A modest proposal

[Flood Randy Capt AFCA/GCF <randy.flood@scott.af.mil>]

Warning:  This e-mail is not entirely serious...

At the last Linux Users Group meeting, I was handed a lengthy mission
statement to look over.  I know that I missed the meeting where this was
originally discussed.  

My first question was, "Why do we need a Mission Statement?"  Having learned
that the answers to important Linux questions are often found on the web, I
went to google to look for the answer to why do people need mission
statements:

I uncovered the following document that points out that having a mission
statement is good for God or some such.

http://members.aol.com/myjournal/mission.htm

I tried finding more info on how this God thing related to Linux, but I had
no luck.  

	# God
	God:  not found

	#man God
	no manual entry for God

Not to be daunted, I changed my approach.  I decided to see what the best
management consultants had to say about writing effective mission
statements.  I started with Catbert.

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/career/bin/ms2.cgi

which generated the following:

"We continually leverage existing principle-centered solutions while
continuing to enthusiastically maintain quality products ."

This didn't sound very good.  For one thing, it should have the word "Linux"
in there somewhere.  

Finally, I found a page that was actually useful:

http://www.orocta.org/effectiv.htm

According to this web page:

	"Ron Meshanko wrote in soc.org.nonprofit about "Mission Statements"
on 29 Feb 1996 as follows: 

	I give board trainings all over the country and begin each session
with a quiz, the first question being, write your agency 
	mission statement. 99% of the time, not one person - sometimes even
the executive director- can write down in clear, succinct 
	language the mission statement of the agency. "

Based on the arguments on this web page, I think if you are going to have a
mission statement, it should be short, simple and something that people can
remember.  For example:  "Our mission is to do cool Linux stuff."  The
mission statement that we currently have is really long and complex, and I
will never remember it.

Ofcourse, you have to take everything with a grain of salt.  For example,
this web page also tells a lot about successful nonprofit groups.  For
example, it cites the following characteristics of successful non-profit
groups:

	a clear, agreed-upon mission statement  
 	a strong, competent executive director  
 	a dynamic board of directors  
 	an organization-wide commitment to fundraising.  

Looking over this list, it occurred to me that... well... er...  it's silly.
I mean, I thought the purpose of our LUG was to do cool Linux stuff, not to
have a really spiffo-cool non-profit organization with a dynamic board of
directors and a commitment to fundraising.  

So, I propose that if we must have a mission statement, that it be "Our
mission is to do cool Linux stuff."


Randy    

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