspapers.
2. What Grex activities do you enjoy the most (e.g. specific conferences,
party, write sessions, e-mail, walks, get-togethers, etc.)?
chelsea: I've been involved with conferencing since 1986, first on M-Net and
then on Grex. I've met an incredible number of fascinating people
through these systems. I've learned a lot. I think I've shared
some. I don't tend to do Party because that requires a level of
spontaneity I simply don't possess and is hard to fake.
dang: What I mostly do on Grex is conference. I follow Co-op, of which
I'm a co-fw, and Agora, and Garage, and Tutoring, and Storage, of
which I'm a co-fw, and Synthesis. As time allows, I also read
Jellyware, and a few others, depending on my iznterests at the
moment. I also do mail. I generally don't Party, and
write/talk/chat only when I'm on the receiving end, usually.
janc: Lately what has been absorbing most of my attention has been more
running Grex than using it. Developing new software, discussion
new directions. I enjoy the agora, coop, sf, and enigma
conferences, but I'm not often in party anymore and my write
sessions are mostly with help-seekers. I join most walks and staff
and board meetings.
nsiddall: Conferencing is by far the most interesting, rewarding, useful
thing about Grex. It is also my main email access at the moment,
and doing very well at that.
popcorn: Grex has lots of great conferences. Some favorites are Agora,
Kitchen, and Femme. Pot luck dinners and Saturday Morning Walks
are very high on my list too.
scg: I enjoy Grex largely because of the variety of different things I
can do here. The conferences, party, and the occasional write
session are most of my use when not doing staff stuff. The walks
and get togethers, not just here in Ann Arbor, but all over the
country, are wonderful too.
tsty: grex-walks, gno, coop.cf, agora.cf, on-line helper, discussing
systems of all sorts for balanced outcomes.
Board Stuff
-----------
3. What experience, talents, skills, and interests would you bring to the
board? (Business, technology, people, publishing, fund raising, etc.)
chelsea: I don't think I'd bring any special talents to the Board - the
Board is already loaded with talented folks. But I do think I'm
able to evaluate an issue, do a decent job of problem solving, and
can clearly communicate my opinions. I'm not very good at
consensus building through compromise. I tend to want the very
best solution not a hybrid solution that's "good enough".
dang: My skills are mostly in the technical arena, but I do have some
leadership and organizational skills gleaned from my many years as
a Boy Scout. I'm very much interested in Grex and how it's run,
and I enjoy, so far, all things Grexian. My people skills lean
towards mediation.
janc: I'm good at developing plans for creative ways to solve problems,
though not always great at carrying them out. I'm a very good
communicator. Not only do I write and speak well, I listen well.
I'm not a born salesman, but I can sell things I believe in, like
Grex. I have a fair amount of experience writing proposals, though
of a different sort.
nsiddall: No talents or skills, other than speaking in economics jargon.
popcorn: I interact okay with people. I have a good technical knowledge of
Grex. For better or for worse, I've got a strong sense of the
history of Grex. I believe I am good at listening to how Grex
users feel about the current issues and making board decisions that
reflect the will of the users. I'm always interested in getting
more people more involved in running Grex.
scg: Mostly, I bring the experience of having used Grex for several
years, and hopefully understanding what it is that we're trying to
do here. I also have a pretty good understanding of the technical
issues behind what we're doing, but that's more a staff thing than
a board thing.
tsty: military instructor, detroit pub sch teacher, adult ed, college
instructor (washtenaw cc), certified labor arbitration advocate,
boards for southeast michigan jazz association (initiator and
editor of 'semja update'), elected board member ann arbor computer
society 3 yrs, board member arbornet, creator of magazine for
american lung association, aact, performance network.
4. Would you accept a nomination to serve as Secretary, Treasurer,
and/or President? (Srw, aruba, or scott can give info on workload).
chelsea: I'd really rather not be a Board officer but I'd stop short of
refusing to do so.
dang: Possibly President. I wouldn't make a good Secretary, as my
handwriting is abysmal. I don't want to be Treasurer.
janc: I don't think I'd make a good secretary. I'd consider either of
the other offices, but I think the incumbants are fine.
nsiddall: Yes, but I might be more useful doing something else. Not quite
sure what my niche is.
popcorn: Yes.
scg: I don't think so. I'm busy with lots of other things, and would
much rather leave those jobs to people who will actually get things
done.
tsty: never treasurer, perhaps other positions.
General Stuff
-------------
5. What do you see as some of Grex's best attributes and major strengths?
chelsea: The best thing Grex has going for it are the folks who make up this
community. We share a single common interest yet we are quite
diverse. We are opinionated and talkative and at the same time
friendly listeners. (For the most part. ;-) ) Our generous staff
should get special mention as they keep the lights on and the door
open.
dang: Grexes best attribute and greatest strength is the wonderful people
who use the system. People who care about Grex and each other.
People who are willing to donate time, effort, and money towards
builing such an esoteric thing as an on-line community. People who
can, collectively, answer any question I've tried to put to them.
People I wouldn't have met otherwise.
janc: Strengths: A philosophy based on giving away services and trusting
users, not collecting money and making rules. Consensual,
cooperative decision making. Grass roots funding. A commitment to
being good, honest, lawful citizens of the internet and the planet.
nsiddall: The people it has managed to attract to participate in
conferencing. The staff who make it work.
popcorn: It's a good place to find a good conversation. Grex provides lots
of great services to the public, for free. Grex is a good place to
learn about Unix, if you're interested in that, or, if you're not
technically inclined, to just hang out and chat. It's a good place
to be viewed by your ideas rather than by what you look like.
scg: Grex's major strength is the community, the people it brings
together. I realize now, four years after finding this place, that
I wouldn't know most of my closest friends if it weren't for Grex.
I continue to find it amazing how people from all over the world
congregate on this one little computer in Ann Arbor.
tsty: attitude of sharing the bandwidth is not only the best attribute
but also the most risky extention of too little to too many.
6. What do you see as some of Grex's weaknesses?
chelsea: It is a weakness that Grex can't seem to come together over our
mission priorities. Do we want to be a community service above all
else? Do we want to grow and reach more folks even if that means
raising funds through membership perks? Over and over again we'll
have difficulty with change and setting goals unless we can come to
terms with our priorities.
dang: I can't thnk of any offhand.
janc: Weaknesses: Too many of our resources are being consumed in ways
that that don't quite serve our priorities. We get too little
recognition for what we do. We get a bit too little financial
support.
nsiddall: It appears to be too much work to keep it running.
popcorn: We seem to be turning into an e-mail server to the world. There's
an infinite amount of demand for Grex's resources and a finite
amount of money to supply those resources. In the coming year, I
expect to see a lot of discussion of how to make tradeoffs to get
Grex to run at a reasonable speed and at the same time serve
everybody who wants to use it.
scg: Speed, both in terms of the computer itself, and its connection to
the outside world. A related point is that we haven't been very
good about getting the word out to our users about how we are
funded. We need to work both on speeding the system up and letting
our users find out that we need financial support to be able to do
that.
tsty: see #5.
7. What Grex policies or priorities would you like to see changed?
(Access or voting policies, spending priorities, etc.)
chelsea: I would like to see us avoid any policy which would result in
members have better service or tiered access. I'd rather we
thought about tight resources as a Grex community-wide problem and
not shift service toward those who pay. It would be a real shame
to turn Grex into a budget ISP.
dang: Possibly the outgoing internet policy, if a good way can be
developed to limit traffic over the link, or if the conjested link
is no longer an issue.
janc: I'd like to see some version of the partitioning scheme
implemented, so that we continue to give free mail access, but
don't bury our conferencing system under it. I'd like to see
mutually advantageous deals made with local ISPs to give perks to
Grex members. I'd like to see a "Grex Store" that sells cool
stuff.
nsiddall: Priority: Conferencing. Web access to conferences. Restricted
access to other services.
popcorn: I think most policies are okay the way they are.
scg: I guess I'm reasonably happy with the way things are. We're still
committed to open access and to letting the members vote on things,
which is good. I would like to see us be a bit more efficient at
getting things done, but I'll admit to not having any big ideas
about how to do that.
tsty: pay a little more attention to the supporters of grex. they permit
the altruism and must not be taken for granted.
8. What is Grex's purpose/mission? (Or what should it be).
chelsea: Grex is incredibly special. It's run by its users, available to
all regardless of ability to pay, and it offers a rich environment
for folks to share something of themselves and practice tolerance
of others. Grex has managed to grow and change a lot without
significantly straying from this concept. It's not been easy but
we've shown it's possible.
dang: The Primary mission of Grex is to be a community. That is, to
provide a free access place where people can communicate, talk,
play, exchange ideas, make friends and enemies, and learn, among
other things. A secondary purpose of Grex is to provide free/cheep
access to the internet, especially for those who can't otherwise
get/afford it.
janc: Grex should be an extremely open virtual community, funded and
controlled to the greatest extent possible from its own grass
roots. It should seek productive, mutually-advantageous alliances
with other organizations, but be sceptical about big handouts. It
should be a visible demonstration that trust, openness and
self-reliance are a sound basis for community.
nsiddall: Conferencing
popcorn: Grex has at least as many purposes as users. :) I'd say our
mission is to provide the computing resources for each person to do
the variety of things *they* want to do on Grex. It's not the
board's job to dictate what people do on Grex; we are here to
facilitate lots of different purposes. At the same time
conferencing is an important purpose; it is a unique strength of
Grex's.
scg: The general perception seems to be that we're here to be a
conferencing system, and that is certainly a big part of what I
think is important. I also really like that we provide various Net
resources, making them available to people who can't afford a
commercial system. Conferencing, which I believe includes party,
should be our top priority.
tsty: keep an opening in the internet for the non-compromised.
9. Where would you like to see Grex in a year? In three years?
chelsea: Growing to meet the demands of a larger community of users but
holding to the priorities of an open system, without levels of
service based on ability to pay, emphasizing tolerance of our
differences, avoiding censorship, and allowing the users and
members as much involvement in directing policy as they can
stomach. ;-) Hey, I didn't say it would be easy.
dang: Just about where it is. Bigger, of course, and on faster hardware,
of course, but nothing else. I think Grex is what it is supposed
to be. Granted, change is inevitable, but I don't think major
changes are necessary.
janc: I like to see us avoid as much as possible reductions and
restrictions to the services we offer. I'd like to see us continue
to draw our key support from the people we serve, but use
imaginative alliances with other groups to multiply the impact.
I'd like us to be globally visible and recognized as a model others
would like to imitate.
nsiddall: I hope Grex will be providing simple, stable email and internet
service for members, and a vast array of cool conferencing and cool
interfaces for the whole world.
popcorn: I'm pretty happy with Grex now, so I'd like to see Grex
substantially similar to the way it is today, although with a
faster computer and a *much* faster Internet connection.
scg: I'd like to see us continue to have a community full of interesting
people. I'm hoping that we'll continue to see people from all over
the world, and I'm hoping that some of the cultural barriers we're
seeing right now will break down to a level where we can actually
learn a lot from eachother. Technically, we'll probably be at
least somewhat bigger, and hopefully faster.
tsty: more stable and more able. stable first.
Specific Issues
---------------
10. What do you think of members-only benefits like outbound telnet?
chelsea: I think if any service is such a resource hog that only a few can
have access then the service shouldn't be offered at all. One of
my biggest concerns about "membership perk creep" is that after a
while we will have effectively selected for members who are not
into donating for the good of the community but rather for their
own personal level of service. Yucko.
dang: I think access should be the same for everyone, unless it needs to
be regulated for some reason. Outbound telnet is regulated for two
reasons: to limit the traffic somewhat, and so that we know who is
telnetting out, so we can be a good net citizen. When/if the
bandwidth limitation is no longer an issue, I feel it should be
opened up to all verified users.
janc: I do not think more of our core services should be restricted.
Benefits to members should be things like discounts in the Grex
store or discount coupons offered by ISPs. I think allowing telnet
to validated nonmembers is an option we should very seriously
consider. Generally, we should think in terms of expanding
services, not restricting them.
nsiddall: In favor
popcorn: I think the ones we have are okay but I don't want to see lots of
new members-only benefits.
scg: I'm rather uncomfortable with them, but haven't had much luck
coming up with an alternative I like better. We clearly can't
afford to offer outbound telnet to everybody, and there are people
who get a lot out of our slow service for $6 per month, who can't
afford a "real" ISP. Still, I don't like the idea of Grex doing
fee-for-service stuff.
tsty: members-only benefits are a 'thank you for your support' bow to
supporters. there need to be some, although where the separation
is changes with the capabilites of the system and its stabililty.
11. Should public posting of indecent or obscene material be allowed on Grex?
chelsea: What is meant by indecent and obscene? What I would consider
obscene? What any random user might consider obscene? Like in
real life Grex will need to set community standards for what will
be tolerated here. I'd vote to only censor when material is
illegal. If I'm uncomfortable with an item I'll use the "forget"
command. If a file causes a resource problem deal with it on that
level - not based on content.
dang: No. Private use is fine, subject to bandwidth/disk/system issues,
but public posting, such as in a conference or on a webpage, should
not be allowed.
janc: We should comply with a defensible interpretation of the law, and
should encourage our users to support liberal laws on the subject.
We should continue to try to set a tone and atmosphere that doesn't
encourage too much of that material. This is a hard problem for
the whole world to solve, not just Grex. We should be part of the
solution, not rebels.
nsiddall: Yes.
popcorn: I have very mixed feelings about this. I believe fervently in
freedom of speech. At the same time, indecent materials make me
personally very uncomfortable. Also, I worry about the legal
ramifications if a child found something obscene on Grex. So I
lean toward having some restrictions, even though I'm not
comfortable with having them.
scg: I support free speech. Obscense stuff, by definition, isn't legal
for us to have here, so we can't have it. "indecent" doesn't
really have a workable definition. I'm uncomfortable with having
stuff that's "indecent" by some definitions around, but more
uncomfortable with having to define indecent, and having to censor
other people.
tsty: strongly discouraged in the 'public' reference - up to the fw of
the various conferences for the most part. not particularily
welcome though. no graphics however.
12. How do you feel about the substantial number of Grex users from India?
chelsea: Welcome to Grex. We invite you to look around, get to know us
some, and maybe share something of yourself. Eventually, if you
like what you find, please consider becoming a donor as that allows
others to be part of our world-wide community too.
dang: I have no problem with them. They are people like everyone else,
and should have equal access to Grex. Behavior is a person by
person issue, and should be delt with as such. As far as I'm
concerned, people from any country or locality are welcome on Grex.
janc: Having lots users from India and all over the world is cool. What
we have to do is talk about classes of usage, not classes of users.
Right now our mail usage is so high it is flooding out other kinds
of usage. This is a problem that can be solved by redesigning the
system so that different kinds of usage draw on different pools of
resources.
nsiddall: In favor.
popcorn: Cool beans! Welcome to Grex!
scg: One of the wonderful things about Grex is that there are people
from all over the world here. I've had lots of wonderful
conversations with Indian users, as well as users from other
countries, and learned quite a bit from them. There are obviously
some cultural differences between many Americans and Indians, but
that's one more thing to learn to deal with.
tsty: we need to find a way to get them to support *their* habits, a free
ride only goes so far. mostly welcome as with any sudden influx
whether from mc kendrie or the sub-continent.
13. Do you favor a bylaw modification clarifying whether non-members may
nominate, be nominated, or run for Grex board positions?
chelsea: Gee, it's crystal clear to me that in order to be a candidate in a
Board election you need to first be a member. But maybe I have
special insight because I'm a co-author of the Bylaws. ;-) If
there is confusion a vote to clarify the wording would be
appropriate. Actually, I'm surprised this document has worked as
well as it has for the past 6 1/2 years.
dang: No. I feel that only members should be allowed to be nominated or
run, but that a bylaw modification is unnecessary unless it becomes
a problem.
janc: I think it's a minor point. I'm not generally in favor of fiddling
endlessly with the rules. But the board has no power to change the
bylaws. If the members want to vote on the issue, it's their
Grex-given right, and more power to them. I won't care an awful
lot how that particular vote comes out though.
nsiddall: No. (Moot point, not worth wasting time on.)
popcorn: Yes. In fact, in January, whether or not I am re-elected, I plan
to start a member vote to modify the bylaws to clarify this
question. The co-op conference has seen lots of debate about this.
If the bylaws spelled out this rule more clearly, people could move
on to more productive questions than this one.
scg: I don't really like the idea of non-members running for the board.
I will probably end up supporting a bylaw ammendment, but I haven't
really decided yet. Fortunately, that's something for the members,
not the board, to decide.
tsty: unnecessary for the most part. only members should be able to
nominate though. anyone may be nominated for any position. members
only vote, in secret btw (and this should be a programming change
rsn). taking office must meet the established standards.
Wrap-up
-------
14. Can you offer any suggestions for improving future surveys?
chelsea: More text allowed. Also, an open response where a candidate could
have maybe twice the normal allowed space to make a statement on
any issue. Something like a closing statement. Overall these were
good questions that should prove helpful to the voters. Thanks for
moderating.
dang: Nope. :)
janc: Makes no difference what you ask. Like any good politician, I can
wedge my message into answers to any questions imaginable.
nsiddall: Future surveys should have more questions about how to improve
future surveys.
popcorn: Looks good to me! Thanks for taking the time to do these surveys.
Rob Argy is the Grex equivalent to the League Of Women Voters. :)
scg: I think all my concerns from two years ago have been addressed in
this version. Thanks, Rob! It was an excellent survey. I suppose
I'd like still more space to write in, but that would make for a
very long survey for people to read.
tsty: ask: "what can/will you do for grex?" and part of the answer is,
as soon as elected and i have become a member (again) grex *will*
take mastercard & visa donations.
15. Which do you prefer: boxers or briefs? (Worn by you or by others.)
chelsea: Abstain. ;-)
dang: Briefs. Brief ones. :)
janc: Boxers or briefs. Either one is fine so long as they are adorned
by a "Genuine Grex" logo and were purchased from the new Grex Store
I have been proposing. Grex should offer a free range of
undergarmets in all styles, sizes and colors and trust the users to
purchase the ones that best fit their needs. (See, I told you your
questions don't matter.)
nsiddall: Yes. No. Maybe.
popcorn: Yes. ;)
scg: Heh.
tsty: me, boxers; others, whatever they should choose - it's america
d00dz.
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