Conundrum of the Day

[uisgebeatha]

Ooh, blog. I used to write in this. *silently curses Twitter and FB*

So, I have a Conundrum which I'd appreciate some feedback on. I've anonymised the organisation because I want a few non-bloggers to give their opinion, hence public post. WITHOUT FURTHER ADO.

Comments

[stephdairy]

It does not look to me like LNM (substituted as appropriate) is any kind of trademark. LNM is not involved in trade, so I don't think your using the name would be passing off. At present, I think anyone could reasonably call themselves LNM, and if I were you I would carry on using the name. I know they are thinking of becoming a charity. If they do this, the situation may change.

I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice!

(S)

[uisgebeatha]

Yeah, spotted that. I believe she's trying to get it turned into a charity currently. At that point it's no skin off my nose to change the name enough to avoid lawyers, to be honest.

It has reminded me I ought to find some lovely corporate sponsors for the dinners, should you happen to know any :P

[stephdairy]

Sadly I don't know any wealthy businesspeople. (Though you might try talking to Cambridge WiSETI for contacts...)

(S)

[cartesiandaemon]

It seems like either "invite men" and "don't invite men" are fine, and we need some groups that do each, so going with whatever the majority want is the obvious thing to do. So the question is, how much is the group defined by the regular members, and how much by its association to the umbrella organisation? Has the central organisation contributed much other than the idea?

Obviously the umbrella woman has a vision for how she'd like to do it, and is inclined to lean very much towards the "this is her group and someone local is just running it for her". But at this point, before the national organisation is massively established, it seems like the balance is more towards "what the local regular members want", unless there's been a lot of help from the central organisation.

So, I'd do whatever you the majority of people want, and if you have to change the name, then go ahead and do so. And stick up a link saying "inspired by" or "breakaway from" or something if you think continued good relations with the ex-parent group would be good

[bugshaw]

I feel LNM kinda loses its unique selling point. Why should I go to its meetings instead of any other place where geeks hang out? I do like to go once in a while somewhere that men are essentially off the table for a few hours, and see if we can all still pass the Bechdel test :-)

[hatter]

I think I'd just ignore the umbrella-holder and wait for one of the other groups to blow up with the other gender issue that'd bound to come up occasionally, that should be suitably distracting and I suspect you'll pin your colours very much into the rational and accepting corner.

As an aside, I don't recall if you mentioned or if you've asked the new woman what her brother feels he can bring to the dinner by being there - where of course 'a male perspective' by itself is not the correct answer, as I doubt many of the women there are short of that on things they can discuss.

the hatter

[jdc39]

I agree with you on this - as you point out, it's only fair to go with whatever the group votes for; the local regular members should get what they want as it is now their group.

If the woman continues to actively disapprove, and continues to talk over you, perhaps you could invite her as a guest speaker to meet the local regular members; after hearing their concerns and wishes, and why and how much the majority prefer it to be women only, she might change her position on women-only policies decided by individual branches of LNM.