[conspire] Fwd: Re: [sf-lug] Looking for a Senior MySQL administrator in San Francisco

[Rick Moen]

Hi, Jim.  I didn't mean to sound critical of SF-LUG:  It follows the
policies that suit it, and suit its experiences.  

I meant the word "unfortunately" (about lack of an explicit jobs policy)
only in the sense that it leaves people like Todd Huss a bit uncertain
of their ground, which was reflected in his wording ("I hope it's OK to
post job messages to this list.")  An explicit policy could be as simple
as "Yes, it's OK to post about jobs here" on the listinfo page --
useful, as the matter's rather likely to keep coming up.

Anyhow, though as more than a bit of an anarchist myself, I find the
idea of groups with no leaders appealing, two concerns make this
unlikely in practice:

1.  In volunteer groups generally, only a small number of people are
_willing_ to do the ongoing unexciting key work that makes the group
function.  For LUGs, these include arranging meeting venues and
publicising the events, maintaining Web pages, administering mailing
lists and other Internet facilities, and similar things.  (Why?  Because
there's no glamour, just ongoing work and time commitment.)

2.  Access to some of those functions (esp. Internet access controls)
tends to be kept restricted to avert vandalism.

In consequence, most groups _do_ have leaders, even in groups where
they're alleged not to exist:  They're the people who get the work done,
post statements about what will occur, and make them stick.  That is,
one recognises the leaders by seeing who leads.