[sudo-discuss] [consensus] Nominations for Board of Directors

Tue Oct 29 17:29:10 PDT 2013

The stubborn and nitpicky readers of contracts are actually part of
"strong, benevolent personalities".

The dichotomy is between people who are genuinely concerned for the
well-being of the community AND who have time/energy to be present in
it, and those who seek just to use the space and/or the people in it
without concern for social harmony or long-term maintenance.

Rhetoric doesn't perform the "work" of community, not nearly as much
as the act of being physically present in a space.

When those who are unenculturated and those who are malevolent to the
health of the community are physically present more than the
benevolent, the culture sours.  No matter how good your Articles were
or are.  There's always a way to subvert a written document; all you
have to do is convince enough people in your midst that certain words
matter more than other words.

What I've come to believe is that you can use hierarchical structures
to reinforce the culture you want.

If something happens, like the original group of cultural leaders
decides to take on a big project in Antarctica for half a year, you
are susceptible to major cultural swings.  What you want is for there
to be a minimal vacuum when any strong personality decides to leave.

I'm (again) speaking through the lens of what I saw happen at
Noisebridge, and what is still currently the case there.

If you want Sudo Room to grow past (say) 150 people, you have to see
the work of culture as real work, that requires a real strategy.

We would all love, of course, for there to be no work in
enculturation.  But we live in America, not pre-civilization Inuit
Alaska.

--Naomi

On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 5:14 PM, Anca Mosoiu <anca at techliminal.com> wrote:
> Good points, Naomi.
>
> This ties into the paper that Jenny posted recently as well.  Strong,
> benevolent personalities are going to be needed to keep things moving
> forward just as much as stubborn, nitpicky, careful readers of contracts.
>
> Anca.
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 3:44 PM, Naomi Most <pnaomi at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi guys,
>>
>> I haven't exactly been an active participant in Sudo Room lately, but
>> I have room in my life to handle some small amount of responsibility.
>> I'll accept the nomination.
>>
>> I should say, though, that I've had a lot (a LOT) of conversations
>> with hackerspace founders lately, and I'm coming to the conclusion
>> that it is only the very exceptional community, with a very dedicated
>> presence of strong benevolent personalities, that doesn't eventually
>> come apart at the seams.
>>
>> Noisebridge should not be held as a model of do-ocratic / flat
>> structure.  It has serious, serious problems.
>>
>> --Naomi
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Oct 28, 2013 at 2:30 PM, Eddan Katz <eddan at clear.net> wrote:
>> > So by my count, the following summarizes the status of the Board
>> > nominations. Please correct any errors I've made.
>> > --
>> > Confirmed
>> > Max (notconfusing)
>> > Jenny (tunabananas)
>> >
>> > Nominated
>> > Marc (marcjc)
>> > Matt (mattsenate)
>> > Marina (mk30)
>> > J.C. (r33lmm)
>> > Vicky (ykciv)
>> > Liberty (thattechgirl)
>> >
>> > Respectfully Decline
>> > Kare (kkr)
>> > Jordan (yardena)
>> > ------
>> >
>> > Apparently, the average size of a non-profit board is 16 people, and the
>> > median is 15.
>> > I don't know anyone's handle, but I also wanted to nominate the
>> > following
>> > people who have also shown the commitment that I think would make for a
>> > good
>> > Sudo Board member:
>> >
>> > Ryan Bethencourt
>> > Anthony di Franco
>> > Johanna Faust
>> > Hol Gaskill
>> > Leonid Kozukh
>> > Anca Mosoiu
>> > Naomi Most
>> > Romy Snowyla
>> >
>> >
>> > On Oct 27, 2013, at 7:32 PM, Jenny Ryan <tunabananas at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > On Sun, Oct 27, 2013 at 1:55 PM, Eddan Katz <eddank at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> I don't think that coming to evening meetings and weekend events should
>> >> be
>> >> the ultimate metric of commitment to Sudo Room.
>> >> Not everyone can make it at those times because of work and family
>> >> obligations.
>> >
>> >
>> > Agreed, thanks for picking up on that and giving an opening to
>> > describing
>> > all the ways in which people regularly show their commitment to Sudo
>> > Room:
>> > There's also building infrastructure in the space, creating/making
>> > awesome
>> > things, giving tours, managing the landlord situation, managing the
>> > trash
>> > (thanks david k!), leading classes/workshops/meetups, CLEANING and
>> > BEAUTIFYING the space [the move to colorful late-night mood lighting the
>> > other week was especially clutch].
>> >
>> > BTW, our Wishlist has recently been updated in case folks want to
>> > contribute
>> > tangible Things: https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Wishlist
>> >
>> > Jenny
>> >
>> >>
>> >> On Oct 27, 2013, at 11:58 AM, Jenny Ryan <tunabananas at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Sudo Room should not sacrifice its foundational values so as to be
>> >> taken
>> >> seriously by traditional power structures. This is part and parcel of
>> >> being
>> >> a vessel of social change. Noisebridge has an ad hoc and ever-changing
>> >> do-ocracy of leaders, as does Sudo. The inscription of a Board merely
>> >> makes
>> >> static what is in actuality a dynamic aspect of the community, hence
>> >> its
>> >> role (in the vein of honesty and radical transparency) is as merely an
>> >> on-paper minimum satisfactory requirement for bureaucratic processes.
>> >> Come
>> >> to any meeting of Noisebridge or Sudo and it will be readily apparent
>> >> who's
>> >> currently taking on leadership roles.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > sudo-discuss mailing list
>> > sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org
>> > http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > sudo-discuss mailing list
>> > sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org
>> > http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Naomi Theora Most
>> naomi at nthmost.com
>> +1-415-728-7490
>>
>> skype: nthmost
>>
>> http://twitter.com/nthmost
>> _______________________________________________
>> sudo-discuss mailing list
>> sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org
>> http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss
>
>
>
>
> --
> -=-=-=-
> Anca Mosoiu | Tech Liminal
> anca at techliminal.com
> M: (510) 220-6660
> http://techliminal.com | T: @techliminal | F: facebook.com/techliminal

-- 
Naomi Theora Most
naomi at nthmost.com
+1-415-728-7490

skype: nthmost

http://twitter.com/nthmost