Christopher J. McKenzie
CSClub president
(R0T13 email) pwz@hpqnivf.rqh
Sat Mar 13 11:00:19 PST 2004

I. RECENT HISTORY

In early 2002, the CS Club under guidence of Kevin Murakoshi and Matt Wiley
decided to become a large centralized unit.  Having over a dozen officers,
the CS Club was going to come in strong for the 2003 school year.  Specifics
were not entirely outlined and the structure was not well defined.  After many
failed attempts, email flamewars began.  The previous officers (Chris Marsh)
were amazed by the amount of dysfunctionality of the CS Club.  A wave of
resignation happened including one officer (not named) being removed. During
this time (Fall 2002), I was PELPing for personal problems.  When I returned
in Winter of 2003, the CS Club had ground to a halt.  The once motivated
Kevin Murakoshi did not care about it any more along with many other members.
Sigrid Roehling resigned and Matt Wiley dropped out of school.  I was drafted
as president for the 2003-2004 school year.

II. 2003-2004

With the early help of Chris Takemaru and Ian Tucker, the CS Club had a plan
for fall of 2003.  We had a new website and a group of new freshman excited
about College and the potential it had.  We then had a general meeting with a
guest speaker Sean Davis.  I had a lot planned.  I wanted to do social and
academic oriented things with the club.  There would be a journal of research,
lan parties, programming competitions, movie nights, installfests and 
everything else.  Most of it became vaporware because nobody else was willing
to help me actually make it happen.  For a while I, Christopher J. McKenzie,
was the UC Davis CS Club.

III. Winter 2004

I started Winter 2004 with a new model, learning from the past.  The CS Club
would be a collection of resources.  Room reservations, funding, mailing lists,
website access, access to materials to make posters etc.  Students would have
projects such as a lecture series.  They would propose to me what they would
like to do informally and then I would make them an officer only after they
proposed that they would do something.  I strived for complete autonomy.
You could have two people that do not get along, each having their own separate
projects, never having to deal with each other.  One student was not allowed
to mention or promote another student's project without permission.  This 
system set up responsibility, self-motivation, and accountability all while
keeping people independent.  Everything went fine until a major snag happened.
The club was not technically registered with the Student Programs and Activities
Commission (SPAC).  Room reservations and funding, two essential resources to
be provided, could not happen.  Then, after recieving the SPAC form, nobody
was willing to sign on as treasurer until yesterday.  Now there is one training
session left to become an official club for 2003-2004 and it is booked.  If
we make it then events can start happening.  If not, then I will have to go to
Karen Mack for more information regarding this.

IV. A little foresight of hindsight

I personally can't imagine people looking at this in the csclub directory in
about 2009 thinking "oh, so the CS Club tried to do something once".  I know
this document will look historical one day, and I would just like to mention,
for future audience, reading this when this is an ancient piece of history,
that at least this part, is timeless.