11/12   Welcome to the new politburo!
        -----------------------------
        President: Michael Steger (steggy), A.K.A. Mikey
        External VP: Edison Park (edison)
        Internal VP: Ying-Han Wei (laughinghan)
        External Events: Ian Davis (iandavis)
        Secretary: Heidi Galbraith (heidiho)
        Internal Events: Wayne Song (wsong)
        \_ This is nice, but can we get EXPN root?  Who's on rootstaff
           these days other than pburo?

11/12   15-story soundproofed, thermal-insulated, equthquake-proofed hotel
        built in just six days, with no injuries:
        http://www.csua.org/u/rzx
        How long does it take for our American construction workers to do the
        same thing?
        \_ It's pre-fab, so it's not built in six days, it's assembled in six
           days.
        \_ one can only assume they took shortcuts on such tings as permits
           environmental impact reports, inspections, etc.

*/*     Re: motd, soda, undergrads, community, etc: I can count on a few
        fingers the number of times I've logged in to soda in the last year
        or two, and half of them were to recover some old files I stored here
        from my school days.  Why?  Because there's no reason to be here for
        me.  It doesn't matter what the format is: motd, fb, yahoo groups,
        whatever.  What *purpose* is there, or should there be, to the on-
        going existence of this environment?  Once you (the generic you)
        figures out *why* all of this should exist, the technology choices
        will follow.  Debating the technology before determining the purpose
        is cart-before-horse.  You must know what you want and why before all
        else.
        \_ You sound like twohey. (just an observation)
           \_ twohey was the ONLY dissenting vote in 2001 when a vote of
              dissolution was put to a meeting of politburo.  You can thank
              him for the csua even existing. -!//e
              \_ I don't see this reflected in the minutes. Explain? --toulouse
                 \_ It was kept out of the minutes.  We had quorum, 3 officers
                    2 voted for dissolution, //e abstained.  Needed all 3 for
                    it to pass.
        \_ Contrary to appearances, the purpose of the CSUA has been hotly
           debated as of late, typically during Politburo meetings, with the
           participation of active CSUA members. You are sending an important
           message to nobody that you really need to reach, but the good news is
           that they've already been thinking about it. MOTD is already
           acknowledged to be totally useless to the current CSUA membership,
           and is maintained (IMO) as legacy out of consideration for alumni.
           In fact, soda is used a lotby alumni, as well. I think the point
           is that the debate below is trying to figure out what crusties will
           bitch and moan about least, because engaging with alumni is seen as
           A Good Thing(tm). P.S. if you're going to try to prescribe what you
           think the CSUA should do, please don't be an anonymous coward; sign
           your post. --toulouse
           \_ much respect bro, but the point of motd is to have an anon forum
              it lets 1. people whistleblow and 2. gets around petty csua
              politics/internal squabbling.
           \_ My advice is generic for any situation.  I'm not sure why it
              matters who I am.  I'm happy to hear that this is already being
              discussed at the Politburo.  I do wonder why it matters what a
              few alumni think if they're not coming into contact with the
              undergrads as it sounds.  Maybe there's some other place where
              alums and ugrads are interacting I don't know about.
                --!twohey, alum
        \_ This leads to the meta-question of is there any value in maintaining
           contact between the undergrads and the alumni?  If so, how do we
           connect?
           \_ Yes it's valuable but not in the way it's currently done. Find
              a new forum other than MOTD that's more effective (like FB or
              LinkedIn). Establish some online service for job seekers and
              advertisers to find each other. Start something like a project
              or company or whatever. Otherwise, CSUA is nothing more than
              an organization with regular meetings and a Linux server.
        \_ The csua is good for playing video games.
           \_ Do they still have that giant tv screen with that game where
              you only fight bosses?  It was neat.
        \_ as an undergrad, I think the csua should have more FREE FOOD and
           more video games and give me internships with sexy companies like
           google or microsoft
        \_ so this is what a "society in decline" feels like.