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Re: [atlarge-discuss] Membership Fees & Bylaws
Danny (et al) [my comments distributed below]:
At 12:31 PM 8/27/2002 -0400, DannyYounger@cs.com wrote:
>Richard,
>
>ICANN is a cartel. Their livihood depends upon those that feed their
>coffers. Public interest groups, no matter how representative, moral,
>transparent or replete with integrity cannot on their own successfully
>pressure a cartel. Try "pressuring" OPEC and see how far it gets you. Those
>that control a monopoly resource only fear those that have the muscle to
>impact their revenue stream.
Your assertion simply is not so. American’s conservation of gasoline in 1979 threatened OPEC. Continued conservation today would do the same, and most of us fail to see how that’s in our interest. We choose to be blind.
Monopolies, contrary to the myth they are only to happy to help engage you in, are only monopolies when you lazily allow them to get away with their monopolistic practices by continuing to kowtow to and shop with them.
My challenges on this list to the legal “profession” [read cartel] were not empty of personal meaning. I have represented myself in many instances.
My challenges to the medical “profession” likewise. I refuse to live in the mythical mortal fear that I will not live forever so that I’m compelled to run to the medical priest every time I take a painful whiz. I’ve put in work be able to ably diagnose myself whenever and wherever possible, and treat myself. Once upon a time it was ever so!
The ways to take on cartels and related monopolistic entities of all shapes, sizes and colors are as myriad and endless as our imaginations.
I change ISPs at the drop of a price raise, at the discovery of less than prompt and attentive customer service AND I tell them why if they care to know. If they don’t it’s their problem, as AOL is finally finding out.
We have muscle. We have MUSCLES, muscles we don’t even know we have. If all you can do is look back or sideways at the horror that is, you will never be able to look forward at what could be instead, nor begin to invest yourself in making that real. You are too worried about death in all its dark and black forms eternally chasing you. ;-)
>If icannatlarge.com ever develops a
>multi-million dollar war chest and then uses those funds to legally threaten
>ICANN, then perhaps you can make some progress. ICANN is "pressured" by the
>ccTLDs because they are in a position to impact the revenue stream. You are
>not.
I doubt legal threats in these times will make any difference with ICANN, the occasional local court exceptions noted.
I think you underestimate the power of organized consumerism of ordinary at-large people. They must first be “radicalized” as to what and where their interests truly lie by folks and an organization(s) with absolute integrity.
>And it won't matter how large you become if you don't start accruing
>financial reserves and begin retaining a legal staff. Your own agenda and
>your own community mean absolutely nothing if you can't back it up with the
>money necessary to fight your battles.
Individual bodies, organized action and votes take the place of money vis a vis power.
>I have raised the issue of membership fees on many occasions, only to watch
>you folks dodge the issue. Perhaps you are afraid that once you start
>charging a membership fee your roster of members will disappear and instead
>of a thousand members you will only have less than fifty. You might as well
>start facing your financial realities now. That means having the panel doing
>the job it was elected to do. Since the panel has already forgotten what
>their task was, let me remind you...
Whether or not you mean to, your pretensions to Pope-hood are blindingly glaring here in this last paragraph.
I’ve got to ask what priesthood, what college of cardinals, what prince of what “church,” you’re part of that you are so threatened and angered here in this effort so far by anything other than your linear, hierarchical, backwards-looking, doom and gloom views annunciated, pontificated and proclaimed in your exposition here?
>Your job was to draft the bylaws. Once bylaws are in place votes may be held
>to deal with such matters as incorporation and the need to elect a treasurer
>and other officers. Bylaws allow for finances to be raised, for transparency
>to be preserved, for legitimacy and accountability -- none of which is
>currently guaranteed to your membership in the absence of such bylaws. Who's
>in charge of getting the bylaws drafted, and when will we see a draft ready
>for ratification? This should have been your top priority, but I don't even
>see it on anyone's radar screen. Perhaps the panel thinks that picking a new
>name is much more important than working on the bylaws... if so, I think the
>panel has its priorities screwed up.
Danny, the production of bylaws is NOT separable from incorporation and the need to NAME things. They must in every sense happen together.
Again, whether you mean to or not, or whether conscientiously or not, you are merely diverting our attentions here from the actual REAL work going on, which you choose either to not see or to belittle, and to harangue us about. I've got to ask whose service and employ are you in?
For now, BE SOMEWHERE ELSE! I won’t be reading any more of your on-list posts for the next two weeks.
/s/ I-feel-so-much-better-now-Joey
Tuesday, August 27, 2002 * 1:22 PM EDT USA
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Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.
---
Saul Alinsky (1909–72), U.S. radical activist. Rules for Radicals, “Tactics” (1971). [See http://everything2.com/index.pl for information on Saul.]
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I met Saul Alinsky just before he died at a speech he gave at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA. I had taken my copy of his book Rules for Radicals with me to get his autograph. With a large smile on his face he happily autographed my book.
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What did he write inside cover of my book besides his name that is worth mentioning here?
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"Me thinks we'll meet again."
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;-) Well, we didn't meet again before his death, and we haven't met since his death either, at least not so far as I am aware.
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I'm in no particular hurry to leave this world. But I do look forward to meeting him again, wherever and whenever that might be! -- /s/ Joey ;-)
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