4/13    Yes, tom can be obtuse, but he's not the only one wondering why soda
        isn't reliable, why mail isn't reliable, why there aren't any help
        sessions, why meetings aren't publicized, etc. etc.  I realize the
        csua has had fallow periods, but this seems unprecedented in the
        10 years that I've been member.  I realize that times have changed
        a lot, but I would be sad if the institution that helped me so much
        in my time at Soda were to wither and fall away.  !(dans || tom)
        \_ Frankly, every alum assumes that because soda is not being
           administrated well that the students are not being served.  This
           is not the case.  Sadly, by far the majority of new memebers will
           never log into thier soda account.  The machine is no longer a
           "necessity" to new students, who all have one or more personal
           computers powerful enough for thier needs.
           The meeting publicity is a good point, and I've been talking to
           polit trying to get them to be more proactive about getting the
           word out.  But the lack of visible publicity is not a good
           indicator because events have been occuring.  We put on at least 3
           helpsessions in the first few weeks as well as 2 general meetings,
           a video game tournament, broomball, movie nights etc.  Things are
           happening, the club is not coming to an end.
           We are going to work toward making soda more reliable.  At the
           moment, there are very few people helping the VP out, and he is
           overburdened with the enormity of being responsible for fixing all
           of the current issues.  That is going to change, which will
           hopefully result in better stability and usability for soda.
           -mrauser
           \_ How can there be no one helping the VP out when there
              are 7 politburo members?  What is the role of the alumni
              relations politburo position when there is no one
              relating to the alumni except to complain about them?
              Do you really think that current students don't need to
              have information available on the CSUA web page?  (I see
              that some contact info has been put up, after 5 months
              of nothing being there--that's a start).   -tom
              \_ Sadly, the current feeling is that whenever there is a
                 problem with soda, its the VP's sole responsibility to deal
                 with it.  It actually doesn't make sense for the other
                 members of politburo to be co/assistant VPs, because they
                 each have job responsibilities that need to get done.  But
                 right now, darch isn't recieving very much support from
                 root staff, because most of them are so jaded and
                 disgruntled that they don't wish to help out (except mconst
                 who is saintly in his patience).
                 As far as I can tell, the two alumni and industry relations
                 officers have done very little at all.  This is a result of
                 us not having a good person for the job and just needing it
                 filled.
                 I think the website is a huge resource which right now the
                 current politburo is wasting.  But, seeing as I am not on
                 politburo, its not my job to fix thier screw ups.  I have
                 mentioned this to them many many times, so they know abou it,
                 but apparently its not a large enough priority to restore it's
                 functionality.  Whats even worse than the website, is lately
                 minutes of meetings have not been taken.  Both of these
                 issues are a function of the elected secretary just flaking
                 out and quitting about a month into the semester (what caused
                 that might have been _my_ bugging him about the website).
                 I don't mind answering your questions, but I've already
                 served 4 semesters on politburo and I want to let the current
                 group make thier own decisions/mistakes, though I try to
                 influence them in the right direction (by pointing out errors
                 like not taking minutes). -mrauser
              \_ Do you really think your apparent outrage, damnation with
                 faint praise, and general tone of condescension help matters?
                 -dans
                 \_ I think my questions deserve answers.  -tom
                    \_ I was getting to it. -mrauser
                    \_ I think your questions are reasonable enough.  Is it
                       reasonable to expect that they should be answered?
                       Sure.  That said, saying that your questions *deserve*
                       answers strikes me as a little presumptuous. -dans