<div>Hello everyone,</div><div><br></div><div>At Thursday's meeting we had a discussion about the space, its organization, and it's future.</div><div><br></div><div>The discussion began 2 Thursdays ago when some folks interested in starting a hacker space in Springfield showed up to the wireless mesh reading group, and started asking organizational questions. A few other people (myself included) who are new to the group also started asking questions, and the conversation carried over into this last Thursday. </div>
<div><br></div><div>I was asked to put these notes on the mailing list to facilitate a discussion of them amongst the membership that wasn't present at that meeting.</div><div><br></div><div>The conversaion started with discussion of the vision of the space and the principles by which the space should abide.</div>
<div><br></div><div>For Vision, we decided we thought the current mission/vision statement from the website covered the idea pretty well. </div><div><br></div><div>For Principles:</div><div><br></div><div>* There should be jobs/roles for certain key tasks (see below)</div>
<div>* Roles are strictly volunteer</div><div>* Roles convey no special privilege</div><div>* Strive to keep membership/dues rates as low as possible</div><div>* Donations and Dues are private to the member (opt-out)</div>
<div>* The space should be self-sustaining w/out Americorps help.</div><div>* The group should generally governed via consensus</div><div><br></div><div>We then discussed various roles we felt would be good for the space. These roles may not end up having a 1:1 mapping with jobs, but completeness a this stage is considered beneficial.</div>
<div><br></div><div>* Keymaster</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- on the lease</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- tracks and distributes space keys</div>
<div>* Treasurer</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Knows the financial state of the group</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Interacts with the IMC finance committee</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Tracks/collects dues</div><div><br></div><div>* Business Development (or some better name, e.g. outreach coordinater?)</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- mail brochures to potentially interested people</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- participate in IMC foundation group</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- advertise/promote/etc successes and mission</div>
<div><br></div><div>* Quartermaster/inventory specialist</div><div><br></div><div>* root (webmaster, other IT infrastructure)</div><div><br></div><div>* safety officer</div><div><br></div><div>* representative/spokesperson</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- be the contact person for the "outside world"</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- maybe be person for new attendees to talk to?</div>
<div><br></div><div>Communication and Consensus was also a topic of discussion:</div><div><br></div><div>* We talked about email or other electronic consensus, for small and moderate issues, deciding that it would be a reasonable way to reach consensus unless someone blocks or wants to discuss it in a "real business meeting" </div>
<div><br></div><div>* We discussed the idea that sometimes people are incommunicado for a while, or otherwise unable to attend meetings. As such, we liked the idea of bi-monthly agendas, giving some warning on topics coming up (when possible) so those with concerns can get them to the group prior to the vote.</div>
<div><br></div><div>* Alternatives to Email were brought up, as a better medium for discussion and consensus building. Suggestions include:</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>+ forum</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>+ wiki</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>+ polls</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>+ skype</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>+ IM/IRC/other chat</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>+ Google Wave</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Finally we had some actions for this coming thursday (and who was assigned that task):</div>
<div><br></div><div>* Bringing these principles, roles, and ideas to the list for discussion (Erich)</div><div>* /root tasks - freshen up the website a bit (Brian, Isaac)</div><div>* Look into and possibly demo the communication alternatives (Isaac)</div>
<div>* A short (approx 1/2 page) document on what new attendees can expect from the space and it's members. (Derek)</div><div>* Put together a list of successes that the space has had (Brian)</div><div><br></div><div>
So, what comments, thoughts, etc are out there on this?</div><div><br></div><div>Regards,</div><div>Erich</div>