response 175 of 196:

Jul 23 19:54 UTC 1996

Rane is right that most of the people now running Grex have very litle
ambition to do anything more than run the system. There really is no high and
mighty ideals, aside from those implicit in the idea of a mostly open, mostly
free system.  I personally am content with that.

(Of course, many of the staff also pursue other forms of community service
in the context of other organizations).

But we will never solve th hardware and software problems.

I think we'll run up on the question of "mission" more when more of us start
wondering if we want Grex to continue to grow.

response 177 of 196:

Jul 23 21:09 UTC 1996

Hmmmm.... if these statistics mean that davel and popcorn have too much time
on their hands, I wonder what it says about kerouac?

It's still pretty interesting.  As usual, I'm suprised to be as high on the
list as I am.

response 179 of 196:

Jul 24 02:34 UTC 1996

I'msorrytohearthatArnold.
(one possible translation of my above sentence: I'm sorry to he art hat,
Arnold.  I'm sure most of you can come up with a better translation than that,
though. ;)  )


The purpose of Cyberspace Communications, Inc., as I see it at this point,
is to keep teh system running technically, and let the content take care of
itself.  That seems to be working pretty well, so far.

response 181 of 196:

Jul 24 12:47 UTC 1996

Rane, I don't think we're ignoring Grex's AOI as much as fulfilling them. 
Providing Grex as a free open forum *is* our mission.  And as long as we
continue to foster discussion on a wide range of topics we're doing a good
job. 


The Articles of Incorporation can be found at :
/usr/local/grexdoc/archives/AOI

Article 2, the purpose, goes like this:

         The Corporation is organized for such charitable and
 educational purposes as may qualify it for exemption from the
 federal income tax under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal
 Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (or the corresponding
 provisions of any future United States internal revenue law.)
 More specifically, such purposes include, but are not limited
 to, the advancement of public education and scientific
 endeavor through interaction with computers, and humans via
 computers, using computer conferencing. Further purposes
 include the exchange of scientific and technical information
 about the various aspects of computer science, such as
 operating systems, computer networks, and computer
 programming.

response 183 of 196:

Jul 25 01:29 UTC 1996

We may be qualified or we may not.  But either way I don't
think having that status would be good for Grex.

response 185 of 196:

Jul 25 19:32 UTC 1996

The mission statement in the AOI is not intended to describe all of the
things grex must or must not do, but was instead intended to describe a
superset of the activities we hoped Grex would in the future be able to
do.  Which subset we actually fulfill was by design left up to the
membership.  It should not come as much of a surprise that staff spends
most of its time worrying about how to fulfill the subset, and not much
time worrying about which subset it should be fulfilling.  Most of the
staff are also long-time members, and are hard at work making the
subsets they care about into reality.  Worrying about changing that
subset is properly speaking, the whole function of this conference.

response 187 of 196:

Jul 26 03:22 UTC 1996

I agree with Mary about all of that except that I think that the
501(C)(3) status would be good for Grex.

response 189 of 196:

Jul 26 14:18 UTC 1996

Of course everyone's opinion is appropriate here - I've not said
otherwise.  And of course my comment about being "hooked up with the wrong
organization" doesn't work when turned back toward me. 

Under (what I interpret as) Grex's mandate, almost everyone who
participates here is fostering Grex's purpose to one degree or another. 
And I think that's just great.  And if someone wants to go the extra and
develop a program (like the computer rehab project), well, that fits under
our mandate nicely.  But that type of a program isn't our primary
function.  Our primary function is keeping Grex up and running and open to
all as a viable forum of enriching communication.

So, agreeing to that, we have both hooked with the right organization. 
Under what I think is your perspective (that we must do more specialized
projects in order to fulfill our purpose) very few of us have made the
right choice.  And you must be very frustrated indeed if you're 
expecting that *priorities* will shift to these other projects.

response 191 of 196:

Jul 26 23:49 UTC 1996

        And what does this have to do with queques?  Rane, you cannot
enforce enthusiasm or demand participation from people in an environment
such as this. If there aren't people doing these things, that is just too
bad. I mean, honestly, how do you plan on making these disinterested
people DO the things you speak of? We can ask politely if anyone is
interested in filling a post, but we certainly can't go blaming people who
honestly feel that it doesn't interest them, or that they do not have the
time to spend as the driving force behind some "community-enriching" 
service. As a matter of fact, getting on them about it is only going to
lead to disgruntlement amongst those who otherwise play other, if less
signigant roles, here. I'd much rather have ten content people all running
at their most comfortable level of involvement in my community than five
stressed-out go-getters, and five once-members, who left because someone
wasn't happy with what they were comfortable doing. 


        And I still want to know what the bloody hell this all has to do
with queques! 

response 195 of 196:

Aug 8 04:45 UTC 1996

What uses can [Grex] be put tomto improve our community and lives?

Gee, I think that we may have an award winning track record for socializing
overly-bright, overly curious young people who want and need and challenge
but until they come here, are mainly bored and dabbling in "trouble-making".
Somehow thewy they seem to ensd up being vrery productive net citizens and
beloved GREX users.

That's a community service I'm extremely proud of!