[wilhelmtux-discussion] Meeting of PLLA and Wilhelm Tux

Dietrich Feist dietrich.feist at mw.iap.unibe.ch
Mon Okt 28 16:50:29 CET 2002


Note: this mail has already been posted to the people listed below as
well as the executive members of Wilhelm Tux. However, I wanted to make
sure that it also got to the relevant mailing lists.

--- Original message below ---

On Tuesday, October 22, 2002, representatives of Wilhelm Tux and PLLA
met in Fribourg to discuss future co-operation of the two organisations.
The meeting was kindly organised by Linuxbourg.

Participants:

Stephane Magnenat, PLLA
Julien Pilet, PLLA
Gabriel Walt, PLLA

Dietrich Feist, President of Wilhelm Tux
Robert Rinitz, Vice-President of Wilhelm Tux
Myriam Schweingruber, Secretary of Linuxbourg
Florian Verdet, Treasurer of Linuxbourg
Markus Wernig, Secretary of Wilhelm Tux

The discussion was fruitful and constructive. We discussed the following
issues:

- What could be the role of PLLA in relation to Wilhelm Tux (WT)?
- Should PLLA be part of WT or a separate organization?
- How important is a catching name for lobbying work?
- The importance of statutes
- Should we split or join resources?
- How can local groups become sections of larger organizations
- Should WT have french-speaking mailing lists?
- The importance of face-to-face meetings
- Local groups for local action
- Launch a free-software calendar
- Take free software into parliament on cantonal level

Summary:

The discussion resulted in the conclusion that the goals of both WT and
PLLA are basically the same. If PLLA constituted itself as an
association, it would even use the statutes of WT with minor changes. It
was the general consensus that we could better reach our common goals by
joining forces rather than working as separate organizations. By joining
WT PLLA would gain the benefits of an already well-established
organization: for example the resources, a large number of supporters,
media contacts, membership in the federal e-government initiative eCH,
etc. On the other hand, WT would gain a lot by establishing a second
foundation in the french-speaking community, especially since PLLA has
already been active on the cantonal level.

The anticipated joining of forces will certainly not be an assimilation
of PLLA by WT but rather a fusion of two comparable partners. Even
though WT was founded by german-speaking members, it has always been
open towards the non-german-speaking communities, for example by
providing a website in all of the official languages. However, so far it
has not attracted many members outside the german-speaking community.
Merging with a strong and active french-speaking community will
certainly change and improve WT in a fundamental way. For example, it
would be useful to allow regional sections within WT that habe
considerable autonomy. The executive board of WT is willing to follow
this road and call for a general assembly that will be able to change
WT's statutes in accordance with PLLA as soon as possible. 

Kind regards,

Dietrich Feist
President of Wilhelm Tux