as an important part of the elections we should try to get the info to people as clearly as possible. you could have made and pinned a new wiki post in the better format and pasted his question into it.
in this format many of the questions/answers will get lost in the mix. its a mess. we have the formatting tools. we should use them.
What about all the new questions that would be added to the top wiki post, that candidates would almost certainly miss being added?
Example:
The original post had two questions.
Candidate 1 responded and thinks they are done then move on.
Someone adds three more questions to the original post because it’s a wiki.
Candidates 2 & 3 notice the thread and both answer all five questions. Candidate 1 has no idea that more questions have been added, so now appears that they made an intentional decision to not answer three of the questions.
Four more questions get added to the top post…
Candidate 2 notices a change and edits there response to include answers to the four new questions, but the new answers don’t notify the member who added the four questions to the wiki because there is nothing to trigger an alert. Since the answers are edited into a previous response - not even the most recent response in the thread, it’s not easily noticed, so it appears no-one responded to those questions.
I don’t see how this is a better solution… it may appear cleaner, but also leaves much to be desired.
the candidates could also have a single post that they could edit as needed answering the questions as they go. the thread would only have as many posts as there is candidates +1 for OP.
This isnt hard, real forums do this all the time but rely on the OP doing the editing work.
example? sure why not. my formatting will be off since its all one post.
OPthread (wiki post)
hey guys heres a bunch of questions to ask the candidates. use the wiki feature to add your own to the list
1)how many ducks?
2)what color ducks?
3)why ducks? why not cats?(edit from new user)
4)opinion on cats?
Candidate 1s post
1)how many ducks?
42 seems like a good answer
2)what color ducks?
i like blue
3)why ducks? why not cats?(edit from new user)
because ducks thats why
4)opinion on cats?
ducks thats why
etc from the others
Feel free to create a new thread, then as OP you can keep up with it.
As far as this thread is concerned, if we were to take all of the questions so far and move them into the original post, it would break all of the responses.
Let’s get this back on topic now. If you or anyone else wants to discuss how this thread coulda shoulda been, take it to a new thread.
This thread is only for questions to the candidates, and answers from the candidates.
Thank you!
I have created a more organized version of this thread, using the wiki format feature. Please use that thread: https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/questions-for-candidates-organized/19987/2
Be advised: if you have a wiki post open, and someone else does, too, it can cause problems. Your changes may be over written if they save…
All changes will show up in the history.
While true, it’s not very helpful when I have started a response, and then you do, and then I save, and then you save. Your save will overwrite my save, and my response is then relegated to history, rather than showing up on the post.
Unless this was fixed since the “committee colors” thread…
Yes, but the text isn’t lost, you can simply go to history, copy it, edit, paste, save.
Assuming I notice, have nothing better to do than ride that merry-go-round, etc.
I just thought people should know.
Do with that information as you will.
Thanks for the hijacking.
Raymond
1. What are your thoughts on the freebie shelf and are you for or against it?
I liked the Freebie shelf and found things for projects on it, I’ve put things on it: personal items and excess items from CA and Machine Shop. Most of that stuff disappeared, which is much better than just pitching things away. It is sort of a free market for Makers and very much a Maker/Hacker type thing.
I think there may be a sub-text here you are asking or a lot of other people may be thinking: Should the Freebie Shelf be gotten rid of?
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Freebie Shelf maintenance has always been an ongoing problem: over-flowing shelves, people just dump things there rather dumpstering them, put prohibited like liquids, CRT’s, on floor, etc… Getting people to clean it regularly, I’ve helped on occasion to clear – won’t claim to be a “regular maintainer”. The BoD dealt with this issue by specifically empowering the Logistics Chair, in their sole discretion to decide its fate. Erik delegated his Chair’s authority to make that decision to Brandon which exercised that discretion. While I miss the Freebie Shelf, I do not question the authority that Brandon had to dispose it. People may disagree with that decision, but that’s a different issue.
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2. How do you see the board moving above the day-to-day operations and more into strategy for the future?
We need active Chairs that assume more responsibility. I don’t feel there is a need to “hire an executive”. To do what: make decisions that are the domain of the Chairs or BoD? If to take care of the day-to-day items like plumbing, A/C, and garage door repairs, I think a better solution is to get a Maintenance (1099) person for 20~24 hours a week that has the authority to do this from a pre-approved vendor list. This person would perform routine maintenance that we current pay for: $250/month for A/C filter changes, that we still need to change more often. Have them set-up and do preventative maintenance on our tools – increasing up time or working on them during the day. Most of our plumbing issues could be done by a maintenance person and probably the savings would offset a fair of their salary plus we’d have higher up time.
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Cairenn Day
Which one would you consider to be a better method of leadership?
I agree with Robert on the Library example: Committees do have their own libraries and maintain them and decide what goes in them: I know Electronics, CA, and Machine Shop have small libraries – they manage them by the simple “We have this much space. Add something get rid of something”. This is committee level governance and for most things that is the leadership/governance model I like and would cover most committee level issues.
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This concept would apply other committee areas.
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Lisa
What makes you stand out above and beyond the other candidates?
I believe all the candidates are good choices – it’s our philosophies and personalities you have to decide which works best for you. I’ve been active at the Space as a Co &Vice-Chair Creative Arts and Chair Machine Shop. Have been active in Finance Committee. I’ve been active at the committee level. I strongly favor more committee responsibility and I want to see a development program started to assist current and future Chairs succeed. I’m very strong in member involvement, this is reflected in how Nicole and I started the SIG’s within CA and actually gave them power to do things and manage their area. I’ve done the same in Machine Shop and we now have vibrant strong committees with lots members actively involved. Those that have been involved with committees where I have a leadership role know that I’m not autocratic (at least I don’t think so) and actively seek out what the members think and when votes are taken I’m just a single vote.
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I’m very much in favor of the BoD using ad hoc advisor groups that can formulate a set of suggestions, present them to the membership, get final recommendations for either the BoD to vote on or for By-Law changes.
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One advantage I have is time availability, being retired I’m at the Space during the day and being on the BoD isn’t competing with a full time job. I’m on site, some of the “executive” functions spoken of I’d be available and willing to do. I’d say I’m very approachable and helpful based on the number of people that come and ask me for assistance (which is flattering).
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Regarding our Class/Event and Honorarium approval processes, do you feel we are currently balancing our …. with what membership and the outlying community are interested in learning? If not, do you feel that our processes are currently too restrictive or not restrictive enough?
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I feel we are definitely meeting out Educational mission. The shear number and scope of classes is the most obvious. But I think a LOT more actual learning goes on in the one-to-one mentoring/help we provide each other. Every time someone asks for help and is helped: that IS education and our communal culture. Call it tutoring. I see it all the time in the workshops and committee areas. Sit in the Commons room and you’ll hear a lot of people being helped. We nned give ourselves credit for this, this education many times is really the most valuable on personal level.
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The current Honorarium system and policies are pretty good. Tweaks needed are more IT related and is an ongoing process – we’ll get there. Issues of related to Private Events that has arisen I think in many ways are related to limited classroom resources, but even now I think how to handle it is being worked out.
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As a Board Member - between the following two items - Would your focus be on saving money for a future move and/or unexpected expenses, or would it be focused on purchasing newer/bigger/better tools in the near future?
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These are not mutually exclusive. We are in the enviable position of being very solvent and we aren’t wildly spending money. That is a credit to all the prior Boards and general member expectations. As a community, we are looking to having this wonderful place around forever. We are building a legacy.
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I’ve specifically stated that I believe we should save at least 15% of monthly dues towards acquiring additional space or emergencies. We bring in just shy of $60K a month. Our average spending, excluding monthly BoD allocations is around $30K, so we can spend $15K month easily on capital expenses AND save. Which is what we are doing. We could spend more, but we are being reasoned. I’d like to see committees submit what they think they will be asking the BoD to fund over the next 6-12 months so some priorities can be set, this also gives the membership an opportunity to see what is spending.
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Management of Dallas Makerspace is always a “hot topic”. In your idea of a perfect solution, how would the “power” distribution of our community be handled ("Who has ‘final say’ on what items, etc…). The “players” in the solution include: “The Board”, “Committee Chairs” (or committees as a whole…), “The Membership” (via member votes, etc…), and possibly an “On Site Manager”. NOTE: If your plans include an “On Site Manager”, please elaborate with additional details such as expected duties, hours on site, etc…
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On Site Manager: I discussed somewhat above. I don’t think we need an “executive” making our decisions for us: between the BoD and the committees I think that those powers should be reserved to us. A maintenance person that can call plumber, etc.
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Power Structure: Ultimately, all power is vested in the Board. I think more authority, responsibility, and accountability needs to be with stronger more active Chairs. We need to be assisting them and developing our future leadership. The most successful are those that get more members involved, so its “their committee”, it lightens the Chair’s workload. CA & Machine Shop both use SIG’s/Teams to breakdown the workload. It has worked very well in both these areas. Much of the success that Machine Shop’s revitalization is because, being the Benevolent Dictator I am, I let the committee make decisions on what to buy and what priorities are. Safety issues are where I assert my own prejudices. I think the reason we are getting about 20+ active machine shop committee members is they truly know they have a say in of Machine Shop.
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If you had to choose one of the following, do you feel that we should focus on “being the biggest and best” or “inter-committee projects and hackathons”?
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Going to hedge here. Being the BEST includes inter-committee projects, being big just for the sake of big I think can lead to problems. We are growing because we collectively do a whole lot more things right than the few things we really need improvement on. In industry, the concept of Continuous Improvement is part of their internal processes. We do try to do this, this is reflected in how were have created honorarium auditors, there’s now a more formal moderator group formulating standards, etc.
In your opinion, which types of agenda items should be included on Regular Member Meetings, and which should be included on Board of Directors Meetings?
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Member meetings: Anything the members feel needs to be addressed. It is the member’s forum. I think it serves and should serve as advisory votes to the BoD. I think the member meetings should have some additional defined powers. I would prefer that it be presided over by a non-BoD member, namely one of the Chairs. This keeps a bit more separation of powers.
BoD: I would like to see the BoD do more of the “strategic” planning. As a director, besides giving more power to committees I would expect them to be more accountable. Chairs that aren’t effective, absent, or really uninvolved should be replaced. Chairs should provide monthly status reports, not just for the BoD for the general membership. It wouldn’t have to be long, but would be posted to the wiki.
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Ultimately, the BoD is accountable for everything that happens here. It shouldn’t be micro-managing.
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We are nearing 1500 members. What do you think the optimum number of members should be for our community?
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This entirely depends on our physical facilities at this point. We’ve grown to where we need more space. Hopefully. it will happen soon. When we hit 1,700 I believe we need to try to stabilize at that point until new Space arrives. I would guess if we had another 10,000~15,000 sq. ft. we could easily go to 2,500. At that point I think we will start to reach market saturation and grow will slow.
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What will You do personally to encourage and ensure better new member experiences?
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What I currently am doing is I give a lot tours to people that drop in other than Thursdays. I also help people with badges on Thursdays. I take the time to go through the membership manual and explain what’s here to support them. I’m notorious for telling them to become active in committees AND asking what can you TEACH before they leave with their new badge.
What is one of your major pet peeves about Dallas Makerspace?
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LOL, Not being able to log into the fancy damn copier we have so I scan documents, however Brooks has fixed this a day ago for me. It would have to be the plague of: Not putting tools back after using them.
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Paint Booth or Not?
I would like a paint booth. I would not sacrifice a committee for one, but with any expansion would be high on list for space allocation and funding. My main concern is with regulatory compliance. If we can enforce members to use it responsibly to maintain compliance will be the issue.
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Andrew LeCody
What is your position on protecting personal information (names, email, access times, messages, metadata, etc.)
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Being on Finance Committee as an Administrator and being and having basic Admin access on Maker Manager I currently have access to a lot of the personal information listed above. I don’t share it. Period. If it is something really urgent I’ll email something to another member explaining someone wants to contact them and provide that person’s contact info. Then it’s up to that person. I’ve done this maybe 3 or 4 times in the last couple years.
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Kris Anderson
What are your thoughts on the freebie shelf and are you for or against it?
I personally liked the Freebie shelf, I’ve discussed this above, it was an on-going problem. There is a now a group forming to take responsibility for it. If they can do this, then definitely bring it back, if it doesn’t work – then it’s gone.
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Zach Metzing
#3 Do you think we need an employee? What responsibilities and authorities would that employee have while doing work for DMS? How will the employee’s performance be measured? What is the expected pay range for the employee?
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3.1 Not an employee but an independent contractor, 1099 not W-2. 3.2 Maintenance person, see discussion above. 3.3 There will be tasks to be accomplished. Are they being accomplished. 3.4 I’m going to guess $20~$25/hr.
Robert Davidson
What are you willing to sacrifice to be on the board of directors?
Time and effort. I’m retired, I have time, am willing to put into the effort - I’ve be doing so on multiple committees and enjoy Making Makers.
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I don’t expect it to be easy, I expect attacks because you can’t make everyone happy.
Because of my legal education, the threat of personally being sued is less intimidating to me. At the same time, this background can help avoid some traps or pitfalls. I’m strong on delegating and would make extensive use of ad hoc groups made up of members to help out. There’s a lot of talent here yet to be tapped. I think my background would also make more effective use of any legal queries we pose. I can frame the issue more narrowly, define the fact pattern at issue, a focus the question more sharply. This will reduce their billable research time and probably get us the actual question we want answered with less hedging.
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Nicole
Three word descriptions of other candidates.
Alex: Compassionate, Dedicated, Committed
Kris: Personable, Creative, Committed
Luke: Passionate, Concerned, Committed
Mitch: Personable, Maker, Committed
Robert: Concerned, Geek , Committed
Walter: Tenacious, Maker, Committed,
Steve: Personable, Concerned, Committed
Brian: Volunteer, Maker, Committed
David: Focused, Intelligent, Committed
David K: (Full disclosure: Nicole’s latest 3 words for me are: Dirty Rat Bastard)
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Note: I think all of the folks running are sincerely concerned and committed to seeing the success of Makerspace. We’re fortunate.
**JSWilson64 **
If the DMS board only had 3 seats, which two of this year’s candidates would you want in the other seats?
This sounds like a cop out, but isn’t. Truly, the two that are voted in by the membership. If they vote in folks that have the same philosophical viewpoints I do, good. If they vote in others, then they are also represented by those viewpoints.
Mark Havens
I count at about 10 different matrixed questions requiring short essays. I’ll answer what I think you are after and I’ll take Alex’s approach to answering generally.
When in ROTC they defined “Leadership” as the ability to get others to take on your goals as if they were their own. Most of what I think your questions are about is: How do you motivate people to get involved, volunteer, and help make the Space run as smoothly as possible.
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One of the things that I think has come out of the candidates meeting is all the postings on Talk asking for volunteers on specific, “I can do this” projects or tasks. They aren’t over-whelming, they look for what people can identify as something they can do. Then they are pretty much being empowered to do the task as they see fit.
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Getting people involved and giving them ownership is my personal style of leadership – you can see it in how I worked within CA & now Machine Shop. Give members a true voice and say. At our Machine Shop committee meetings, we vote on almost everything. They know their vote counts – so it’s worth the time to attend or send a proxy. I also try to keep meetings to less than an hour.
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Because I value their input, and I have time, I hold committee meetings two consecutive days in a row so they are more likely to attend. It’s working. SIG’s in CA are working. The work load is spreadout.
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Like Alex, Communication is the key. I let people know what’s happening, look for opportunities for them to become involved in whatever aspect interest them. My goal is to get ALL the tasks done, if each of them take a piece out of something they enjoy, then it’ll all get done and they are happy.
Time and effort. Fortunately since I don’t have dependents and I’m retired, I have time. I’m willing to put into the effort - I’ve be doing so on multiple committees and enjoy Making Makers.
I don’t expect it to be easy, I expect to put in a lot of time, to be attacked because you can’t make everyone happy.
I guess because of me legal education the threat of personally being sued is less intimidating to me. At the same time, this background can help maybe avoid to traps or pitfalls. Definitely not into CYA on everything - that will kill us.
I’m strong on delegating and would make extensive use of ad hoc groups made up of members to help out. There’s a lot of talent here yet to be tapped.
David: N/A
Alex: Compassionate, Dedicated, Committed
Kris: Personable, Creative, Committed
Luke: Passionate, Concerned, Committed
Mitch: Personable, Maker, Committed
Robert: Concerned, Geek , Committed
Walter: Tenacious, Maker, Committed,
Steve: Personable, Concerned, Committed
Brian: Committed, Volunteer, Maker
Note: I think all of the folks running are sincerely concerned and committed to seeing the success of Makerspace. We’re fortunate.
Cannot say about the last time, but https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/this-is-the-thread-that-we-talk-about-dms-picnic/19844/20
Robert (@Robert_Davidson), Alex (@AlexRhodes), Kris (@Kriskat30), Luke (@lukeiamyourfather), Steve (@Diplomat), Mitch (@themitch22), David G (@DaveG), David K (@Photomancer) and Brian (@Tapper) ~ Thank you ALL for taking the time to respond with thoughtful answers to the various questions asked on both this original Questions for candidates thread, as well as the new Questions For Candidates (Organized) thread!
I imagine having some idea of where the candidates stand on various issues will be helpful - especially for members who were not able to attend the Meet the Candidates meeting yesterday (Thursday, April 14th).
Thanks again! :dms:
@Raymond ,
Walter would like you to PM your email address so he can send you responses to your questions.
You have a reply with a limited use, self destructing email address. I won’t reply, but will post what he sends.