Re: Reminder: Nominations

Grant Heinrich (leroy@nospam.socs.uts.EDU.AU)
Wed, 16 Mar 1994 10:59:07 +1000 (EST)

Incidently, why do several people who aren't members of ProgSoc think
they can be elected to office? (Not necesscarily Dennis.)

> In previous mail, Dennis Clark writes:

> > It's high time (BTW my publicity officer has produced this) ProgSoc
> > stopped being a refuge for elitist sycophants and people with no true
> > grasp of reality and lacking general good sense. I would encourage
> > wider member participation and offer activities which real people can
> > involve ourselves in. Seeing that nobody else could be bothered
> > implementing such policies, I will have to do it myself.
>
> Err-hmm. I think I MAAAAAAAAY have been a bit strong there. Especially
> after looking up the word 'sycophant' (if your reading this Mr Publicity
> Officer, consider yourself sacked).

Your usage was not so much "too strong" as "meaningless".

> Now in a typical last-minute
> politician's attempt to recover and prevent the loss of _ALL_ his votes,
> I might try re-stating the above using the age-old technique of "tact".
>
> 1. There are a lot of students around who are genuinely
> interested in programming.
>
> 2. You would expect a Programmers' Society to be ideal for
> them, and be active participants.
>
> 3. This has not really happened so far in ProgSoc. Why?
> Because so far it appears ProgSoc management have only been
> interested in making money through TFM.

Points one and two are true enough. Point three is unfair. In any case, TFM
is an excellent way to help "genuinely interested programmers" and, imo,
is the best thing ProgSoc does for SoCS students in general.

Currently, and this seems to have always been true, ProgSoc activites
are any its members are committed enough to suggest then finish. Perhaps
you didn't realise that. If you have ideas, you should have pushed them
harder. If your ideas failed due to lack of popular support, being
president won't help. "Wider member participation" would be nice, but
you've forgotten most computing students are uninterested in ProgSoc
beyond TFM.

ProgSoc is not an elite group. If people _outside the circle_ have not
been elected, it's because they've given the membership no reason to do
so.

G