[Noisebridge-discuss] meet tomorrow?
Mitch Altman
maltman23 at hotmail.com
Tue May 27 20:44:36 UTC 2008
I look forward to discussing this tonight at Noah's. Thanks for hosting, Noah. And thanks for your thoughts, well described.
Mitch.
---------------------
> Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 13:33:04 -0700
> From: albill at arcanology.com
> To: noahbalmer at gmail.com
> Subject: Re: [Noisebridge-discuss] meet tomorrow?
> CC: noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>
> Noah Balmer wrote:
> > My gedanken experiment went something like this. I'm sure that after
> > Julia's class I might have other ideas for actions the board might
> > take if things go bad, but here's what I've got for now:
> >
> > *Scenario: a board member (or a minority of the board) is not doing
> > their job*
> > *No members:* The rest of the board figures out what's going on with
> > them and takes appropriate action, including removal by a majority of
> > board members then in office (note, not a majority of a quorum) if
> > necessary.
> > *With members:* same thing happens, but the members are talking about
> > whether or not they should get involved, and fighting out the drama,
> > instead of talking about how to build a better solar powered whiskey
> > fountain.
> > *Assessment:* Making a whiskey fountain is more fun than arguing about
> > what happens to the board. Board is fine either way.
> >
> > *Scenario: the whole board goes gradually lazy or evil, together
> > No members:* Board members have a legal responsibility to do their
> > job, so there's a strong motivation for individual board members not
> > to let this happen. It is of course possible, however. We can
> > encourage directors to get their act together or resign but can't
> > force them. This fucking sucks, we'd better avoid it.
> > *With Members:* The members vote the board out, and vote a new board
> > in. The new board is starting from scratch, but the organization is
> > already in full swing, with active contracts and other legal
> > responsibilities which have, until this moment bun run by a presumed
> > incompetent board. Inexperienced board, suddenly legally responsible
> > for an unfamiliar inherited mess equals total organizational
> > disaster. Kicked out board is pissed, so are any supporters they had,
> > past donors wonder what the deal is and what they spent their money
> > on, PR nightmare. This fucking sucks, we'd better avoid it.
> > *Assessment:* The detail-oriented may have noticed that both outcomes
> > fucking suck and are better avoided. As Julia put it "If you get to
> > the point that you need to kick out the whole board, you've already
> > failed." So lets make sure we always have new, not yet corrupted
> > people represented as well as experienced,
> > possibly-corrupted-but-at-least-know-what's-going-on people. Julia's
> > suggestion was to start with a five person board, with a commitment to
> > add board members at regular intervals over the first year or two so
> > that people's terms end in a staggered fashion. The bylaws can allow
> > a varying number of positions on the board (she'd suggested 5-15, and
> > 50%+1 as a quorum, though we'd probably want to start on the lower end
> > of this range). Term limits ensure that new people show up on the
> > board at regular intervals. The idea is to structure the organization
> > in such a way that it stays healthy, rather than structure it in such
> > a way that it can make desperate attempts to save itself when it's
> > unhealthy.
> >
>
> So, people are advocating for people to, possibly, pay a couple of
> hundred dollars a month in order for us to get a space in San Francisco
> but these same people putting in money won't get any say in how the
> group is run, legally? Not everyone who pays a bunch of money is going
> to be on the board (or want to be) and we also shouldn't limit board
> membership to those who have enough money to pitch in a lot.
>
> What is the solution?
>
> Al
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