CREN Board Members:
 
Our site has been waiting patiently for the CREN/L-Soft negotiations to
conclude with either an agreement or a statement that no agreement
would be reached.
 
If the CREN board states that no agreement would be reached, our site
will begin negotiations with L-Soft directly in order to get the benefits
of the latest releases of Listserv and LMail.  Our evaluation is that
these new releases provide significant new function which will allow us
to operate our site more effectively.  Enabling our site to operate more
effectively is our express interest in supporting CREN with our annual dues.
 
In the past few months I have noticed the western CREN region disintegrating
with the loss of the Southern California core site and several significant
University of California sites dropping membership.  Other UC sites are also
discussing the continuing value of CREN membership.  (I am not speaking
for them in this note.)  At this point we plan to continue our CREN
membership.  There is little reason for us to do so, however, if this
means paying both for CREN dues and L-Soft license fees.
 
It would be helpful if board members would state what needs to
be accomplished in order for negotiations to be concluded one way or
the other together with a date for a final conclusion.  Frankly, the
appearance shown to the CREN members is that the board is not actively
involved in this critical issue.
 
  Richard Hintz  [log in to unmask]  OPSRJH@UCCVMA (BITNET)
  University of California