[hackerspaces] Hackerspace drama, oh my!

Wed Jul 2 16:22:10 CEST 2014

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I'd start by taking a peek at your space's bylaws, and see if they
include wording about removing directors who aren't functioning in the
organization's best interests. I'd also look for the same type of
information in whichever state or federal acts/bills that govern the
operation of your type of organization.

That said, you may find a lawyer or law center who may offer free
advice, especially if you were setup as non-profit or a charity.

Hope that helps,
Ben

On 7/2/2014 10:14 AM, Torrie Fischer wrote:
> On Wednesday, July 02, 2014 09:45:00 Ben Brown wrote:
>> (with limited information of what transpired)
>>
>> I don't know how your space was setup legally (NFP, charity or
>> otherwise) but this seems horribly illegal, not to mention it sounds
>> like they're taking actions that the membership should be able to
>> dispute and dissolve the board over.
>
> Any suggestion on how to get started that isn't "see a lawyer"?
>
> Seeing a lawyer is a viable option of course, but those can be expensive
> sometimes.
>
>>
>> In Canada there is legal recourse if our directors were to say, dissolve
>> the corporation, empty the accounts and leave with the equipment. If you
>> were setup as a co-op or 501c3 I have to think something similar applies
>> in the states.
>>
>> Ben
>>
>> On 7/2/2014 9:32 AM, Torrie Fischer wrote:
>>> On Wednesday, July 02, 2014 13:44:01 David Potocnik wrote:
>>>> There's another perspective to this.
>>>> I guess Torrie & the hackers of Ackron are going to be okay - they
>>>> started a new space right? They moved their stuff and got another
>>>> lease and all is well?
>>>
>>> Nope. Board took everything. They also took the $15k in the banking
>>
>> account
>>
>>> and moved it to some other bank without informing the membership or
>>
>> anything,
>>
>>> and is disregarding the portions of the bylaws that explicitly state
such
>>> things need to have transparency.
>>>
>>>> "Advice I give most folks starting a hackerspace, start a community
>>>> first.  Find the people you want to start the space with.  Worry about
>>>> that.  because at the end of the day, even if you don't have a space,
>>>> that community is worth way way more."
>>>>
>>>> ...Or just simplify building spaces (sharing protocols & know-how),
>>>> build a lot of them and cross-pollinate (travel, hang out). Fork,
>>>> collaborate, merge. Set up varieties, name them and setup
>>>> instances of them. Find and argue about good practices and patterns
>>>> with whoever comes to this platform.
>>>> As the thing progresses on we'll keep having a clearer and clearer
>>>> cartography of different hacker belief systems, and a better idea of
>>>> how they can and cannot coexist.
>>>>
>>>> There is the more stable isotopos: Coworking spaces, Makerspaces,
>>
>> Fablabs.
>>
>>>> I believe Hackerspaces and Hackbases (live-in hackerspaces) should be
>>>> unstable, and definitely not without politics.
>>>> They should be, and sometimes are, avantgarde experimental political
>>>> machines.
>>>
>>> Well said. One should be permitted to hack a hackerspace, though in
a non-
>>> destructive fashion.
>>>
>>>> David
>>>> from CHT#1 hackbase /\/
http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Cyberhippietotalism
>>>>
>>>> On 2 July 2014 04:07, Ryan Rix <ry at n.rix.si> wrote:
>>>>> matt <matt at nycresistor.com> writes:
>>>>>> I think this boils down to the dichotomy of hackerspace vs co-working
>>>>>> space.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If you build up infrastructure and expect a community to show up in
>>>>>> it, don't be surprised if more than one community shows up, or the
>>>>>> community that shows up is not one you want to be a part of.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Noisebridge suffers the tragedy of the commons in a pretty severe
>>>>>> way... having had mole people living in their basement and bi-polar
>>>>>> homeless people show up and and claim they are 'sleep hacking'.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> That's not what I am talking about. What I am talking about is the
>>>>>> last line in that piece :
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "A lot of this can be traced to our collective inability to remember
>>>>>> our core pillars of consensus, excellence, and do-ocracy. There is no
>>>>>> one person or event that can be blamed. As a community, we failed to
>>>>>> hold close the values we had. We were hacked by policy hackers."
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Now I don't know anything about synhak... so I am just going to speak
>>>>>> to the perspective brought forth by the person who wrote this piece.
>>>>>> This is a person who enjoyed the community that arrived at synhak in
>>>>>> the early days. As the space grew and changed and time went on,
so did
>>>>>> the culture and so did the community.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I think Torrie is talking specific solutions but not seeing the
forest
>>>>>> through the trees. When torrie talks about common values along side
>>>>>> mission statement, and limiting growth of new membership. What she is
>>>>>> really talking about is fostering a community rather than
>>>>>> infrastructure. She's focusing more on being with the people she
wants
>>>>>> to be with, than focusing on building a space.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> And I think that has worked out very well for NYC Resistor. We like
>>>>>> each other. We've liked each other with fairly decent success for 5-6
>>>>>> years. And while folks have grown apart and there has been some
>>>>>> inevitable culture shift. The community has remained strong.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So, the answer is simple. Synhak like noisebridge built a space. And
>>>>>> communities fought for it, and some took it and some lost it. Much
>>>>>> like noisebridge. NYC Resistor built a community in a coffee shop...
>>>>>> everything else came later.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Advice I give most folks starting a hackerspace, start a community
>>>>>> first. Find the people you want to start the space with. Worry about
>>>>>> that. because at the end of the day, even if you don't have a space,
>>>>>> that community is worth way way more.
>>>>>
>>>>> Well written, Matt.
>>>>>
>>>>> r
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
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