On 19 February 2013 23:47, James Alexander jamesofur@gmail.com wrote: ...
Groups should grow naturally, they should incorporate only when necessary and get staff only when necessary, trying to push them before they are ready only makes things worse. We have been having a long standing habit within the meta movement to rush towards organizations and staff long before it's necessary, pissing away money and good will.
James
I don't disagree with the sentiment. I recall the WMUK strategy weekend when the chapter board and staff all stood in the room to indicate how important to the new charity fundraising was. I was the Chair at the time, and I think I annoyed almost everyone there by being the only one standing in the middle of the room, and saying that I could do everything in our mission with a bag of crisps and money for a coffee, while almost everyone else was putting fundraising as the highest importance.
Money is not in our mission statement or our values. It's a burden and a governance nightmare. I already have a track record of doing good things relying on *other people's* money, it does not have to be in my bank account in order to have institutions and others eventually agree that: * archives should be on a fully free license * governments should support open knowledge for selfish reasons * everyone should consider becoming immortal by releasing the copyright on their creations in their wills * publishers should stop worrying about being gatekeepers and become knowledge facilitators * academics should help their careers by sharing early rather than hoarding * knowledge institutions should really mean their mission for the public good, and make it happen in the real world
To change everything, all we need is time, perhaps a life-time, an off-peak train ticket and maybe a cheap sandwich. With a bit of money we can do a little more, but you know, it's not the most important thing, what matters is the vision we have to share and not being let down too many times by the hierarchy we have chosen to create.
Now, if you want it faster than folks like me, on our own, liberating knowledge and having enormous fun talking to one person at a time and evangelizing the bejesus out of them, we might need to talk about using some donated money in smart ways and we might need to have something more reliable and consistent than wacky volunteers like me who tend to burn out all too quickly and all too often.
Cheers, Fae