In <200411081335(_dot_)39282(_dot_)jonagard(_at_)amazon(_dot_)com> Jonathan
Gardner <jonagard(_at_)amazon(_dot_)com> writes:
Here is the roadmap I believe you should follow:
Meet in person with a group of people you know and trust that want to form
the group. Elect a president pro tem and secretary pro tem. Pass a motion
to organize a group. Appoint a bylaws committee.
Get the bylaws committee to write bylaws. You'll want to include sections on
how you will interact over the internet, because that is important.
Approve the bylaws. Sign up the charter members. Elect the first officers.
Hold the first meeting. Note: You don't need to form a corporation or file
for non-profit status unless you want to handle large sums of money. I
believe you can do a lot without money, so I discourage it.
Begin holding regular meetings, and encouraging new participants to join.
Start doing things immediately as if you were the official group, *because
you are*. Your group will officially and legally represent the individuals
of that group.
Eventually, many people here will become members of the group. When that
becomes the case, people will begin seeing the group as the way to join the
movement. Your group will become the movement.
This is the only way you are going to transition between the benevolent
dictatorship of Meng to a true democracy.
Again, I have personal experience in these things. I strongly urge you to
consider following the rules in Robert's Rules.
I'm involved with another organization that uses Robert's Rules, has
bylaws, etc. I'm really not sure that we want to get this formal. We
are not dealing with an organization of one thousand people or
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
For those that don't recognize Robert's Rules of Order (RRO), it is a well
tested and widely used set of rules and procedures for running an
organization. It was first printed back in 1876, and it is on
something like it's 10th revision now. A 1915 copy (now in public
domain) can be found at: http://www.constitution.org/rror/rror--00.htm
RRO doesn't, however, magically make everything perfect. Someone
skilled in the knowledge of the rules can easily out-maneuver others
and effectively take over the process. RRO can be very cumbersome,
with lots of asking for seconds on votes and tabling motions and such.
RRO can allow an organization to survive when there are hostile
factions that can't get along.
I think we should keep things *much* simpler. Work by consensus, use
votes when consensus isn't clear and try to get along.
One thing to consider: How long will this SPF group need to last? In
many ways, I think we will have failed if we are still working on it 5
years from now. Sure, many of us may go on to related projects, but
if SPF is still in flux a year from now, we have problems. Even an
SPFv2 or Unified-SPF or whatever shouldn't take more than a year or
two tops.
So, I say keep it simple. We have gone from no organization, to
considering a more formal organization, but we don't need to be a
501(c)3 with audited financial statements and membership cards.
-wayne