[hackerspaces] Governance questions

[matt]

 1) Is your foundation tied specifically to a space, or operating in
support of one or more spaces in an area?

NYC Resistor started as the NYC Resistor : Microcontroller Study Group, and
met in coffee shops and a space loaned to us by a Brooklyn based electronic
instrument group.   Later it got it's first venue.  Today it has 3
technically, 2 of which are habitable.  All are in Brooklyn.

There are enough NYC Resistor folks to start a space in SF to be honest.
But the culture would undoubtedly be different, and therefore the
organization would be different.  But more importantly we would be unable
to maintain our existing methodology for approving membership across a
geographic expanse.  So Resistor in it's current form cannot exist beyond a
geographically isolated area.

We have been known to assist other groups in the area.

 2) How are your Board members elected/selected?

There is no board.  There are no leaders.

 3) What are your thoughts on your connection to the Make community-- are
you a representative body?  Corporate-styled authority? Separate but
supporting?

NYC Resistor is tax structured as an LLC.  But it is basically just a group
of people agreeing to do stuff or not.  So authority by consensus.  We've
been involved in the Make community heavily in the past, but when an
involvement occurs outside resistor it occurs as the project of a member or
subset of members who have decided to take that project on.  Anything a
resistor feels like putting under the auspices of Resistor is so.  If they
want to call it their own, or an external group thing.  That's their right.

 4) If you take a bottom-up, grassroots, community-first approach to
governance, have you found that to be a hindrance for sponsorships and
donations?

Sponsorship is more of a hinderance to community-first.  But most sponsors
don't want to just give us things no strings attached... and I do mean ZERO
strings.  That being said, occasionally people gift us stuff.  Cases in
point:

"Hey, so I am moving, uhm... I read about you guys on the internet... I got
this robot arm I found in the trash, you guys want it?"

=P




On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 5:11 PM, Randall G. Arnold <
randall.arnold at texrat.net> wrote:

> **
>
>  Sorry to be so active on the list today... but one of my recent questions
> about operating philosophies is still an issue and I'm looking for data.
>
>  For those of you run as nonprofits, I'm hoping you can answer some
> questions for me:
>
>  1) Is your foundation tied specifically to a space, or operating in
> support of one or more spaces in an area?
>  2) How are your Board members elected/selected?
>  3) What are your thoughts on your connection to the Make community-- are
> you a representative body?  Corporate-styled authority? Separate but
> supporting?
>  4) If you take a bottom-up, grassroots, community-first approach to
> governance, have you found that to be a hindrance for sponsorships and
> donations?
>
>  Thanks to any and all respondents.
>
>  Randy
>  Tarrant Makers
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>
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