Council 2005 06
June 15, 2005
- Facilitator: Dave
- Scribe: Martin
- Place: Free Geek meeting room
- Minutes from May 18, 2005
Committments from Previous Meeting
- ALL: frequent the wiki and discuss the board and space usage issues.
- Michael (phil), envada isp: carry-over. re-assign i they don't report next month
- Wesley (Martin), blind/vi distro: still in progress
- Martin, tantalum wiki: carry-over
- Action committee will plan for pickups and report at the next meeting
- Richard is working on getting web-accessable
- C7 talk about endowment (make sure Clint/council gets feedback)
- Action committee will contact Clint about potential truck and consider budgeting for truck decoration
- Reuse committee will report on progress toward more online sales
- Martin will ask Clint to research boardnetusa more and report to council
Reports from Other Meeting
- Staff Reports - ask staff@freegeek.org
- Core Volunteer Reports - ask the people you see all the time at FG
- NAP update
- PAWC report
Old Business
(from previous meeting's minutes)
New Business
- Hiring report
Future Committments
(This is not a part of the meeting, but a section in the notes that the scribe write down.)
- Carryovers from above
- Committments made during this meeting
Next Meeting
- Facilitator
- Scribe
- Reporters to other meetings?
- Date and time
- Place
- Unfinished business for the next meeting?
Minutes
in attendance:
- jeff schwaber (commandeered facilitation) - jeff kane - wesley - mark allen - mark conley - ben rayl - laurel - cayman - oso - martin (scribe) - richard - dave - debi - clint - rick - wren - shawn
previous commitments:
wiki: did we?
envada: michael reports them as okay. DONE
blind/vi: in progress. CARRYOVER
tantalum: martin started a wiki page. DONE
pickup for pay: oso says next meeting. CARRYOVER
truck talk: clint enquiring. need insurance, biodesiel, wiki
CARRYOVER
online sales: ebay sales still main focus. researching. DONE
boardnetusa: clint will research more. CARRYOVER
endowment: c7 is thinking about it long term. WITHDRAWN
reports:
staff:
jhasen quit. replacement recycling coordinator will be hired
soon. last month was financially "in the black" - thanks to
staff cuts. build is cool. why no credit cards? numerous
issues still in the way. staff working on it.
nap:
didn't meet!
pawc:
summer retreat being planned.
working with other groups.
kitten in need of adoption.
july wine tasting at alberta coop.
ass:
as a result of richard's membership in the iww and a
not-so-recent-anymore problem with an asshole boss, said
asshole has threatened to sue freegeek, or otherwise damage
freegeek legally/financially. our email lists have therefore
been setup to block his emails. this is the first blanket
banning of a person freegeek has performed with respect to our
email lists.
jeffkane: do we have a policy about list usage?
richard: no - some lists are hidden behind normal addresses
and get forwarded to a list.
jeffkane: a policy put around whatever interface he's using
would then allow us to show that we're not targeting him.
hiring report:
matthew will be starting later this month as an exploratory
reuse intern.
steven will be starting later this month as an exploratory
sales intern.
the recycling coordinator was a well-advertised, open hiring
process, and will hopefully be hired friday or thereabouts,
longer if staff need more time to decide.
jon's last day will be this saturday.
old business:
board of directors:
jeffkane (JK) presents.
richard gives background and current working status report.
mnr and dennis are the only two active members of the board.
JK: hard to change articles of incorporation, if that's what
we decide to do.
JK: our bylaws are separate from those articles. these are
very antiquated and do not accurately reflect the way
freegeek is run.
we are legally required to have a board of directors. also,
they are minimally required for:
- taking ultimate fiduciary responsibility
- 501c3 status monitoring
- legal attention/responsibility
- making sure we stay to our mission
martin: the council has traditionally done the "staying to our
mission" work.
JK: true, and freegeek is awesome, but we need legal pressure
to prevent worst case sceanarios (council disolving). board
can always delegate work.
selection.
JK: board is currently self-selected by the bylaws. this can
be changed.
JK: what should the board provide?
- fundraising
- public relations
- endowment management?
- outside perspective
- financial help/advice/BRAKES
- needed expertise (law, accounting)
- IT management
richard: do these skills have to be provided by the board?
fundraising, financial advice, or others could be brought into
the freegeek community without putting them on the board.
JK: "stakeholders" is one way of thinking about board
members.
shawn: fundraisers often think they deserve more power.
JK: being sued sucks
JK: board should be primarily concerned with the mission
statement of the organization.
wren: what is membership about?
JK: member-run organizations have the ultimate control placed
in the hands of the members (however that's defined).
non-member-run are ones where some small group is in control
of the larger organization.
oso: this was already decided at freegeek's inception to be
non-member-based. we'd have to reapply to change this.
JK: endangering our 501c3 status by reapplying is dangerous.
JK: i want to steer this towards having a board that looks out
for freegeek's mission.
JK's PROPOSAL:
have the council select the board of directors. this
allows community input and authority without having to
change our articles of incorporation to become a
membership-based organization. this will still leave the
board with complete authority over the organization.
this will require that the bylaws be reworked. council
membership will need to be clearly stated in those bylaws.
this will require board approval of the redrafted bylaws.
jeffschwaber's AMMENDMENT:
the purpose of this board is to have legal and fiduciary
responsibility for the organization.
martin: should they have responsibility for making sure we
keep to our mission statement to?
richard: this wouldn't preclude other people from taking part
in these areas, just putting down what they have ultimate
control. we could even put into bylaws that we expect the
board to have the council work out all the policy freegeek
would like to make, and to give the board an expected review
of those decisions for legal and financial risk.
jeff: we should draw up a draft of the bylaws we want from
this.
jeff kane, richard, oso and wren will (openly) meet and draw
up new bylaws.
oso: mnr seems amenable to this direction (and is also
concerned with making an umbrella organization for the rest of
the freegeek's around the country). dennis is unknown.
michelle and kimberly would have to either resign or agree on
the new bylaws as well.
JK: have the board "adopt or ammend by substitution" the new
bylaws.
TABLED until a draft is made
space usage:
oso presents. late july will see a need for
next meeting:
when: july 20th
facilitator: laurel
scribe: shawn
commitments:
knowledge bees: recommend envada
martin and wesley: blind/vi project
clint: wiki page on truck donors
clint: boardnetusa
oso: pickups for pay
richard: start acceptable use policy for email lists
jeffkane, richard, oso, wren: (openly) meet and draw up new
bylaws
oso: will talk to mnr about council's thoughts on bylaws