* * * * & * £ * a * * * * EREE s * * * REX HEEE * EEE a * * * ee b ER 8 4 A committee of five people was elected at the User's meeting at Columbia University in May with the purpose of proposing a set of bylaws for an organization of users of UNIX* installations. The people elected were: Mel Ferentz Rockefeller University Mars Gralia Applied Physics Labs., John Hopkins University Lou Katz College of Physicians and Surgeons, Cciumbia Lew Law Seience Center, Harvard University Peter Weiner Interactive Systems Corp. Law was elected chairman and the first meeting was set for Thursday July 6th at Rockefeller University. Prior to this meeting the bylaws of DECUS and SHARE were investi- gated, and headings for each article of the proposed bylaws generated with a list of alternatives and questions submitted by members of the committee. The following is a sum~ mary of the meeting: 1. The name of the committee shall be the USENIX*®® committee. 2. Funding for committee operations - legal costs, postage and stationery shall corie from the income derived from subscription to the Newsletter (for which it had been decided, at the Columbia meeting, to charge $50 per year for the year beginning July 1, 1978). : 3. There was unanimous agreement on a skeleton for the bylaws, >ut discussion of indivi- } dual sections identified two major areas of questicns; legal questions and those con- cerning the type of organization to be set up. a. What are the legal liabilities (if any) of the prime movers of the loose organi- zation that presently exists and what would they be if the USENIX group incor- porated? Are there any advantages in choosing the state in which to incor- porate? Mel Ferentz was asked to look into these matters. b. Should the organization be formed, as a subgroup ef seme other organization, such as a Special Interest Group of the A.C.M. or of the I.F.I.P.S? Peter Wiener was asked to investigate and make recommendations. ce. What are the limitations placed on a nonprofit organization by the I.R.S. and State law? Lew Law will investigate for Massachussetts. Discussion proceeded on the basis of setting up a separate organization. There was general agreement on the following: 1. Purpose of the group To promote the use of the C programming language and elegant systems written in C (such as UNIX). To exchange information about systems, including hardware and software. To provide a mechanism for the exchange of software which is in the public domain. To foster education of interested groups in use and applications of the C language and C based systems. 2. Classes of membership a. Organization Member. This class of membership shall have voting privileges. 4 Included in the membership fee will be the cost of a twice yearly software dis- tribution tape and the Newsletter. It is anticipated that soms decentralized organizations may choose to have more than one Organization Membership. b. Individual member. This class of membership will not have voting priviliges, -and will not receive the semiannual software distribution tape. Included in the membership fee will be a subscription to the Newsletter. a ce. Student Member, This class of member will have the same status as the indivi- i dual member, but at a reduced membership fee. : Membership fees It was agreed that the income that must be generated is a minimum of $25,000 pe With reasonable projections for the number of Organization Members who i y) year. will receive software distribution tapes, proposed membership fees would be as follows: Organization Membership | $250 Individual Membership $25 Student Membership $10 Dissemination of information and software To avoid licensing and other legal hassles, and to make dealing with the number of licensed products available from Western Electric tractable the following strategies are proposed: a. Special Interest Groups. It is proposed that SIGS be set up, for example UNIXSIG, PWB/UNIXSIG, MINIUNIXSIG ete. Each SIG will be responsible for meeting any legal requirements resulting from licenses (such as nondisclo- sure etc) by control of attendance at meetings and control of distribution of informatiom. Software distribution. It is proposed that all software to be distributed that is not in the public domain will be via difference listings from a standard source for that piece of software. ; "Standard" sources would be generated and distributed to appropriate licensees. The Newsletter. This would be comprised of a general section distributed to all members plus special sections distributed only to the appropriate licensees. This implies that the organization must keep track of all licenses. y The committee welcomes comments (in writing only!) on any of the above, but in particular would like input on the following: 1. 3. Given the proposed membership fees: a. Would your organization become a member? b. Would you become an Individual Member? The initial time scale for the Committee was to have a draft set of the bylaws circu- lated before a meeting in February, 1979 on the West Coast. Discussion of the draft would take place at the meeting, followed by a postal vote. This implies no organi- zation (therefore NO INCOME) before June 1979, resulting in no software distribution before the Fall of 1979. Are there enough installations willing to put up the $250 fee in the near future to ensure start of distribution this year? How should organizations outside North America be represented? Should they have voting rights or observer status only? The deadline for comments to be considered before the proposed bylaws are drafted is OCTOBER 1st, 1978. Please take the time to write up your comments or suggestions and send them to: Lew Law Seience Center 1 Oxford St. Cambridge, Mass., 02138. Please state the name of your organization and the person responsible for the present UNIX system. Your prompt reply will help us immensely. * UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories, Ine. *® USENIX is not a trademark of Bell Laboratories, Inc.