On the contrary. The author’s actual words were:
“Legal issues arising from an event such as this should be on the shoulders of the University or the location itself. Working with established Community groups for these events absolves LoCo Teams of the responibilities of legal and monetary framework and should be pursued wherever possible.”

That is not taking anything and “making it better”, that is just taking. “Absolve LoCo Teams of responsibility”. Sorry, but a *GOOD* member of society accepts responsibility. Finances and legal liability are no fun to think about or deal with, but running around with the attitude that “we shouldn’t have to” (author says “finances and legal concerns [...] should be avoided whenever possible!”), and that other groups will cover our slack is just going to make us into unwanted guests, or at the very least curtail our activities to what other groups want to do (in which case, we should join those other groups, and not bother with LoCo teams).

It really seems that for some reason Ubuntu may not prosper in the States because people here are not understanding the meaning and true spirit of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is for everyone- from the everyday user to the passionate person that dreams of ways to help make it prosper. If you are in this for recognition, or if are constantly worried about your ass and want someone to cover it- this is not the place for you. Ubuntu members watch out for each other, we are a family. This is not to be turned into a corporation deal- this is to be a community of passionate people that are willing to give of their time and energy to a greater cause.

1) Avoiding financial and legal concerns by “building upon those before us” is tantamount to being a parasite. “Hey, we don’t want to deal with unpleasant things, so we’ll ‘let’ you deal with them for us.” This leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t want to be the unemployed relative who overextends his welcome by always taking and never giving.

2) LoCo may not be here to replace existing LUGs, but guess what? It will. We all only have so much time and energy to expend on our hobbies. Furthermore, some (many?) of us have hobbies which are not Linux related and/or families which also require part of this limited pool. Sure, I’d love to be an active participant in 3 different computer groups (LUG, LoCo, PerlMongers) but I really can’t do it.

3) “We need to cooperate and participate instead of try to build anew. Work with existing groups and make them stronger instead of build our own isolated communities.” This is counter to the idea of an Ubuntu community. It is the Ubuntu community that helped me make the choice to stick with Ubuntu, but now you are saying we should put our energy into other communities rather than into building our own. If I wanted to do that, I wouldn’t need to join a LoCo to do it. If we don’t build the Ubuntu LoCo community, then we are members of… nothing. I am joining a LoCo because I want to build *this* community.