Attention Dallas Makerspace Members

I am reaching out to all members of Dallas Makerspace!

Those who are part of Dallas Makerspace are not customers. We are members. As members, we have unique rights under state law. We are a joint part of a unique body that has the special rights under our Bylaws that allow us to maintain a voice in support of the governance and causes of our organization.

Our voice has been compromised by a recent Board decision to violate the Bylaws by restricting the release of our contact information. We as members are now unable to request what is necessary to organize and vote on important matters pertaining to the membership!

We are organizing an effort to correct this matter. If anyone wishes to assist in this cause, or wants to discuss this issue privately, please do not PM me via talk. Instead, contact me via email at [email protected], or by phone at 972-704-9767. We need organizers, fundraisers, and other volunteers. All communication will remain confidential.

In an effort to show my seriousness in this matter, I have made this post public. If you wish to pledge financial support to help pay for legal costs, you can send it directly by Paypal to [email protected], or send any amount by check or money order to:

Mark Havens
2806 W Walnut Hill Ln.
Irving, TX 75038

Financial support from non-members is also welcome. I will personally match, dollar for dollar, any new financial contributions, up to five thousand dollars. This is in addition to any funds that I’ve already personally contributed to this matter,

Thank you for your support, and thank you for being proud members of Dallas Makerspace!

Mark Havens

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TL;DR: Mark asked for all your e-mail addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, etc. The board did not release that info.

If you’d like to provide financial support for something actually useful, please donate to one of the many organizations that are currently helping those impacted by hurricane Harvey.

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All information was requested with the expressed purpose of being used for official Dallas Makerspace business.

Don’t be fooled. Think for yourself. Decide for yourself. We are not customers. We are members.

Don’t be a customer!

The implication that settling this issue isn’t useful is shortsighted (I am being generous with that characterization). Nick’s well written post on the other thread for this topic laying the case for getting clarity is worth reading.

This question here is a real and sincere one: under state law or organizational by-laws do members of our type of organization have the right to request certain (contact) information or not (they might? they might not?), and if they do, do the stewards of that information have any basis to refuse such a request (they might? they might not?). It doesn’t matter whether any particular member does or doesn’t want their contact information given to someone else or not; it either is or isn’t a matter of law.

This is a real case/controversy and needs to be settled for once and all, and shouldn’t be dismissed, undermined, or denigrated just because you don’t like Mark that much.

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This, as stated, I can get behind. I’m all for this kind of clarity.

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What official business is that then? I still have yet to see you say you want this information for anything other than “official business”

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In the interest of complete and total clarity, here is an excerpt from my official request in its original legalese:

All information gathered from this inspection will not be used for any improper purpose (such as general business solicitation), and will be used for a proper purpose, as stipulated in Section 8.2(2). All information gathered will be entirely restricted to DMS business, of which all business conducted regarding membership information will include direct mail, telephone, and email solicitation requesting new membership signup and voting registration of former members (if applicable), voting registration by the non-voting membership, and voting support for various future DMS governance related voting issues by the voting membership, which may include any DMS Board Election, DMS Board Removal, DMS Bylaw change, or any other voting action or campaign by the membership.

You are right Andrew! Or you can give money to DMS through the North Texas Giving Day. Are we participating this year? It is coming up soon isn’t it?

Forgive my simplistic translation of this, and please correct me if I’m wrong. You want membership information for an election campaign essentially?

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For the purposes of simplicity:

Yes I do, and more.

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I think you have the right to a list of VOTING MEMBERS, but not non-voting members, and certainly not past members.

What information you get on voting members is the only thing that I have questions about.

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Better yet, even if for some reason it is decided that my info as a voting member can be provided, can I opt out? If not, my contact info will become my landline that is never answered, and an email address that I check about once a year. Do I prefer it that way? No. Would I rather my information be used to communicate actual DMS business such as billing? Yes.

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Please review Article 8 of the Bylaws.

Don’t be a customer.
Be a member of Dallas Makerspace.

I don’t know if you were replying to me, but I think 8.2.4 answers my question. I don’t consent to my information being given.

…in no case shall members’ contact information be made available for inspection except by consent of the member or as required by the Articles of Incorporation, these Bylaws or provisions of law.

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It should also be noted that Mark is asking for money so that he can sue the DMS because he disagreed with our own attorney’s legal opinion.

All so that he can get your contact info for campaigning “and more” (whatever that means).

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This - can I opt out? Can I opt out of some forms of communication?

For the purpose of simplicity: If you want to contact me, don’t spend my cell phone minutes or fill up my email with your stuff - buy a stamp.

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Maybe to enjoin the membership as part of an upcoming lawsuit. I guess we need to start tracking members consent to be contacted under 8.2.4.

So let’s get this straight… apparently I’m a sheeple if I blindly believe that our board asked an opinion of an attorney regarding whether DMS has a requirement to provide my information to any member that asks for it. Then on top of that, legal action is required to force my information to be given, tying up DMS resources in the process.

I’ll just have to accept being a “customer”, “sheeple”, or whatever.

News at 11, DMS members just want to build things.

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THIS, I don’t care about campaigns, if I want to know about someone who is running for a position, I will ask. I have to say it’s really selfish of @mrhavens to be stirring all this up. I SHOULD NOT have to be worrying about people contacting me without my consent while I am on hurricane relief missions.

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I think he was gonna wait until you’re back, and he can have your undivided attention.

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