First, let me say that I am in no way speaking as part of the LCS Board, officers, or any other "official" capacity in this particular post. That's why I didn't use the LCS ZBB account. These are only my personal thoughts on the points that have been brought up.
I've personally always seen the LCS's relationship to conlanging as akin to the
American Philatelic Society's relationship to stamp collecting, the
National Model Railroad Association to model railroading, or the
American Numismatic Association to coin collecting. You don't have to belong to any of these organizations if you are a stamp collector, model railroader, or coin collector, but they're there if you want to. Likewise, those who do join, gain some benefits of membership. The bigger purpose to all of these, including the LCS, is to provide resources to its members
and the wider community of enthusiasts/fans/whatever you call them.
To put this into conlanging perspective, one conlanger working on his/her own would find it difficult to be able to pull off a continuing event like the
LCC. I attended LCC2 and thoroughly enjoyed it, and LCC3 was even bigger than its predecessor. The ability to interact with other conlangers online is great, and Zompist (see no definite article
) has done a wonderful service to the community by maintaining this bulletin board. I don't have to tell anyone reading this that this is the case, but being able to talk and learn from people in-person was a great experience. Granted, there are smaller meetings taking place among conlangers all the time, but LCC is a unique conlanger-friendly environment.
Zompist himself maintains this domain for the good of the community (and, of course, his own conworldly endeavors) with his own money. A society/club/association/whatever like the LCS provides some basic infrastructure and funding to do bigger things like the LCC and other ideas that have been kicking around.
I have absolutely no desire to get caught up in discussions about Sai that have taken place in the past or are taking place. Granted, the LCC/LCS was started by Sai and he's still involved, but I think it's important that the LCS is a self-sustaining organization independent of one singular personality. The new change in leadership hopefully demonstrates some of that to those skeptical of the motives of the LCS.
I'm sorry to hear Salmoneus is disappointed that the LCS ...
Salmoneus wrote:still think it's their role to listen to us. The rhetoric of serving the community is a smokescreen over their reality as a personal vanity project.
From my perspective, that's the primary role of any organization that represents a larger community (see the stamps, trains, and coin reference above): to listen to the members of its constituent community. If the LCS can be a conduit for some larger projects to benefit the wider community, why not take advantage of them (regardless of how it got started or what interpretation you want to put on that creation)? What should those kinds of projects be? That's where the Advisory Committee comes in.
Anyway, that's my take on what the LCS is and what it can be.
). The committee will communicate via a mailman listserv, so we will need your e-mail address, but other than that, anyone can participate.
