[hackerspaces] Leadership abusing powers. Bullying. Extraordinary General Meetings.

[matt]

Hell,

   I have my own experience with this.  At a space that will remain
nameless, I had some folks begin to spread some rumours and lies and the
sort behind my back because they didn't like me or who even knows why.  At
that point I made the call...   this space is not a community I want to be
a part of.  There are toxic members, and as long as they are here this
community will never be one I am comfortable being a part of.  That meant I
ended up doing a lot of my hacking the way I did years and years ago...
alone in my apt.

   It's a shite state of affairs, but if a community tolerates toxic
membership there is not much you can do.  Fighting toxic membership is a
losing battle.  It takes far more effort to fight them than it does for
them to fight you, and you will end up wishing you hadn't in the end.

   I agree with Chris, cut your losses and move on.  That doesn't mean
necessarily you have to hack in your apt alone.  It might be as simple as
following the hackerspaces design patterns, and finding 4 good folks to
hack with and starting your own space.  There's nothing wrong with a
diversity of smaller hackerspaces rather than some uniform monolith
megaspace.

   Sorry people weren't awesome.  =/

-Matt

On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 5:19 PM, Arclight <arclight at gmail.com> wrote:

> An understated response is always 100X more effective than a long,
> emotional one. If for some reason I didn't just move on from a
> situation like this, I would do the following:
>
> 1. Determine if there is anyone who cares and can make a difference
> 2. Privately speak to those people. Do it in a business-like manner
> and without a 30 minute story. Just a simple "I feel like a couple of
> our folks are stepping over the line and making me uncomfortable. What
> should I do?" Get their feedback and/or buy-in.
> 3. Privately speak to the people you think are the problem. Often
> times, the people who relish in passive-aggressive behaviour can be
> set straight by a private chat if it's done in a business-like way.
> Either that, or they'll totally lose their shit and think you're going
> to kill them. Whatever happens, the matter will be resolved.
> 4. Consider that there may not be a personality fit here and that
> there are more productive things you could be doing rather than trying
> to fit a culture that isn't healthy. You can always walk away and come
> back later when things have imploded and you can be part of the
> rebuilding.
> 5. Whatever you do, do not send a long, personal e-mail to the org's
> general mailing list. No matter how in-the-right you may be, you'll
> come across as a crazy cat lady and it really serves no constructive
> purpose.
>
> Just my USD$.02 from having had to deal with a few messy membership issues.
> Arclight
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>
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