From rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org Wed Mar 31 14:16:50 2010 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list llg-board); Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:16:50 -0700 (PDT) Received: from rlpowell by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Nx5HN-00009z-TO for llg-board@lojban.org; Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:16:50 -0700 Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:16:49 -0700 From: Robin Lee Powell To: llg-board@lojban.org Subject: [llg-board] Re: VOTE RIGHT NOW (was RE: [rdentato@gmail.com: Creation of CLL PDF and HTML version]) Message-ID: <20100331211649.GW6084@digitalkingdom.org> Mail-Followup-To: llg-board@lojban.org References: <20100330073349.GN6084@digitalkingdom.org> <20100330074134.GF3000@nvg.org> <20100330170011.GS6084@digitalkingdom.org> <4BB238B0.4000208@lojban.org> <20100330175115.GU6084@digitalkingdom.org> <4BB2E3D1.5050102@lojban.org> <4BB3595B.7050004@lojban.org> <4BB3AA12.6020302@lojban.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4BB3AA12.6020302@lojban.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) X-archive-position: 648 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: llg-board-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: llg-board-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org Precedence: bulk Reply-to: llg-board@lojban.org X-list: llg-board On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 04:01:22PM -0400, Robert LeChevalier wrote: > What you described above is not how "effective organizations > work". It is how many effective *projects* work. You describe an > excellent way to be a project manager, who is focused on a single > project. I've told him, repeatedly, to choose "project manager" as a career, but he seems to have an allergy to paperwork. :) > Robin has likewise turned out to be an awesome leader who gets > things done and gets others to work on them. But he has some > tolerance for bureaucracy, and has shown a knack for consensus > building, as evidenced by his quick amendment today. Aaaaawww. :D I *still* have to resist the urge to just tell everybody to fuck off and die when they disagree with me, but I've gotten better at it I guess. > I've toyed with the idea of having Robin be President as well as > de facto Secretary/Treasurer, but that was what finally broke me, > and Robin seems to be seriously overloaded as well, without adding > another job. We should be trying to find ways to take some of the > load off his back - that is what the Board's job SHOULD be. > Enabling people like you and Robin to tackle the projects you want > to work on, and to get them done, while holding up the umbrella > that makes the projects meaningful. I'll get back to you on that after I've dropped the essay bomb. > I've toyed with the idea of trying to come back as President (if > people would even want to consider such a thing), as one way to > help relieve Robin, and also relieve you of bureaucratic chores > you've never really wanted. But it would have to be a very > different job than I was doing before, because I no longer can be > the wearer of all hats that I was then. I'm also not sure I am up > to keeping the pulse of the community enough to do the job (which > is probably how I failed the first time). I'm about to send mail out for a pulse-keeper, actually. :) For the time that I have been a board member, the job of the president has basically been to occasionally speak for the organization, and ... that's pretty much it. I have nothing against you (Bob) doing that, except that you have a real problem with verbosity. If there are other duties the prez is supposed to do, I think I'm already doing them. > I've also toyed with the idea of asking for the byfy jatna job, > except that I know that I have no credibility for being able to > get any byfy work done at all. I suspect that we need to change > the approach of the byfy project somewhat, if it is ever to be > completed, and I might have some ideas I could implement and get > others to accomplish (since I don't seem to get anything done by > myself). You're gonna love the essay (no, you're not; it's a direct attack on conservativism; sorry). Give me a couple of days. > Finally, we may need to use some sort of massive bylaw amendment > to significantly change the way we are allowed to do business, and > thus the sort of hats that the leadership has to wear. > > But I think I will wait for Robin's essay, which sounds like it > will be highly relevant, before I contemplate anything else. Yes please. > >This was what I had to say: Boards of Directors and voting > >organizations are counter-productive to their own goals. > > I disagree, because I think you are wrong about what the goals > are. > > The goals of LLG aren't (and cannot be) identical to the sum of > the current goals of the individuals of the user community, and > especially not merely the current goals of the individuals of the > activist community, which by its nature is biased towards doing > something new and different. > > We are the "institutional memory" of the community, as well as the > fundraisers and the ones who take care of legalities. And we are > focused on the long term, sometimes at the cost of what gets done > "now". > > I'll stop now. I really want to hear what Robin has to say, > whenever he finds himself with the time to say it. I don't think > we are near any sort of crisis, except insofar as Robin seems to > have hit his limit. I'm overwhelmed, but in a mostly good-and-interested way. I'm still talking to Matt about what I want his involvement to be (speaking as mostly-dictator). We'll get back to you. -Robin -- They say: "The first AIs will be built by the military as weapons." And I'm thinking: "Does it even occur to you to try for something other than the default outcome?" See http://shrunklink.com/cdiz http://www.digitalkingdom.org/~rlpowell/ *** http://www.lojban.org/