BD: Re: SCN: "Free-Nets" in Los Angeles Times

[Steve Guest]

Hi Patrick
See below with a few snips for email reading assistance ;-)

----- Original Message -----
From: "patrick" <clariun at yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2001 10:54 AM
Subject: Re: BD: Re: SCN: "Free-Nets" in Los Angeles Times


> Yes, no need for flames.
Thanks for understanding

> Human capital is high, but something could be worked out if a company
> started an ISP as a not-for-profit. You would have to run models and
> leave out the expensive dotcom chairs for all employees.
Here is where I think I have been missing the point in my explainations.
The IRS have stated very clearly that no not-for-profit can be an ISP.  They
have said that an ISP is and only can be a for-profit business.  They have
even written some nice justifications for their stance on this issue.  This
is why SCN, and other CNS/FreeNets, are walking a very carefull line here.
It would not take too much for the IRS to move even tighter on their stance
to include us.  This is a very good reason why our education program is of
primary importance.

> All kinds of things go wrong with Usenet feeds and that eats up a lot
> of human resources.
And disk space - but that is cheap in comparision ;-)

> There are many dotcoms, so to speak, that were there first and are
> still around. They run their businesses out of their houses or
> garages and keep expenses to a minimum. Eskimo does it and has done
> it for a long time.
Yep and the laws have now been changed to try and stop this from happening.
Plus the telcos are unhappy about running T1s into some residential
neighborhoods.  Given I can't even get DSL or cable service here in south
Bellevue!

> All I was advocating was possibilities and not for SCN. It has other
> issues as I went into discussion about: Like having a competent
> manager to oversee all projects and kept the flow going at full
> optimization.
Umm - now that implies something.  Are you suggesting I am incompetent?  It
is fun trying to optimize volunteers task loads and keeping things legal and
on track.  Managing a volunteer taskforce is worse than the famous EDS
"Super Bowl" description of managing and herding cats.  The best description
I have ever heard was that it was like trying to control and manage bees.
You think the volunteer force are doing one thing and then you find they
have gone off and done something else or they have done nothing because it
was a sunny day or they had a good idea but they never realized that ....
would happen it they did .... or they have simply gone off and never come
back.  Managing a volunteer force is unlike any management task  you can be
trained for.   BTW, a competent manager would not oversee all projects, they
delegate - and then in SCN's case they prey.  I can oversee so much, but
then I too run out of volunteer time.

So, if you know any "competent" managers who want to work in this type of
environment, please let me know.  I am missing about 6 or 7 currently.  Most
take one look and realize they have never been prepared for this type of
structure because all their training does not work.

Thx
Steve
<snip>

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  From the Listowner  * * * * * * * * * * * *
.	To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to:
majordomo at scn.org		In the body of the message, type:
unsubscribe scn
==== Messages posted on this list are also available on the web at: ====
* * * * * * *     http://www.scn.org/volunteers/scn-l/     * * * * * * *