AWL> An Unincorporated Association is like
AWL> a partnership with a flux of membership...

RS> Pity you havent even established that Fido *IS* an
RS> unincorporated association Alex. Just claimed it is. It aint.

AWL> What is it then Rod.

Its a group of volunteers who have agreed to exchange mail. Just
like a group of volunteers might agree to appear on a a particular
oval on say Sunday mornings to play some particular sport. That does
NOT make them an unincorporated association, just a group of volunteers.

AWL> If it was just a nodelist, I would be able to submit
AWL> an automated request for nodelisting (with PVT flag)
AWL> and appear in the next issue of the nodelist.

Fraid not Alex, there is nothing to stop a particular group from
having some requirements. They could decide to meet on Sunday mornings,
and play say badminton. If some other group wants to meet on Saturday
mornings and play frisbee throwing, they are perfectly welcome to have
their own group with its own detail. None of those are unincorporated
associations. Neither is a group that chooses to meet in one particular
room of a particular pub to discuss say the republic, on a particular
night of particular weeks.

AWL> I would also be able to subscribe the sysop echos just because I wanted to

Its completely irrelevant, there is no requirement that a group of
volunteers has to allow total open slather on everything. It clearly
atleast restricts itself to the subset that exchange mail by phone
modem. That entirely up to them and its perfectly acceptible for say
another group to use say fax if they want to.

AWL> It has no separate (legal) existance, but can be treated as
AWL> an entity as a short-hand for the individuals who make it up.
AWL> Any suit is against those individuals, but the Membership List
AWL> is what determines who is and is not a party to the action...

RS> Pity thats nothing like Fido Alex. Any more than a
RS> list of people who choose to meet the requirement to
RS> turn up on saturday mornings for a game of whatever is.

AWL> If that list of people start calling themselves
AWL> "The Outer Brisbane Sunday Players" (or FidoNet) they
AWL> are an association. If they aren't incorporated...

Nope. Not in the sense of exposing themselves to any liability
due to the actions of a particular person. The concept of
membership may well not even apply, if they have a quite fluid
system where people just turn up or not as the urge takes them,
and can just be never seen again if they get sick of it.

RS> They are at no legal risk of some dork like you declaiming that
RS> Saturday doesnt suit him, so it has to be some other morning instead.

AWL> But if "some dork" insists that they change venue to
AWL> one that is wheelchair accessable, then the HREOC can
AWL> (and will) gently explain that they have no choice...

Thats complete and utter tripe Alex. Try doing that with
one of the groups of people who meet on the beach to say
play volleyball or toss frisbees. You cant just declaim
they cant do it there because your wheelchair wont go there.

Or say a group of droid housewives that agree to meet on a
particular beach on a particular arvo to work on their ankle
biters skin cancers. Or a group of rock fishermen that agree
to fish of some particular rocks on a particular day etc.

And you havent actually established any restriction as far as disabled
people are concerned with Fido anyway, it has a variety of ways they can use
the system, and they do too. So your claim is crap on a number of counts.

RS> Because he is perfectly free to have a group of people who
RS> prefer to do it on Sunday morning instead if he wants to do
RS> that. So there goes THAT silly argument up in flames too.

AWL> But I'm not talking about changing mornings (or whatever)
AWL> I'm asking that an existing technical concession (PVT flag)
AWL> be granted to me. Total "hardship" to FidoNet 4 bytes...

Stiff shit, they dont do their group of volunteers like that.
You are perfectly welcome to have your own group which has
nothing but PVT flags, anyone can invent his own flag, your
flag matches your initial etc etc, any time you care to.

--- PQWK202