[Noisebridge-discuss] meet tomorrow?

[Noah Balmer]

I think that is a totally reasonable concern, and agree that it needs to be
addressed.
I'm no expert on corporate law, but here's how I look at it.
I don't want my money, or my time for that matter, to go to an organization
with a high likelihood of imploding. I want to make sure that it's going to
stay stable, viable, and healthy.   I also want to be sure that the
organization's mission matches up with my own, and that the people in
positions of power are legally obligated to put that mission first, and can
be held accountable if they don't. I don't want people with no legal
responsibilities to be able to destabilize the whole venture by kicking out
the people in charge of operations and replacing them with an untried new
group.
In my case, I think that the existing laws requiring a reasonable standard
of care from the board are sufficient.  If the board accepts my donation,
but doesn't spend it appropriately, I can sue them.  I'm much more concerned
that I might invest in an organization and see it all fall apart because of
power struggles.  What I've been hearing is that an organization with voting
members is much more prone to power struggles and eventual failure, and that
scenario is not in anyone's best interests.
I've been a serious "voting members" advocate until yesterday, but after
learning the common result I've decided that I'd rather be a participant in
a healthy organization than a voter in one that's falling apart.


On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 2:10 PM, Al Billings <albill at arcanology.com> wrote:

> Noah Balmer wrote:
>
>> To look at it another way, If the board doesn't keep the donors happy,
>> they won't get any more donations, so the board is highly motivated to keep
>> the interests of the donors in mind.
>>
>
> More? How about any? We're asking people to donate a bunch of money up
> front to get the group going since we more than a couple of thousand dollars
> in order to even *get into* a space if one can be found. Then we're asking
> people to promise hundreds of dollars a month for a period of time in order
> to meet the lease on a space.
>
> I won't be at the meeting tonight but I know that before I hand significant
> amounts of money to near strangers, I am going to have questions about how
> accountable the organization is. I was under the impression that we'd agreed
> to have members have some say in the organization, partially because these
> concerns were brought up before.  Maybe this is only a concern to me but I
> suspect that it will not be so.
>
> I don't think that I'm being overly cantankerous here but it is possible.
>
> Al
>
>
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