-- Start log: Wednesday, February 14, 2001 8:57:35 pm ASI Meeting Server time --

Scottyg says, "Welcome?"
Greg says, "It seems like there ought to be just a bit more substance to it
than one word." Greg says, "I have a feeling that "Welcome to the Moon
Society! Now, go away and leave me alone!" just won't cut it." dcarson
says, "heres how you can get more involved?" Greg says, "That's a good
start, Dana. What's the next sentence?" Greg says, "What the heck is our
vision for what we want the Moon Society to do?" dcarson [to get]: us to
the moon
Greg says, "Oh my. Deafening silence in the MOO." Scottyg says, "Greg, the
renewal welcome letter at
http://www.moonsociety.org/private/leaders/membership-procs/renewal-member-welcome.txt
might be a good starting point." Greg says, "That's good. Now to
distinguish it from Artemis Society International ..." Greg says, "Yup,
that's pretty good, though we should never refer to "Artemis Society
International/Moon Society"" Scottyg says, "But your point is well taken.
At more than the "Go to the moon" level, what do we want to do?" Greg says,
"On the other hand, it needs a bit of a sales pitch." Greg says, "When you
join Mensa, you get a nice welcome letter about all the activities." Greg
says, "But right now, the only activity in the Moon Society is yakking on
artemis-list, which of course is a service of Artemis Society
International." Greg says, "So maybe this letter needs to focus on what we
want the Society to do." Greg says, "Like, rise up from its ranks a
president who will get me off the hook." Greg says, "But I can't say that
in a welcome letter." Greg says, "Needs to be a pitch for local chapters."
Greg says, "Maybe we should call 'em local groups just to sound different
from NSS and the Mars society." Greg says, "Is anybody getting any
brilliant ideas?" dcarson says, "no"
Greg says, "What would YOU want to read in a letter welcoming you to an
organization that you just joined?" dcarson says, "what I can do"
Greg says, "Yeah. Now that you've joined, you want to know how to play with
it." dcarson says, "who I can contact"
Greg says, "It seems like Dana is lost." Scottyg says, "What is the plan?"
Greg says, "Are you awake, Randall?"
Greg says, "Which plan, Scotty?"
dcarson says, "what do you mean?"
Greg says, "You mean for the Moon Society?" Scottyg says, "Thats one of the
things I would want to know." Severy says, "That's questionable, Greg ;-)"
dcarson says, "yes, who do I contact to volunterr, get membership problems
fixed etc" Severy says, "What things need doing most" Greg says, "What I
want is a world-wide organization with active local chapters holding star
parties, party parties, working on all the projects we need to do to fill
in the blanks in our knowledge in the political, financial, and technical
arenas; holding local and world-wide conferences." Greg says, "Updating the
news on the web daily." Greg says, "Membership cards and secret
handshakes." Greg says, "OK, forget the handshakes." Greg says, "Members
recruiting new members." dcarson says, "right drop the easiest one to do"
Greg says, "Heh."
Greg says, "Yeah, that's about it. That's what I want the Moon Society to
do." Greg says, "Oh. Publications. Lots of publications. And some cool logo
merchandise trinkets for me to play with." Greg says, "I want folks doing
quality work on projects, rather than whining on artemis-list." Greg says,
"Or abandoning their commitments." Scottyg says, "It takes leadership for
those things to happen. We aren't providing it. I'm not pointing fingers at
any individual. We are all...collectively...guilty." Greg says, "Yup."
Greg says, "All the more reason to fire the president and find somebody who
will do the job." Greg says, "Hmm ... no volunteers for that one." dcarson
says, "lets grab the next person to login to the moo" Greg says, "Whoever
it is, he won't be any less effective that I've been. :)" Severy says, "Is
that the online equivalent of going to the bathroom?" Greg says, "My grand
plan is to introduce term limitations for Moon Society officers Real Soon
Now." Greg says, "Exactly, Randall."
Severy says, "Unfortunately, it didn't work very well the first time...."
Greg says, "Well, I can't say that Boise was less effective than I as
president." Greg says, "Oh, I take that back. Things were getting on track
for a while there." Greg says, "I can't extrapolate my current funk either
backwards or forwards in time." Severy says, "At least you are *around* for
us to harrass about not doing anything :-)" Greg says, "That's something!"
Greg says, "More than I can say for our vice president." Severy says, "Yup
:-("
Severy says, "For what it's worth, our vice president is also ignoring
everyone else at the moment as well as us. Bruce Mackenzie hassled him two
weeks ago for piling up 21Mb of e-mail in his mailbox on qs33...." Greg
says, "Did he read it?"
Severy says, "It's probably stuck in that 21Mb backlog ;-)" Greg says, "I
know what we need -- a Moon Sims web site. That'll suck in lots of
members." Greg says, "And Brittney Spears as a spokesbabe." Severy says,
"Unfortunately, none of us can throw any stones about the dangers of
overextending oneselves :-(" Greg says, "Yeah, I seem to recall that
somebody had a grand plan where the Moon Society would reduce our
workload." Greg says, "I don't quite recall how that was supposed to work,
though." Greg says, "In my case, I don't think it's a matter of my workload
any more. I've given up on even *thinking* about my day job once I leave
the office." Severy says, "Yes, but having uncertainty in a key part of
your life makes it very difficult to concentrate on the rest..." Greg says,
"More than I would have imagined. I've turned up the heat on the guys at
Boeing. That hadn't even gotten around to opening a requisition yet. Urk."
Severy says, "Sounds like my problems getting invoices paid :-(" dcarson
says, "a lot of companies are amazing at not paying on time" Scottyg says,
"Have we run across *anyone* in the last year who seems reliable?" Scottyg
says, "(To help get some things moving?)" dcarson says, "Amy, Arthur Smith "
Greg says, "Arthur Smith?"
dcarson says, "apsmith"
dcarson says, "the guy from American Physical Society" dcarson says, "
aps.org"
Greg says, "Heh. It's probably not a good time to try to sell me on Arthur
Smith. All I've heard from him in the past two days is whining about the
metric system." Greg says, "Was he at the conference? Or do we just know
him from artemis-list?" dcarson says, "the moo and the list"
Greg says, "In any case, Amy doesn't count; she steadfastly refuses to
over-commit herself." Greg says, "Darn it."
Scottyg says, "Dana, any progress on getting the PERL code for the
Cybercash interface?" dcarson says, "not really, been out of it most of
this week" Scottyg says, "I'm on LINUX systems everyday if you want me to
try to pull it out." dcarson says, "probably worth while"
dcarson says, "thanks"
Scottyg says, "Ok. I have plans tomorrow night (deferred Valentine's Day),
but I can tackle it Friday or over the weekend." dcarson says, "taking
Melinda out for diner didn't make much sense when I can't eat" Greg says,
"It's the company that counts." dcarson says, "true"
Greg says, "Well, I have some ideas about this furshlugginer letter."
Scottyg =) My wife had class tonight, and i had this meeting, so slipping
it one day was mutually agreeable. Greg says, "Does anybody need me for
anything else tonight?" Greg says, "(You just reminded me it's Valentine's
Day, y'see. I ought to remind my wife that I'm alive.)" Scottyg says, "Go
get those ideas down in writing!" dcarson says, "before she seminds you
your dead?" Greg says, "Yup; I saved all those notes into a text file. Now
I can try to write a letter." Greg says, "Rezackly, Dana. :)"
Greg says, "g'night guys!"
Greg has disconnected.
Scottyg says, "Heh. We may have saved Greg's life!" dcarson says, "one idea
for the moonsociety site, there are places that offer free news feeds in
RSS form, we could get a generic science new feed" Scottyg says, "Don't
know about RSS"
dcarson says, "XML format, has headline, short summery and url to the
whiole article" Scottyg says, "Sounds promising."
dcarson says, "not as tailored as doing it ourseleves and the links lead to
the site doing the free feed but it would be updated constantly" Scottyg
says, "Well, my wife just came home, so i guess i should go give her some
attention." dcarson says, "gnight Scotty"
Scottyg says, "G'night Dana, Randall."
Scottyg has disconnected.
The housekeeper arrives to cart Greg off to bed. dcarson says, "Randall, is
the latest WSd with the substages for submitters on the site to download?"
The housekeeper arrives to cart Scottyg off to bed. Severy says, "Yes, the
Windows NT/ODBC version for download is the latest and greatest"

-- End log: Wednesday, February 14, 2001 10:11:10 pm ASI Meeting Server time --