[Theforum] isaac's proposal

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Mon Oct 22 18:02:47 CDT 2001


> From: Erika Meyer <emeyer at lclark.edu>
>
> >A future for evolt.org
> >http://members.evolt.org/isaac/evolt/future.html
> 
> I don't know how to articulate exactly, but the lack of any sort of
> unified steering group is disconcerting to me.  I am accustomed to
> working in situations where there is a single group or rotating
> members (BoD or exec committee) -- a core group at the helm, everyone
> in certain roles.

i tend to agree... a legal NFP (not-for-profit, US 501c) needs some 
formalized board... *how* we build it is the question...

> And meetings.
> 
> It seems odd to establish a BOD and at the same time make them only
> marginally relevant.

a BoD in an NFP needs to exist... how they are chosen or who 
they represent is mutable... how mutable, i don't know...

> >The consensus is that we have a lean BoD restricted to handling legal
> >and financial stuff, but not one that slows down community progress.
> 
> Financial stuff and "community progress" are linked.  And "community
> progress" can be defined many ways.  Bigger not always better.  The
> bigger they come the bigger they fall.  Or something like that.

legal/financial should be viewed as the stuff the official BoD of the 
NFP has to worry about...

community stuff should be handled elsewhere...

> The looseness of this proposal is troublesome.  For example:
> <q>
> >I'd suggest that we work on establishing a voting membership.
> </q>
> 
> How?  Who decides?  How do things get done?  How do we piggyback?

good questions... questions i'd like to see answered here...

> What is wrong with the current structure?  Why couldn't we work 
> within the bylaws already accepted?

the current structure has 20+ Board of Director (BoD) members, all 
with varying degrees of active participation, time restraints, outside 
lives, etc., all of which combined to make BoD meetings *very* 
difficult to coordinate, and even more difficult to establish good 
turnout...

a traditional BoD model with 20+ people all over the world doesn't 
seem to fit too well, otherwise we would have had more than one 
meeting as a BoD, and we would have had 100% participation...

a smaller BoD might make that a possibility... as well as other 
possible solutions...

> Could it be that a "real" nonprofit cannot operate this way?  That we
> need to have physical proximity of some sort?

who knows... i don't, not yet...




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