From the Site Founder:
It is the intent of the Board of Directors of KEGS, and it is my personal wish, that RCAUG.NET become the official Web site for all future RainCoast Conferences. I think that this can be done easily, as outlined in the following paragraphs.
One day in March or April of 1999, the Board of Directors of KEGS decided that RainCoast needed its own separate Web site, instead of just a few pages linked from our own site. The idea came up that such a site could house all of the previous year's Web pages in an archive. We also figured out pretty quicly that we couldn't be expected to maintain the site from year to year, and to act as a third party. You know, get an e-mail with a page to be posted as an attachment, then post the page sometime in the future. That wasn't going to make anybody happy. Hence a separate site.
It also came up that this new site could display a schedule of every member group's meetings. The idea was to help vendors by letting them check just one Web site, and determine how best to schedule a 'tour' of nearly all of the Pacific Northwest Users Groups. With phone numbers, Web links, etc, this should be a most valuable resource for vendors, sponsors, and potential new members.
I decided right then and there to 'make it so' and to donate the first two year's registration fee. That came to pass, albeit slowly. I felt that the site could be ongoing, supported and maintained by the Host User Group that is elected at each year's post-mortem. So I set it up with a local hosting outfit (USWEB/CKS, thanks Steve!), who has donated the use of the site to us as a 501(c)(3) outfit. The 'us' is KEGS, not RCAUG, but who knows what might happen in the future.
For these reasons, I hereby make available to all future RCAUG Conference Host user groups the use of this site, with four conditions:
1) The site must maintain an archive of all previous years of RCAUG pages, and those pages must remain unmodified. I will make the effort to build and maintain the archival links, I ask only that they not be disturbed by the current year's host.
2) The site must maintain the schedules of its member user groups' meetings and contacts. We can iron out the details by e-mail using our onelist server. Instructions on how to sign up for the onelist server can be found by clicking here.
3) The site must maintain a page of links pointing to the Websites of our many sponsers and supporting vendors.
4) Of course, somebody has to pay the piper, and I think its only fair that the elected host user group for each year be responsible for that year's site registration fee with InterNIC (or whoever replaces them). See below for more details.
What I envision happening is that upon each year's election of a new host, the site will be made immediately available to that new incoming host. I will make a password available to the site's new caretaker, and she or he can immediately take over. However, I must ask that person to pledge to reimburse me for the year's registration fee, as I will have paid it in September. I'd like to be paid back by December 1st, if that's not too burdensome. And yes, I will still have a password to the site. After all, how else would I maintain the archives?
Let's make this a reality, folks. I think that you, my fellow RCAUG leaders and volunteers, can make this site perk up and sing, dance, and whatever else that I can't imagine. This will be your site for the year. I like to think that I've started the ball rolling, in a simple manner, but the path that the ball rolls on can only get [insert your own adverbs here].