Hi all,
I have almost finished drafting a proposed budget.
I need to make a few more tweaks to the bylaws proposal.
I hope to have both documents be published and ready for public comment by sometime on Friday.
Apologies that this is happening on short notice. I had planned on doing this work in February, but due to WMF Grantmaking's announcement about a January 31 deadline, things are a bit rushed.
We can make amendments to the budget and bylaws later if needed, although amending the budget may require that we wait until May for funding unless we have an urgent request or we request funding from a source other than WMF.
The budget is the more time-sensitive of the two documents because of the January 31st deadline to submit a proposal.
Please be sure to check your email on Friday evening or over the weekend for links to the draft budget and bylaws, and please look through them prior to our meeting on Tuesday so that we are all prepared with questions and comments.
Thanks!
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* https://www.wikipedia.org/
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not know.*
*—Catherine Munro*
Thanks, Pine.
Jason
On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 12:01 PM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi all,
I have almost finished drafting a proposed budget.
I need to make a few more tweaks to the bylaws proposal.
I hope to have both documents be published and ready for public comment by sometime on Friday.
Apologies that this is happening on short notice. I had planned on doing this work in February, but due to WMF Grantmaking's announcement about a January 31 deadline, things are a bit rushed.
We can make amendments to the budget and bylaws later if needed, although amending the budget may require that we wait until May for funding unless we have an urgent request or we request funding from a source other than WMF.
The budget is the more time-sensitive of the two documents because of the January 31st deadline to submit a proposal.
Please be sure to check your email on Friday evening or over the weekend for links to the draft budget and bylaws, and please look through them prior to our meeting on Tuesday so that we are all prepared with questions and comments.
Thanks!
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* https://www.wikipedia.org/
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not know.*
*—Catherine Munro*
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
Hi Cascadians,
I have updated our agenda posted at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Seattle#Monthly_meeting_Janua... .
* The draft bylaws are posted. Please comment and sign your comments! * Draft goals, budget tables, and a calendar are posted as a Google spreadsheet with three tabs. Please comment and sign your comments! * A draft awards policy is posted. Please comment and sign your comments! * WMF has yet to respond to a request to let us post the draft Trademark Agreement. I will show it to attendees at the meeting if we do not hear anything from WMF.
Notes:
* There are some one-time startup expenses in the budget that should happen this year only, such as the 501(c)(3) registration and preparation costs. Other costs may be annual, such as insurance.
* I have included several items that a variety of members had on our personal wish lists or that people mentioned seemed like good ideas. The full set of projects and goals is fairly expansive, and the budget is proportionate to that. I would encourage you to read the budget spreadsheet by starting with the goals tab, then the calendar tab, and finally the budget tab. Items in the budget that I feel should get particular attention for discussion are typed in purple text. * I have included funding in the draft budget for two "Wikimedian-in-residence" positions at 100 hours each for the year, largely anticipated for the summer months although with some flexibility from April through October. In addition to tasking them for outreach to potential GLAM, education, and research partners, these individuals may be asked to lead edit-a-thons, workshops, and perhaps assist with aspects of WikiConference USA planning that are beneficial to Cascadia (if there is an agreement between Cascadia and the conference organizers that some staff assistance from us would be mutually beneficial).
* I included funding for the Cameras for Commons photographers https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Cameras_for_Commons_photographers pilot program in our grant request. Although the scope of this program is global, no organization has agreed to take it on, and I believe we can do so with minimal additional labor. I believe that his pilot is a worthwhile experiment.
* I hope that everyone will understand that many hours have been volunteered in preparing this budget. The time is after 4 AM, and this is not the first long night that I have spent trying to help with Cascadia's launch. I have sacrificed many paid hours and some sleep to work on Cascadia over the past several months. I love this project and I love the people who are involved with Cascadia, but I need my sleep and I need to be paid if I'm going to spend so many hours on Cascadia. I have proposed that starting in February, the person who becomes responsible for the day-to-day management and startup of Cascadia as described in this plan, be compensated for their time. That person might be me or it might not; that is the Board's decision to make. I am estimating that there will be about 40 hours of paid work in February and about 15 hours per month thereafter for the manager. If additional hours are necessary, a supplemental budget request can be made. (Also, as mentioned above, I budgeted paid time for the Wikimedians-in-Residence.) There may be variations in hours from month to month for the manager; this is something that we will need to discuss since the variability has been found to be a challenge by at least one other Wikimedia organization employee who ended up quitting because he/she found it to be so problematic. I have tried to calendar projects in such a way as to smooth the month-to-month hours variation for the manager, and I personally would be willing to accept the risk of a variable-hours position like this after my internship is done at the end of January, but the Board would need to agree to this. I would appreciate it if Board members would think about how they would like the organization to be managed starting in February, because I've passed any reasonable boundary for volunteer time by a large margin. I've heard from another Cascadian that he also feels worn out. I really think that we need a paid manager; this person may be the president, the treasurer, or someone that we decide to hire as an employee under the president. Please think about this issue before Tuesday. I hope that WMF would agree to a modest labor funding request for a (very) part-time manager, and I hope that the Cascadia Board will too.
* Thank you in advance for your questions and comments about the proposal. Please participate using Google's comment feature.
It's nice to collaborate with all of you, and I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday at 6 PM at the University of Washington's Communications Building in room 321. Thanks to Mako and Monika for getting us a meeting room. (:
Have a nice weekend,
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* https://www.wikipedia.org/
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not know.**—Catherine Munro*
Hello,
This is an excellent budget. It has the right level of detail and its expenses are at a scale which I think fits the history of activity of this group. Here are my initial criticisms of the budget - on the face of it, everything else looks good to me:
- I think for the first year it is premature to have awards. I know that the "awards" are really to promote participation, but I fear that since other groups do not commonly offer awards and the concept is untested, requesting funding in this space may distract from good community response for the rest of the proposal. I would endorse the award items for year two now. - The travel scholarships should be for community-decided persons, not necessarily for people in certain board positions. - The camera project is I think best removed from this budget. I like it and would support it immediately but all costs related to buying equipment might be better considered in the context of an independent funding request which could be made in parallel to this request. If this project were funded once then in the future I would support the chapter budget maintaining it, and from the beginning, I would support the chapter managing this as if it were like any other routine business.
Pine says "I really think that we need a paid manager; this person may be the president, the treasurer, or someone that we decide to hire as an employee under the president." I agree that a paid manager, especially at the modest cost of $5000 for the year and considering the history of barely-documented events this group has done, would be a great value and excellent step toward maintaining activity while increasing metrics reporting. It is obvious that volunteers cannot do this. However, I hesitate to say that board members should be eligible for pay. I think it would be controversial and distracting to have any board member hired by the rest of the board. If others acknowledge the problems this could cause and no one objects to the proposal, then I think a practice to adopt for now might be to say outright that board members have no special access to funding or compensation that any other member has, and that board members cannot also be paid staff of the chapter. Pine in my opinion would be an ideal manager if a board would manage him.
Pine, thanks for this solid, modest, and well-considered proposal. I especially appreciate your emphasis on reporting metrics, which is something that volunteers find tedious and which you have incorporated into the design of all processes here.
yours,
On Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 7:29 AM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Cascadians,
I have updated our agenda posted at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Seattle#Monthly_meeting_Janua... .
- The draft bylaws are posted. Please comment and sign your comments!
- Draft goals, budget tables, and a calendar are posted as a Google
spreadsheet with three tabs. Please comment and sign your comments!
- A draft awards policy is posted. Please comment and sign your comments!
- WMF has yet to respond to a request to let us post the draft Trademark
Agreement. I will show it to attendees at the meeting if we do not hear anything from WMF.
Notes:
- There are some one-time startup expenses in the budget that should
happen this year only, such as the 501(c)(3) registration and preparation costs. Other costs may be annual, such as insurance.
- I have included several items that a variety of members had on our
personal wish lists or that people mentioned seemed like good ideas. The full set of projects and goals is fairly expansive, and the budget is proportionate to that. I would encourage you to read the budget spreadsheet by starting with the goals tab, then the calendar tab, and finally the budget tab. Items in the budget that I feel should get particular attention for discussion are typed in purple text.
- I have included funding in the draft budget for two
"Wikimedian-in-residence" positions at 100 hours each for the year, largely anticipated for the summer months although with some flexibility from April through October. In addition to tasking them for outreach to potential GLAM, education, and research partners, these individuals may be asked to lead edit-a-thons, workshops, and perhaps assist with aspects of WikiConference USA planning that are beneficial to Cascadia (if there is an agreement between Cascadia and the conference organizers that some staff assistance from us would be mutually beneficial).
- I included funding for the Cameras for Commons photographers
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Cameras_for_Commons_photographers pilot program in our grant request. Although the scope of this program is global, no organization has agreed to take it on, and I believe we can do so with minimal additional labor. I believe that his pilot is a worthwhile experiment.
- I hope that everyone will understand that many hours have been
volunteered in preparing this budget. The time is after 4 AM, and this is not the first long night that I have spent trying to help with Cascadia's launch. I have sacrificed many paid hours and some sleep to work on Cascadia over the past several months. I love this project and I love the people who are involved with Cascadia, but I need my sleep and I need to be paid if I'm going to spend so many hours on Cascadia. I have proposed that starting in February, the person who becomes responsible for the day-to-day management and startup of Cascadia as described in this plan, be compensated for their time. That person might be me or it might not; that is the Board's decision to make. I am estimating that there will be about 40 hours of paid work in February and about 15 hours per month thereafter for the manager. If additional hours are necessary, a supplemental budget request can be made. (Also, as mentioned above, I budgeted paid time for the Wikimedians-in-Residence.) There may be variations in hours from month to month for the manager; this is something that we will need to discuss since the variability has been found to be a challenge by at least one other Wikimedia organization employee who ended up quitting because he/she found it to be so problematic. I have tried to calendar projects in such a way as to smooth the month-to-month hours variation for the manager, and I personally would be willing to accept the risk of a variable-hours position like this after my internship is done at the end of January, but the Board would need to agree to this. I would appreciate it if Board members would think about how they would like the organization to be managed starting in February, because I've passed any reasonable boundary for volunteer time by a large margin. I've heard from another Cascadian that he also feels worn out. I really think that we need a paid manager; this person may be the president, the treasurer, or someone that we decide to hire as an employee under the president. Please think about this issue before Tuesday. I hope that WMF would agree to a modest labor funding request for a (very) part-time manager, and I hope that the Cascadia Board will too.
- Thank you in advance for your questions and comments about the proposal.
Please participate using Google's comment feature.
It's nice to collaborate with all of you, and I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday at 6 PM at the University of Washington's Communications Building in room 321. Thanks to Mako and Monika for getting us a meeting room. (:
Have a nice weekend,
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* https://www.wikipedia.org/
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not know.**—Catherine Munro*
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
I'm going through this now. Plenty for discussion!
One elementary question that I haven't found documented anywhere... who *are* all the current board members?
I think some explication of our strategic goals would also be really helpful. We've talked in person about where we're hoping to take this organization within a few years, but implicit strategy ideas don't necessarily shine through the line item goals. (Why, for example, do we want Facebook and Twitter followers? And why do we want to run edit-a-thons? Those reasons matter a lot in terms of *how* we would conduct those activities.)
-Sage
On Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 8:51 AM, Lane Rasberry lane@bluerasberry.com wrote:
Hello,
This is an excellent budget. It has the right level of detail and its expenses are at a scale which I think fits the history of activity of this group. Here are my initial criticisms of the budget - on the face of it, everything else looks good to me:
- I think for the first year it is premature to have awards. I know
that the "awards" are really to promote participation, but I fear that since other groups do not commonly offer awards and the concept is untested, requesting funding in this space may distract from good community response for the rest of the proposal. I would endorse the award items for year two now.
- The travel scholarships should be for community-decided persons, not
necessarily for people in certain board positions.
- The camera project is I think best removed from this budget. I like
it and would support it immediately but all costs related to buying equipment might be better considered in the context of an independent funding request which could be made in parallel to this request. If this project were funded once then in the future I would support the chapter budget maintaining it, and from the beginning, I would support the chapter managing this as if it were like any other routine business.
Pine says "I really think that we need a paid manager; this person may be the president, the treasurer, or someone that we decide to hire as an employee under the president." I agree that a paid manager, especially at the modest cost of $5000 for the year and considering the history of barely-documented events this group has done, would be a great value and excellent step toward maintaining activity while increasing metrics reporting. It is obvious that volunteers cannot do this. However, I hesitate to say that board members should be eligible for pay. I think it would be controversial and distracting to have any board member hired by the rest of the board. If others acknowledge the problems this could cause and no one objects to the proposal, then I think a practice to adopt for now might be to say outright that board members have no special access to funding or compensation that any other member has, and that board members cannot also be paid staff of the chapter. Pine in my opinion would be an ideal manager if a board would manage him.
Pine, thanks for this solid, modest, and well-considered proposal. I especially appreciate your emphasis on reporting metrics, which is something that volunteers find tedious and which you have incorporated into the design of all processes here.
yours,
On Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 7:29 AM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Cascadians,
I have updated our agenda posted at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Seattle#Monthly_meeting_Janua... .
- The draft bylaws are posted. Please comment and sign your comments!
- Draft goals, budget tables, and a calendar are posted as a Google
spreadsheet with three tabs. Please comment and sign your comments!
- A draft awards policy is posted. Please comment and sign your comments!
- WMF has yet to respond to a request to let us post the draft Trademark
Agreement. I will show it to attendees at the meeting if we do not hear anything from WMF.
Notes:
- There are some one-time startup expenses in the budget that should
happen this year only, such as the 501(c)(3) registration and preparation costs. Other costs may be annual, such as insurance.
- I have included several items that a variety of members had on our
personal wish lists or that people mentioned seemed like good ideas. The full set of projects and goals is fairly expansive, and the budget is proportionate to that. I would encourage you to read the budget spreadsheet by starting with the goals tab, then the calendar tab, and finally the budget tab. Items in the budget that I feel should get particular attention for discussion are typed in purple text.
- I have included funding in the draft budget for two
"Wikimedian-in-residence" positions at 100 hours each for the year, largely anticipated for the summer months although with some flexibility from April through October. In addition to tasking them for outreach to potential GLAM, education, and research partners, these individuals may be asked to lead edit-a-thons, workshops, and perhaps assist with aspects of WikiConference USA planning that are beneficial to Cascadia (if there is an agreement between Cascadia and the conference organizers that some staff assistance from us would be mutually beneficial).
- I included funding for the Cameras for Commons photographers
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Cameras_for_Commons_photographers pilot program in our grant request. Although the scope of this program is global, no organization has agreed to take it on, and I believe we can do so with minimal additional labor. I believe that his pilot is a worthwhile experiment.
- I hope that everyone will understand that many hours have been
volunteered in preparing this budget. The time is after 4 AM, and this is not the first long night that I have spent trying to help with Cascadia's launch. I have sacrificed many paid hours and some sleep to work on Cascadia over the past several months. I love this project and I love the people who are involved with Cascadia, but I need my sleep and I need to be paid if I'm going to spend so many hours on Cascadia. I have proposed that starting in February, the person who becomes responsible for the day-to-day management and startup of Cascadia as described in this plan, be compensated for their time. That person might be me or it might not; that is the Board's decision to make. I am estimating that there will be about 40 hours of paid work in February and about 15 hours per month thereafter for the manager. If additional hours are necessary, a supplemental budget request can be made. (Also, as mentioned above, I budgeted paid time for the Wikimedians-in-Residence.) There may be variations in hours from month to month for the manager; this is something that we will need to discuss since the variability has been found to be a challenge by at least one other Wikimedia organization employee who ended up quitting because he/she found it to be so problematic. I have tried to calendar projects in such a way as to smooth the month-to-month hours variation for the manager, and I personally would be willing to accept the risk of a variable-hours position like this after my internship is done at the end of January, but the Board would need to agree to this. I would appreciate it if Board members would think about how they would like the organization to be managed starting in February, because I've passed any reasonable boundary for volunteer time by a large margin. I've heard from another Cascadian that he also feels worn out. I really think that we need a paid manager; this person may be the president, the treasurer, or someone that we decide to hire as an employee under the president. Please think about this issue before Tuesday. I hope that WMF would agree to a modest labor funding request for a (very) part-time manager, and I hope that the Cascadia Board will too.
- Thank you in advance for your questions and comments about the
proposal. Please participate using Google's comment feature.
It's nice to collaborate with all of you, and I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday at 6 PM at the University of Washington's Communications Building in room 321. Thanks to Mako and Monika for getting us a meeting room. (:
Have a nice weekend,
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* https://www.wikipedia.org/
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not know.**—Catherine Munro*
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
-- Lane Rasberry user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia 206.801.0814 lane@bluerasberry.com
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
Hi Sage,
The board members are noted in the agenda: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Seattle#Monthly_meeting_Janua...
Sure, let's have a discussion about strategic goals. Would you like to add that to the agenda, perhaps above the bylaws agenda item?
Pine
Hello,
These proposed by-laws are derived from Wikimedia DC bylaws. I read those DC bylaws in the past plus they have been used for some years. I will ask where and how these bylaws diverge from those.
On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 3:27 AM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Sage,
The board members are noted in the agenda: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Seattle#Monthly_meeting_Janua...
Sure, let's have a discussion about strategic goals. Would you like to add that to the agenda, perhaps above the bylaws agenda item?
Pine
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
Lane / bluerasberry,
Some of the divergence was due to State of Washington law. Since I know that Pine has been very busy with family matters, I will take the liberty of sharing what Pine wrote to me about the changes that he made:
*** *I did some online research and made some changes based on that research. In particular:*
1. *Washington law sets maximum notice of member meetings at 50 days.* 2. *Per Washington law, the Corporation "Shall not loan money or credit to its officers or directors".* 3. *I made the section on background checks more extensive, including spelling out how background checks for the President and Treasurer should be performed.* 4. *Minors should not serve as voting Board members, but they may helpfully contribute to advisory boards and advisory committees. I made that explicit in a few places, and I removed the exception that allowed the Secretary to be a minor.* 5. *I added a provision allowing for two non-Board members to be appointed to the Audit Committee. This might be useful, for example, if the President and Treasurer are not board members and the Board wishes to have them serve on the Audit Committee. This provision would also allow for people to serve on the Audit Committee who are not interested in serving on the full Board.*
***
Also, if I recollect our subsequent verbal discussion correctly, other changes may have been modeled after other Washington non-profits, & there were some changes to give the board a bit more powerful & the officers a little bit less powerful. That was one reason that there is a Vice-Chairman of the Board but not a Vice-President.
Yours, Peaceray
On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 4:12 AM, Lane Rasberry lane@bluerasberry.com wrote:
Hello,
These proposed by-laws are derived from Wikimedia DC bylaws. I read those DC bylaws in the past plus they have been used for some years. I will ask where and how these bylaws diverge from those.
On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 3:27 AM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Sage,
The board members are noted in the agenda: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Seattle#Monthly_meeting_Janua...
Sure, let's have a discussion about strategic goals. Would you like to add that to the agenda, perhaps above the bylaws agenda item?
Pine
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
-- Lane Rasberry user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia 206.801.0814 lane@bluerasberry.com
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
Peaceray,
What titles are being imagined here? Confirm if I am correct:
The organization has a board. The board has five members. Titles required in Washington are president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. Any other titles are optional. All people on the board are officers in addition to any other titles they have. The board serves the organization's membership and staff, and people in those groups can have any titles they choose, like "(non-board) president", "director", "program manager", "volunteer", or anything else.
I am having trouble understanding "*This might be useful, for example, if the President and Treasurer are not board members and the Board wishes to have them serve on the Audit Committee"* because the board has to have a president and treasurer, right?
On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 2:17 AM, Raymond Leonard < raymond.f.leonard.jr@gmail.com> wrote:
Lane / bluerasberry,
Some of the divergence was due to State of Washington law. Since I know that Pine has been very busy with family matters, I will take the liberty of sharing what Pine wrote to me about the changes that he made:
*I did some online research and made some changes based on that research. In particular:*
- *Washington law sets maximum notice of member meetings at 50 days.*
- *Per Washington law, the Corporation "Shall not loan money or
credit to its officers or directors".* 3. *I made the section on background checks more extensive, including spelling out how background checks for the President and Treasurer should be performed.* 4. *Minors should not serve as voting Board members, but they may helpfully contribute to advisory boards and advisory committees. I made that explicit in a few places, and I removed the exception that allowed the Secretary to be a minor.* 5. *I added a provision allowing for two non-Board members to be appointed to the Audit Committee. This might be useful, for example, if the President and Treasurer are not board members and the Board wishes to have them serve on the Audit Committee. This provision would also allow for people to serve on the Audit Committee who are not interested in serving on the full Board.*
Also, if I recollect our subsequent verbal discussion correctly, other changes may have been modeled after other Washington non-profits, & there were some changes to give the board a bit more powerful & the officers a little bit less powerful. That was one reason that there is a Vice-Chairman of the Board but not a Vice-President.
Yours, Peaceray
On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 4:12 AM, Lane Rasberry lane@bluerasberry.com wrote:
Hello,
These proposed by-laws are derived from Wikimedia DC bylaws. I read those DC bylaws in the past plus they have been used for some years. I will ask where and how these bylaws diverge from those.
On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 3:27 AM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Sage,
The board members are noted in the agenda: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Seattle#Monthly_meeting_Janua...
Sure, let's have a discussion about strategic goals. Would you like to add that to the agenda, perhaps above the bylaws agenda item?
Pine
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
-- Lane Rasberry user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia 206.801.0814 lane@bluerasberry.com
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
Hi Lane,
Actually, there are lots of ways that an organization can structure its officers. In Washington, corporations including charities can have only a single officer; for example, the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle is a "corporation sole" with a single officer. However, in most charities this degree of centralization would be inadvisable. In Washington, if there is more than one officer, there is a requirement that the president and the secretary be different people. I believe that there are no requirements to have vice presidents or treasurers, although many organizations do so when there are enough trustworthy people involved to allow for multiple officers, especially if the workload is so great that the president and secretary can't handle everything by themselves.
I particularly am hoping in Cascadia's case to segregate management from governance. It is good practice for the Board to involve itself in big-picture decisions, and to leave the day to day management of the organization to the president. The president does not need to be a board member, for example Lila is not a member of WMF's board. The chair leads the board, mostly in a facilitating role; the president is the manager of the organization and he/she reports to the board. The president *can* be a member of the board, but they don't *need* to be, and since I've already proposed paying for some management staff time, it makes sense to me to have the president (who might or might not also be the treasurer) be someone who is separate from, and reports to, the board.
I hope that makes sense. If not, we can talk more tonight.
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* https://www.wikipedia.org/
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not know.*
*—Catherine Munro*
On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 5:31 AM, Lane Rasberry lane@bluerasberry.com wrote:
Peaceray,
What titles are being imagined here? Confirm if I am correct:
The organization has a board. The board has five members. Titles required in Washington are president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. Any other titles are optional. All people on the board are officers in addition to any other titles they have. The board serves the organization's membership and staff, and people in those groups can have any titles they choose, like "(non-board) president", "director", "program manager", "volunteer", or anything else.
I am having trouble understanding "*This might be useful, for example, if the President and Treasurer are not board members and the Board wishes to have them serve on the Audit Committee"* because the board has to have a president and treasurer, right?
On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 2:17 AM, Raymond Leonard < raymond.f.leonard.jr@gmail.com> wrote:
Lane / bluerasberry,
Some of the divergence was due to State of Washington law. Since I know that Pine has been very busy with family matters, I will take the liberty of sharing what Pine wrote to me about the changes that he made:
*I did some online research and made some changes based on that research. In particular:*
- *Washington law sets maximum notice of member meetings at 50 days.*
- *Per Washington law, the Corporation "Shall not loan money or
credit to its officers or directors".* 3. *I made the section on background checks more extensive, including spelling out how background checks for the President and Treasurer should be performed.* 4. *Minors should not serve as voting Board members, but they may helpfully contribute to advisory boards and advisory committees. I made that explicit in a few places, and I removed the exception that allowed the Secretary to be a minor.* 5. *I added a provision allowing for two non-Board members to be appointed to the Audit Committee. This might be useful, for example, if the President and Treasurer are not board members and the Board wishes to have them serve on the Audit Committee. This provision would also allow for people to serve on the Audit Committee who are not interested in serving on the full Board.*
Also, if I recollect our subsequent verbal discussion correctly, other changes may have been modeled after other Washington non-profits, & there were some changes to give the board a bit more powerful & the officers a little bit less powerful. That was one reason that there is a Vice-Chairman of the Board but not a Vice-President.
Yours, Peaceray
On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 4:12 AM, Lane Rasberry lane@bluerasberry.com wrote:
Hello,
These proposed by-laws are derived from Wikimedia DC bylaws. I read those DC bylaws in the past plus they have been used for some years. I will ask where and how these bylaws diverge from those.
On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 3:27 AM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Sage,
The board members are noted in the agenda: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Seattle#Monthly_meeting_Janua...
Sure, let's have a discussion about strategic goals. Would you like to add that to the agenda, perhaps above the bylaws agenda item?
Pine
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
-- Lane Rasberry user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia 206.801.0814 lane@bluerasberry.com
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
-- Lane Rasberry user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia 206.801.0814 lane@bluerasberry.com
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
Hi all,
Some updates and fixes:
*Agenda on wiki: :*Added an agenda item for the board to decide the amount of annual dues. I budgeted in a revenue placeholder amount of $30 total. :* Added discussion of strategic goals to the agenda. :* Moved up the budget discussion in the agenda since it's more urgent than the bylaws discussion. :* Added trademark doc link in the agenda.
*Budget tab: :* Separated out startup costs from regular administrative costs :* Clarified BECU account creation and checkbook costs :* Clarified that British Columbia registration may be pursued in the 2nd half of 2015; added this to the (new) stretch goal tab :* Clarified that we may alter our use of Impact HUB in the 2nd half of 2015 (increase or move, as needed) :* Fixed apparent error in State of Oregon initial fee. The amount appears to be $0, not $50. :* Website design: change note to "Not budgeted; may ask for volunteers to do this or may incorporate into other budgeted hours" :* Clarified "Food, snacks beverages, and event expenses budget (excluding travel)" budget under the Programmatic Costs budget section :* Moved the camera purchase expense to the startup budget table, and moved camera insurance and shipping to the recurring general & administrative costs budget table. :* Added an Annual Meeting venue and snacks budget of $200 to the general & administrative expenses budget. We will likely need a larger venue than usual for the Annual Meeting, and snacks may encourage members to participate (:
*2015 goals tab: :*Removed website hits goal :*Added: successful incorporation and charity registration in Washington :*Added: successful charity registration in Oregon :*Added: obtain general liability and D&O insurance :*Added: volunteerism goal of 200 tracked hours by Cascadians
*Added a strategic goals tab (please be bold in making comments and suggestions)
*Added an income tab
*Added a tab of stretch goals for the 2nd half of 2015
See you tonight! (:
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* https://www.wikipedia.org/
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not know.* *—Catherine Munro*
Pine,
The way that you are proposing a separation between Cascadia's board/governance and staff/management is exactly as I think is best. I support that model entirely.
yours,
On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 8:49 AM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Lane,
Actually, there are lots of ways that an organization can structure its officers. In Washington, corporations including charities can have only a single officer; for example, the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle is a "corporation sole" with a single officer. However, in most charities this degree of centralization would be inadvisable. In Washington, if there is more than one officer, there is a requirement that the president and the secretary be different people. I believe that there are no requirements to have vice presidents or treasurers, although many organizations do so when there are enough trustworthy people involved to allow for multiple officers, especially if the workload is so great that the president and secretary can't handle everything by themselves.
I particularly am hoping in Cascadia's case to segregate management from governance. It is good practice for the Board to involve itself in big-picture decisions, and to leave the day to day management of the organization to the president. The president does not need to be a board member, for example Lila is not a member of WMF's board. The chair leads the board, mostly in a facilitating role; the president is the manager of the organization and he/she reports to the board. The president *can* be a member of the board, but they don't *need* to be, and since I've already proposed paying for some management staff time, it makes sense to me to have the president (who might or might not also be the treasurer) be someone who is separate from, and reports to, the board.
I hope that makes sense. If not, we can talk more tonight.
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* https://www.wikipedia.org/
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not know.*
*—Catherine Munro*
On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 5:31 AM, Lane Rasberry lane@bluerasberry.com wrote:
Peaceray,
What titles are being imagined here? Confirm if I am correct:
The organization has a board. The board has five members. Titles required in Washington are president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. Any other titles are optional. All people on the board are officers in addition to any other titles they have. The board serves the organization's membership and staff, and people in those groups can have any titles they choose, like "(non-board) president", "director", "program manager", "volunteer", or anything else.
I am having trouble understanding "*This might be useful, for example, if the President and Treasurer are not board members and the Board wishes to have them serve on the Audit Committee"* because the board has to have a president and treasurer, right?
On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 2:17 AM, Raymond Leonard < raymond.f.leonard.jr@gmail.com> wrote:
Lane / bluerasberry,
Some of the divergence was due to State of Washington law. Since I know that Pine has been very busy with family matters, I will take the liberty of sharing what Pine wrote to me about the changes that he made:
*I did some online research and made some changes based on that research. In particular:*
- *Washington law sets maximum notice of member meetings at 50
days.* 2. *Per Washington law, the Corporation "Shall not loan money or credit to its officers or directors".* 3. *I made the section on background checks more extensive, including spelling out how background checks for the President and Treasurer should be performed.* 4. *Minors should not serve as voting Board members, but they may helpfully contribute to advisory boards and advisory committees. I made that explicit in a few places, and I removed the exception that allowed the Secretary to be a minor.* 5. *I added a provision allowing for two non-Board members to be appointed to the Audit Committee. This might be useful, for example, if the President and Treasurer are not board members and the Board wishes to have them serve on the Audit Committee. This provision would also allow for people to serve on the Audit Committee who are not interested in serving on the full Board.*
Also, if I recollect our subsequent verbal discussion correctly, other changes may have been modeled after other Washington non-profits, & there were some changes to give the board a bit more powerful & the officers a little bit less powerful. That was one reason that there is a Vice-Chairman of the Board but not a Vice-President.
Yours, Peaceray
On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 4:12 AM, Lane Rasberry lane@bluerasberry.com wrote:
Hello,
These proposed by-laws are derived from Wikimedia DC bylaws. I read those DC bylaws in the past plus they have been used for some years. I will ask where and how these bylaws diverge from those.
On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 3:27 AM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Sage,
The board members are noted in the agenda: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Seattle#Monthly_meeting_Janua...
Sure, let's have a discussion about strategic goals. Would you like to add that to the agenda, perhaps above the bylaws agenda item?
Pine
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
-- Lane Rasberry user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia 206.801.0814 lane@bluerasberry.com
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
-- Lane Rasberry user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia 206.801.0814 lane@bluerasberry.com
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
Join the conversation here: https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/gw4vy4ky5e7cr32qkcdkrl4p4qa
Monika (on Peacerays computer)
On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 7:08 AM, Lane Rasberry lane@bluerasberry.com wrote:
Pine,
The way that you are proposing a separation between Cascadia's board/governance and staff/management is exactly as I think is best. I support that model entirely.
yours,
On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 8:49 AM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Lane,
Actually, there are lots of ways that an organization can structure its officers. In Washington, corporations including charities can have only a single officer; for example, the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle is a "corporation sole" with a single officer. However, in most charities this degree of centralization would be inadvisable. In Washington, if there is more than one officer, there is a requirement that the president and the secretary be different people. I believe that there are no requirements to have vice presidents or treasurers, although many organizations do so when there are enough trustworthy people involved to allow for multiple officers, especially if the workload is so great that the president and secretary can't handle everything by themselves.
I particularly am hoping in Cascadia's case to segregate management from governance. It is good practice for the Board to involve itself in big-picture decisions, and to leave the day to day management of the organization to the president. The president does not need to be a board member, for example Lila is not a member of WMF's board. The chair leads the board, mostly in a facilitating role; the president is the manager of the organization and he/she reports to the board. The president *can* be a member of the board, but they don't *need* to be, and since I've already proposed paying for some management staff time, it makes sense to me to have the president (who might or might not also be the treasurer) be someone who is separate from, and reports to, the board.
I hope that makes sense. If not, we can talk more tonight.
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* https://www.wikipedia.org/
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not know.*
*—Catherine Munro*
On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 5:31 AM, Lane Rasberry lane@bluerasberry.com wrote:
Peaceray,
What titles are being imagined here? Confirm if I am correct:
The organization has a board. The board has five members. Titles required in Washington are president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. Any other titles are optional. All people on the board are officers in addition to any other titles they have. The board serves the organization's membership and staff, and people in those groups can have any titles they choose, like "(non-board) president", "director", "program manager", "volunteer", or anything else.
I am having trouble understanding "*This might be useful, for example, if the President and Treasurer are not board members and the Board wishes to have them serve on the Audit Committee"* because the board has to have a president and treasurer, right?
On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 2:17 AM, Raymond Leonard < raymond.f.leonard.jr@gmail.com> wrote:
Lane / bluerasberry,
Some of the divergence was due to State of Washington law. Since I know that Pine has been very busy with family matters, I will take the liberty of sharing what Pine wrote to me about the changes that he made:
*I did some online research and made some changes based on that research. In particular:*
- *Washington law sets maximum notice of member meetings at 50
days.* 2. *Per Washington law, the Corporation "Shall not loan money or credit to its officers or directors".* 3. *I made the section on background checks more extensive, including spelling out how background checks for the President and Treasurer should be performed.* 4. *Minors should not serve as voting Board members, but they may helpfully contribute to advisory boards and advisory committees. I made that explicit in a few places, and I removed the exception that allowed the Secretary to be a minor.* 5. *I added a provision allowing for two non-Board members to be appointed to the Audit Committee. This might be useful, for example, if the President and Treasurer are not board members and the Board wishes to have them serve on the Audit Committee. This provision would also allow for people to serve on the Audit Committee who are not interested in serving on the full Board.*
Also, if I recollect our subsequent verbal discussion correctly, other changes may have been modeled after other Washington non-profits, & there were some changes to give the board a bit more powerful & the officers a little bit less powerful. That was one reason that there is a Vice-Chairman of the Board but not a Vice-President.
Yours, Peaceray
On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 4:12 AM, Lane Rasberry lane@bluerasberry.com wrote:
Hello,
These proposed by-laws are derived from Wikimedia DC bylaws. I read those DC bylaws in the past plus they have been used for some years. I will ask where and how these bylaws diverge from those.
On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 3:27 AM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Sage,
The board members are noted in the agenda: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Seattle#Monthly_meeting_Janua...
Sure, let's have a discussion about strategic goals. Would you like to add that to the agenda, perhaps above the bylaws agenda item?
Pine
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
-- Lane Rasberry user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia 206.801.0814 lane@bluerasberry.com
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
-- Lane Rasberry user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia 206.801.0814 lane@bluerasberry.com
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
-- Lane Rasberry user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia 206.801.0814 lane@bluerasberry.com
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
wikimedia-cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org