[Noisebridge-discuss] Decisions

[Paul Böhm]

Hi,

Here's 10 observations i've made on hackerspace decision making
throughout the last 10 years:

0) Never solve problems that aren't there yet!

1) Vote for someone to moderate at the beginning of every meeting
(this becomes implicit after a while, as some people who are accepted
by the group just volunteer in turns).

2) If the moderator sucks, ask to vote for a new one immediately. This
request should never be turned down. If the old one has a majority
again, that's a vote of confidence, and everything's fine.

3) Try as hell to never have a single decision that people can
legitimately contest. If you can't legitimately make a decision
representing the member base who's interested in the decision, you'll
just have to postpone and announce a new date in time.

4) Never ignore rule 3! People need to know it's their hackerspace,
and noone is the dictator running it. However don't wait for a huge
number of people to show up for some votes or discussions. A lot of
people often don't care either way. Just make sure it's been well
announced.

5) Don't postpone decisions indefinitely, if everyone agrees there's a
clear consensus or majority, it's often better to act now.  See 0).

6) Don't discuss complex issues verbally or on the list. Make plans
first. Things like a room plan, smoking policy, etc. are tied to many
other things. Find out what the real scope of the problem/question is,
and make /COMPLETE/ plans and discuss those, or vote on them. If you
have a clear vision, but no time to make your own plan - well, tough
luck.

A prime candidate for this is the room plan. Don't discuss in groups
>3 whether Room X should be the photo lab or the bondage studio, but
make a complete room plan and vote on that.

7) Nothing's worse than people who know how to do everything better,
but have no time to actually do it. just stfu.

8) Usually the people who do are right - IF they allow for enough time
and discussion that someone else could contribute too. Don't rush
things, and stop people who start things which they can't reasonably
finish.

9) Once you have a space, you'll have a lot more direct communication,
and  things usually work out. Don't worry! See 0)

10) Total openness in decision making is the secret weapon against
destructive people. Disruptive people stand no chance if you don't
bite.

There's a story to 10):

We only had a single vote in our history of 2 years, and that was on
the room plan. We had 5 options, illustrated with graphics and
explanations, and voted using the condorcet-schulze algorithm also
used by the debian project. (Sorting the options by preference and
finding the most favored option). We had a clear winner, and
everyone's happy with the compromise.

For that vote, we seriously had non-smoking-activists join the club,
just to make sure smoking is prohibited in ALL rooms, not even
allowing for a smoker's room less than 10% of our total space. These
people had never used the space, neither before nor after the vote.

If every decision is legitimized, and every answer to their
provocations is "ok, we can vote on it", they'll leave quickly, seeing
that they stand no chance against a majority of rational, tolerant,
and pragmatic members (the usual audience of great hackerspaces).

Paul

On Jan 24, 2008 1:17 AM, Al Billings <albill at arcanology.com> wrote:
> Jonas S Karlsson wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Here is some thoughts captured from initial discussion with several of
> > the people who initiated the whole project. They've kind of been
> > resonated with at meetings, but should be discussed/modified and then
> > accepted by the group.
>
> Decisions get made at meetings but a number of us can't go to the normal
> meetings. Do we then not get a say in decisions? :-)
>
>
> Al
>
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