A bit of context, perhaps....

[Michael O'Dell]

Several folks have asked that someone from the Board post
something to provide a bit of context for the recent
South Africa discussions here.  The following tries
to do that without a complete recitation of either 
the entire history or all the varied opinions.

I strongly suspect this will be an animated topic for the
Open Board Meeting at Anaheim.

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To briefly provide a bit of missing context about the
Anaheim USENIX Board Meeting agenda item which Peter Salus
commented upon:

On several occasions the Association has
been approached by the University of Capetown about 
their desire to become an institutional member of
the Association.  

This question is clearly a matter for the Board,
and it is rather complex for a number of reasons,
not the least of which has to do with US Federal statutes,
findings by the US Department of Commerce about whether
the University of Capetown is an Apartheid-enforcing agency,
the rights and legal obligations of the Board w.r.t.
membership rules, as well as the larger meta-question of
the mixing of political matters with what is essentially
a technical society.  As you can imagine, there are varied
and quite strongly-held opinions on all these matters.

The Board Meeting agenda item addresses the nature, if any,
of action we might wish to take on this matter.

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	Your Obedient Director-at-Large,
	-Mike O'Dell