[Noisebridge-discuss] Noisebridge Board Elections 2011

[Patrick Keys]

What positions are board-level positions?

I am honestly not a member (yet).

However, as I have some business experience and a college degree in 
business, I'm prepared to commit some time to getting the financial 
matters somewhat in order.


Patrick


On 12/16/2010 3:53 PM, aestetix aestetix wrote:
> I think there's a lot of room for misinterpretation as to what board
> elections are actually for.
>
> Carrying with my own understanding that the point of the board is to
> handle external affairs which may arise, rather than to monitor the
> ongoings within Noisebridge itself, and to that end performing only with
> the most minimal obligations required by the nonprofit status, let me
> elaborate on what I think Jim is getting at.
>
> Culturally, we view elections as a sports game or a class president
> round. It usually boils down to who is most popular, best looking, has
> the most money, or in some way is seen as the "best." This attitude is
> counterthesis to the notion that everyone as a member of Noisebridge,
> either officially or through community, brings something to the table,
> and exudes that some people are "better" than others.
>
> Further, having a popular vote aggrandizes the wrong things. We want to
> be able to appreciate people for who they are and the cool projects they
> work on, not because they were able to get enough votes and "won." It
> also brings too much attention to the fact that there's a board, and can
> extend false social powers to the board members, when in reality they
> are just regular members who are filling out paperwork so the rest of us
> don't have to worry about it.
>
> That said, figuring out a valid solution to this is tricky. Picking
> random members to be the board could work, but most people don't want to
> deal with the actual headache of legalese and paperwork when the board
> does get called for something, or don't realize how annoying it can be,
> and why those of us who are not on the board are so gracious to those on
> the board who handle that stuff for us. Plus, we do have board members
> who know the legal stuff decently, and it could make sense to simply let
> them go on unless one wants to step down.
>
> Most of us who have been around Noisebridge for a while already
> understand this, so perhaps this is a good time to let new people ask
> questions. I'm assuming we do a sort of introductory thing at the
> meetings, but perhaps having a meeting where we go into a bit of detail
> on the purpose of the board and how it differs from what elections would
> normally entail would be cool?
>
> On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 12:11 PM, Jonathan Lassoff <jof at thejof.com
> <mailto:jof at thejof.com>> wrote:
>
>     On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 8:01 AM, jim <jim at well.com
>     <mailto:jim at well.com>> wrote:
>      >
>      >   this voting business seems distasteful. last
>      > year there was a little discussion that included
>      > the suggestion of randomly picking board members:
>      > i like that a lot, kind of like the way we got
>      > our president--worked great!
>
>     I'm curious to understand what you find distasteful in the
>     nomination process?
>
>      From what pool of candidates could we randomly select from? To
>     clarify, the Presidential position is not a position on the board it
>     is an officer. As far as I know, we've never had random selection of
>     board members.
>
>     We will be discussing this proposal and hopefully coming to a
>     consensus on something at next weeks meeting.
>
>      >   is there any reason why we can't just draft
>      > members in good standing and let them object if
>      > they don't want to be board members?
>
>     Is is possible (if you are in good standing) to just nominate
>     everyone, and those who are uninterested can concede their nomination.
>
>     Cheers,
>     jof
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