Pumping Station: One started out with direct democracy for all decisions and 50% of members for quorum, with 7 days advanced notice of a vote. As we grew, that was too high a barrier and we couldn't get enough people in the room to vote on obvious yesses. So we lowered it to 33% and added some other silly exceptions that are so silly I won't bother mentioning them. Then we could run votes easily, but because of direct democracy we had too many votes about trivial obvious things (like should we buy light bulbs to replace the burned out ones) so nobody cared about voting. We amended the bylaws to empower the board to make decisions and spend money on things like shop maintenance and repair, office and legal expenses, and basically everything but buying new tools or building new facilities over $300. From what I've heard of other spaces we're likely to raise that number as the members get comfortable with trusting the board.<div>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 8:53 AM, Pete Prodoehl <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:raster@gmail.com" target="_blank">raster@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<br>
Milwaukee Makerspace used to discuss issues at the Tuesday meeting,
and then have everyone vote on things (either online, or in person)
but as we grew, that became unwieldy, and eventually we moved to a
7-person Board of Directors to help manage the decision making.
Small decisions are decided by the Board, like who to use for trash
collection, or who to choose as our ISP, and we welcome input from
the members. For larger decisions, the Board takes it to the
membership as a whole for discussion/comments/ideas and then the
Board decides on it. We found that most people want to show up and
make things, and arguing about every little thing needed to keep the
space running was best left to a small group. (Also the Board
Members serve a one-year term, and they are elected by the members.)<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
Pete</font></span><div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
<div>On 1/15/13 7:13 AM, Sean Bonner wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">At Crash Space for most things we have a "We make
decisions on Tuesday nights, if you want to be a part of a
decision show up on Tuesday night, if you aren't there Tuesday you
can't critique or argue about a decision made by the people who
did show up" policy. It works really well.
<div>
<br>
</div>
<div>-s</div>
<div><br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 10:08 PM, Bacon
Zombie <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:baconzombie@gmail.com" target="_blank">baconzombie@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">It depends
of what the decision is over.<br>
<br>
In TOG Dublin if it involves using TOG money or exclusive
use of a<br>
room/area then a "Consensus proposal" is sent to the members
mailing<br>
list outline what you want to do and what resources you want
to use<br>
and people have 7 days to lodge objections.<br>
<br>
But there is some items that due to the wording of our
constitution<br>
they need to discuses and decisioned during an AGM or EGM.<br>
<div>
<div><br>
<br>
On 15 January 2013 12:58, Bill French <<a href="mailto:william.french@gmail.com" target="_blank">william.french@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
> Greetings from heavily armed and definition crazed
America.<br>
><br>
> How are you all defining quorum for your spaces?
I'd love to hear any<br>
> backstory.<br>
><br>
> Since decision making seems to be kryptonite for
hacker types, we're<br>
> thinking of something along the lines of "whoever
the fuck decides to show<br>
> up for decision night".<br>
><br>
</div>
</div>
> _______________________________________________<br>
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><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
<br>
<br>
BaconZombie<br>
<br>
LOAD "*",8,1<br>
<br>
ฦ ฮ้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้
Ỏ̷͖͈̞̩͎̻̫̫̜͉̠̫͕̭̭̫̫̹̗̹͈̼̠̖͍͚̥͈<br>
ฦ้้้้้็็็็็้้้้้็็็็็้้้้้้้้็<br>
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</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<br clear="all">
<div><br>
</div>
-- <br>
Sean Bonner
<div><a href="http://seanbonner.com" target="_blank">homebase</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/seanbonner" target="_blank">twitter</a> |
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<div><br>
</div>
<div>* I'm no longer on Facebook, <a href="http://blog.seanbonner.com/2012/04/15/on-leaving-facebook/" target="_blank">here's why</a>.</div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div>@tsaylor</div><div><a href="http://www.timsaylor.com/" target="_blank">http://www.timsaylor.com/</a></div>
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