[Noisebridge-discuss] Structure & Membership

Naomi Most pnaomi at gmail.com
Tue Sep 25 02:09:21 UTC 2018


OK.  Can you be explicit about what you see happening at Noisebridge?  It’s not obvious to me, which means it’s really not obvious to 99% of people reading this.

Keep in mind, the mailing list has thousands of people on it, hundreds of which do visit Noisebridge, with some subset being on Slack, and only a small subset of those on Slack even know 50% of what you’re referring to.

—Naomi



> On Sep 24, 2018, at 2:25 PM, Trent Robbins <robbintt at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I forgot to add the second part of this passage on that ties everything together. To have the whole context you will need to read the whole document anyways, but I will add it here to reduce confusion:
> 
> > Although this dissection of the process of elite formation within small groups has been critical in perspective, it is not made in the belief that these informal structures are inevitably bad -- merely inevitable. All groups create informal structures as a result of interaction patterns among the members of the group. Such informal structures can do very useful things But only Unstructured groups are totally governed by them. When informal elites are combined with a myth of "structurelessness," there can be no attempt to put limits on the use of power. It becomes capricious.
> 
> > This has two potentially negative consequences of which we should be aware. The first is that the informal structure of decision-making will be much like a sorority -- one in which people listen to others because they like them and not because they say significant things. As long as the movement does not do significant things this does not much matter. But if its development is not to be arrested at this preliminary stage, it will have to alter this trend. The second is that informal structures have no obligation to be responsible to the group at large. Their power was not given to them; it cannot be taken away. Their influence is not based on what they do for the group; therefore they cannot be directly influenced by the group. This does not necessarily make informal structures irresponsible. Those who are concerned with maintaining their influence will usually try to be responsible. The group simply cannot compel such responsibility; it is dependent on the interests of the elite.
> 
> Thanks,
> Trent
> 
> On Mon, Sep 24, 2018 at 1:48 PM Trent Robbins <robbintt at gmail.com <mailto:robbintt at gmail.com>> wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> In the past year I have been grappling a lot with to what degree the membership at Noisebridge is just a board of directors with no term and a flexible number of seats. It makes complete sense to me that people would not want to burden the membership with all the implied burdens that a board of directors has.  Past proposals to combine the two have been scandalous for whatever reason; I don't know the details.
> 
> One of the key documents I have been struggling with is "The Tyranny of Structurelessness" by Jo Freeman: https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm <https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm>
> 
> Noisebridge is anything but a structureless organization, but there is a section of "The Tyranny of Structureless" that discusses how power comes to be that I find particularly helpful, titled "The Nature of Elitism".
> 
> In particular, I find this passage helpful:
> 
> > These friendship groups function as networks of communication outside any regular channels for such communication that may have been set up by a group. If no channels are set up, they function as the only networks of communication. Because people are friends, because they usually share the same values and orientations, because they talk to each other socially and consult with each other when common decisions have to be made, the people involved in these networks have more power in the group than those who don't. And it is a rare group that does not establish some informal networks of communication through the friends that are made in it.
> 
> > Some groups, depending on their size, may have more than one such informal communications network. Networks may even overlap. When only one such network exists, it is the elite of an otherwise Unstructured group, whether the participants in it want to be elitists or not. If it is the only such network in a Structured group it may or may not be an elite depending on its composition and the nature of the formal Structure. If there are two or more such networks of friends, they may compete for power within the group, thus forming factions, or one may deliberately opt out of the competition, leaving the other as the elite. In a Structured group, two or more such friendship networks usually compete with each other for formal power. This is often the healthiest situation, as the other members are in a position to arbitrate between the two competitors for power and thus to make demands on those to whom they give their temporary allegiance.
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