[hackerspaces] How do you define quorum for your space?

[Tim Saylor]

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.

On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 8:53 AM, Pete Prodoehl <raster at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> 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.)
>
> Pete
>
>
>
> On 1/15/13 7:13 AM, Sean Bonner wrote:
>
> 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.
>
>  -s
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 10:08 PM, Bacon Zombie <baconzombie at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> It depends of what the decision is over.
>>
>> In TOG Dublin if it involves using TOG money or exclusive use of a
>> room/area then a "Consensus proposal" is sent to the members mailing
>> list outline what you want to do and what resources you want to use
>> and people have 7 days to lodge objections.
>>
>> But there is some items that due to the wording of our constitution
>> they need to discuses and decisioned during an AGM or EGM.
>>
>>
>> On 15 January 2013 12:58, Bill French <william.french at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Greetings from heavily armed and definition crazed America.
>> >
>> > How are you all defining quorum for your spaces?  I'd love to hear any
>> > backstory.
>> >
>> > Since decision making seems to be kryptonite for hacker types, we're
>> > thinking of something along the lines of "whoever the fuck decides to
>> show
>> > up for decision night".
>> >
>>  > _______________________________________________
>> > Discuss mailing list
>> > Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
>> > http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>> BaconZombie
>>
>> LOAD "*",8,1
>>
>> ฦ ฮ้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้ Ỏ̷͖͈̞̩͎̻̫̫̜͉̠̫͕̭̭̫̫̹̗̹͈̼̠̖͍͚̥͈
>> ฦ้้้้้็็็็็้้้้้็็็็็้้้้้้้้็
>> _______________________________________________
>> Discuss mailing list
>> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>
>
>
>
>  --
> Sean Bonner
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>
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> .
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>
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> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
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>
>


-- 
@tsaylor
http://www.timsaylor.com/
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