[Noisebridge-discuss] Noisebridge Executive Director

Sun Feb 28 23:14:19 UTC 2010

Christie, here are some thoughts I had regarding your position on Mitch
as ED.

I understand why you would object to an 'absentee' ED.  I posit to you
that there are significant benefits as well.  Noisebridge has an
extraordinarily rich interaction with other hackerspaces (and generally
cool people) *worldwide*, due primarily to our roving ambassadors, Jake
and Mitch.  We've got relationships with hackers not only in Chicago,
Toronto, Atlanta, etc in North America, but also in Germany and Japan,
and probably others I'm not yet aware of.

Have you asked Mitch if his schedule will continue to be that he's gone
a great deal of the time?  It may be that he'll be around more in 2010,
which would allow him to keep more abreast of the activities of the
organization.

To address your issue further: regarding keeping abreast of the ongoing
needs of the organization, we've been pretty clear that this is not
actually the business of the ED, but of the members.  The ED is *not*
our leader.  I believe you might respond to this that the ED is
perceived as such by outsiders, and I would respond to that with, how
does that cause a problem for us?

Rachel

Christie Dudley wrote:
> My issues with Mitch are fairly minor.  I think he's a great person, but
> he's not terribly involved in the immediate Noisebridge community.  He's
> just not around much and doesn't keep abreast of the breadth of totally
> excellent things going on at Noisebridge, or the ongoing needs of the
> organization.  
> 
> In addition to the 'representational' part that Vlad brought up (can he
> represent us well if he doesn't know us well?) It is the ED's job to
> call the board meetings, set the agenda and preside.  I think Rachel has
> been doing a fine job of this so far, but it's not her job.  (Legally,
> according to the bylaws)  I'd really like to see an ED who can do the
> job, who understands when board meetings are needed and will make that
> happen.
> 
> I think Mitch could do a fair job of muddling through if there were no
> other candidates.  But there are other candidates who are much more
> capable of doing a good job with what little is required of them.  It
> appalls me that we have to have the choice of the board as our only
> option, especially when it's not the best one.
> 
> I don't understand why this discussion keeps coming back to Mitch/Not
> Mitch.  I thought it was the will of the members to decide who.  Why are
> we not comparing Mitch/Mikolaj/whoever?  This false dichotomy is killing
> serious consideration of the candidates.
> 
> We already decided at the meeting this coming week that we would *not*
> try to form a consensus on the candidates for ED, but rather narrow it
> down to one to consense on next week.  WHY do we keep coming back to
> this whole false dichotomy?
> 
> Christie
> _______
> "We also briefly discussed having officers replaced by very small shell
> scripts." -- Noisebridge meeting notes 2008-06-17
> 
> The outer bounds is only the beginning.
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/genriel/sets/72157623376093724/
> 
> 
> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 12:23 PM, Ani Niow <v at oneletterwonder.com
> <mailto:v at oneletterwonder.com>> wrote:
> 
>     I would like to formally re-nominate Mitch for the position of the
>     Executive Director of Noisebridge.
> 
> 
> 
>     -Ani
> 
> 
> 
>     On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 1:00 AM, Jeffrey Malone
>     <ieatlint at tehinterweb.com <mailto:ieatlint at tehinterweb.com>> wrote:
> 
>         On Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 6:52 PM, Sai Emrys
>         <noisebridge at saizai.com <mailto:noisebridge at saizai.com>> wrote:
>         > On Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 3:52 PM, Andy Isaacson
>         <adi at hexapodia.org <mailto:adi at hexapodia.org>> wrote:
>         >> We currently have all of these things.  AFAIK, until the
>         board appoints
>         >> a new ED, Jake continues in his appointment from last year.
>         >
>         > That's my reading as well. Officers serve until replaced; Board
>         > members have terms of office.
>         >
> 
>         Actually, you have that kind of backwards.
>         Both have terms -- 1 year.  Board members remain in office until
>         they
>         are replaced.
>         There is no such clause for officers.  Our bylaws state that
>         they must
>         be appointed annually, and as the year ran up at the beginning of
>         October, so did the term for all three officer positions.
> 
>         Noisebridge has been without an ED since October.  This has been
>         stated at a board meeting and a general meeting.
>         In fact, two board members even tried to simply appoint an ED at the
>         last board meeting to "fix" this.  They even planned to do so
>         without
>         consulting the members before conceding to objections that while the
>         legal authority exists for them to do that, it runs completely
>         against
>         Noisebridge policy.
> 
> 
> 
>         In general, I would like to thank all of you for turning this into a
>         discussion about what people feel the ED is, and absolutely
>         nothing to
>         do with actually selecting a new one.
>         You might argue that you feel defining the role is the same thing.
>         It's not -- who it is, and what they will be doing are two different
>         controversial subjects.  Intertwining them has, as best I can tell,
>         resulted in absolutely no progress on either side.
> 
>         So any chance this can get back on topic to its original intent of
>         nominating people for the ED?  Or should I simply give up?
> 
>         Jeffrey
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> 
> 
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