Committee Chair Thread - October 2015

DMS General
#1

At the board meeting on September 23rd, new rules were put in place for committee chair candidates.
( Board Meeting Item ) This was done to make it easier for people to vote and not cause confusion.

ALL Members can vote for any chair of any committee. Just show up to the committee meeting or get a proxy to vote on your behalf. The proxy should have something (printed email, hand written note, etc.) with your vote.

I am tagging all current chairs and asking them to schedule a meeting between October 8th and 17th for Chair discussions by October 3rd to allow members to plan accordingly. Once a candidate is selected the board can make it official.

If you wish to be a chair (INCLUDING CURRENT CHAIRS) please email [email protected] with your intent by October 8th at 8PM. Show up to the Member Meeting on October 8th and explain why you wish to be chair or send in a quick written reason to the board and we will read it to the members. As we get emails I will update all the running chairs in this post as well.

Current Chairs

  • 3D Fab
  • Lisa Selk
  • Aerospace/RC
  • David Walker
  • Amateur Radio
  • Justin Edwards
  • Automotive
  • Brandon Green
  • Blacksmith
  • John Haskins
  • Civic Hacking
  • Stephen Wylie
  • Classroom
  • Gus Reiter
  • Creative Arts
  • Nicole Franczvai and Haley Moore
  • Digital Media
  • Jay Johnson
  • Electronics
  • Ken Purcell
  • Financial
  • Ben Groves
  • Foundry
  • John K
  • Infrastructure
  • Andrew Lecody
  • Jewelry
  • Anne Gullett
  • Laser
  • Luke Olson
  • Logistics
  • Allen
  • Machine Shop
  • Bryan GangWere
  • Metal Shop
  • Lee Jones , Danny Meeks and Trent Campbell
  • Public Relations
  • Krissy Heishman
  • Science
  • Richard Alexander
  • Vector
  • Nick Schell
  • Wood Shop
  • Alex Rhodes and Tom Cook

Chair Candidates.

  • 3D Fab
  • Lisa Selk
  • Mitch Cerroni
  • Aerospace/RC
  • Harold Asbridge and David Walker to Co Chair
  • Amateur Radio
  • Justin Edwards
  • Automotive
  • Brandon Green
  • Blacksmith
  • John Haskins
  • Civic Hacking
  • Stephen Wylie
  • Classroom
  • Gus Reiter
  • Creative Arts
  • Nicole Franczvai
  • Digital Media
  • Jay Johnson
  • Electronics
  • Ken Purcell
  • Financial
  • Ben Groves
  • Foundry
  • Nathan Jones
  • Infrastructure
  • Brooks Scharff and Jayson Woods and o co chair
  • Jewelry
  • Anne Gullett
  • Laser
  • Luke Olson
  • Logistics
  • Machine Shop
  • Metal Shop
  • Public Relations
  • Krissy Heishman
  • Michael Paskar
  • Science
  • Richard Alexander
  • Vector
  • Nick Schell
  • Wood Shop
  • Tom Cook

One thing to note. While the candidate is suggested, the chairs are still voted upon by the board. A good point was brought up about the Amateur Radio chair, that it should at least be someone with a license.

1 Like
#2

Can only put 10 names per post so tagging here…

@LisaSelk - Lisa Selk
@David_Walker - David Walker
@ke5bud - Justin Edwards
@Brandon_Green - Brandon Green
@jhaskins - John Haskins
@mrcity - Stephen Wylie
@Gus_Reiter - Gus Reiter
@uglyknees - Nicole Franczvai
@Haley_Moore - Haley Moore
@JayJohnson600 - Jay Johnson

#3

and here…
@Lampy - Ken Purcell
@BenjaminGroves - Ben Groves
@JohnK - John K
@AndrewLeCody - Andrew Lecody
@lukeiamyourfather - Luke Olson
@bgangwere - Bryan GangWere
@Danny - Danny Meeks
@texastboneking - Trent Campbell
@KrissyHeishman - Krissy Heishman
@Opcode - Richard Alexander

#4

and here… (last but not least)

@nickdangerous - Nick Schell
@AnneGullett - Anne Gullett

#5

By our current committee rules/club bylaws it is required to be licensed just to vote. I should be listed as a chair candidate as well, I sent an email to [email protected] as requested.

#6

While I concede on the chair being licenced, I don’t see the need to make the voting members licenced. Anyone at the space is allowed to vote this round. We are trying to keep voting the same accross all committees. If a problem appears we will deal with it at that time.

#7
#8

The need is to protect our committee and its interests. The other need is that we voted on this rule being put in place in its start and again voted on it after I became committee chair. We have voted to keep it in place because of the requirement to even operate or take part in Amatreur Radio is having a license unless you are a student and want to learn and we have a specific designation of student for that purpose. Being a student still requires direct supervision of a licensed operator.

IF you are not licensed operator you you don’t really have a sense of what our committee is about and what we are doing. This rule was put in place by the committee members and will stay in place until they vote to remove it.

I emailed [email protected] with two things included in my email. My intention to be a candidate for committee chair and a specific request that the board as a whole review our request and make a decision on it as to adding an exception for our committee. This request still stands and it stands for a reason.

We as a committee get to decide within reason what goes on in our committee. For the board to step in and make a rule that goes directly against a committee rule is overreach of the board in my opinion. We as a committee decide and vote on what is best for our committee and we decided that having licensed operators be the only ones allowed to vote on a committee issue was in the best interest of our committee.

@AndrewLeCody, @BenjaminGroves, @Robert_Davidson, @Kentamanos, @AlexRhodes Can we please get an official decision on our request from the board? This way we can appropriately plan for our next committee meeting.

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#9

I voted against license only in the Amateur Radio Member’s meeting, as I feel one of the cornerstones of the Dallas Makerspace culture is a spirit of inclusiveness.

Alex’s involvement here is of the same nature but coming from a general concern in the Board of Directors about committees putting up barriers to participation. While your exclusion does not block anyone from Amateur Radio Committee meetings, the barrier to vote can still be seen as a barrier to participation.

We understand the need for a licensed chairperson of Amateur Radio as a license is required to use our equipment, also that 4 licensed committee members need to be on record for us to maintain KD5MS with the FCC. Past that we do not understand the restrictions. We wish for any member to have as much access to the Dallas Makerspace as we can allow and without barrier.

I would like to understand your specific concerns involving “protecting our committee and its interests”, as I do not feel that statement on its own makes a compelling argument.

I do not recall any vote to this effect when I held the Amateur Radio Chair.

The Board of Directors recognizes the requirement of the Committee Chair of Amateur Radio to hold at least an Amateur Radio Technician’s license. Past that, we recognize no exclusions or exemptions.

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#10

This is not entirely true. A licensed operator needs to be in control (and hence responsible); however, any person may actually participate in a QSO on the equipment on our end. This frequently is a way of bringing new interest into the hobby. One notable example is when an amateur control allows students to have QSO’s with the Astronauts on the ISS. Few if any of those students are already licensed.

2 Likes
#11

It seems there is a bit of worrying about the potential for harassment/mucking with committees by folks who are otherwise in no way involved.

Instead of implementing more rules to counter this “potential” issue, I believe we need to keep the focus upon our “Being Excellent” model of mutual trust and respect. DMS is largely a trust-based social organization. We all depend upon each other to be communicative, straightforward, and respectful. This is the glue which holds us together. Without it, no rules are good enough to keep the organization together.

Historically, when troublemakers have made themselves known, we have dealt with them swiftly and banned them from the space. People who don’t share, don’t honor the do-ocratic ethic, and love to stir up drama shouldn’t be here.

9 Likes
#12

I’m with Nick. Awesome post. The principles that DMS espouses are awesome and empowering. When we spend any of our time trying to adversely affect someone else’s project, committee membership or leadership we all lose. We should all endeavor to be excellent to one another and show a willingness to pitch in and help one another.

It is what I believe makes DMS unique and amazing. Thanks Nick for a great post.

4 Likes
#13

I’m mixed,

I’ve been called a trouble maker at DMS for holding some contrarian views, which in some cases have become the popular view later. I don’t wish to be banned because other may disagree with me, especially those in power. But, I’m also not breaking laws or tools, and I’ve inferred those are the larger banning offenses. That being said I believe it isn’t clear who has been banned from DMS and exactly why? At least not to me. This is one large part of transparency I wish we had.

I like clear rules that apply to all, but I want to make sure we keep our rules enforcement based on the spirit of the rule, rather catching members in little technical mistakes and escalating it quickly to black list banning. In excellence there is also forgiveness. So forgiving members for miss steps / bad decisions has it’s place as well. Not saying we need to be Mother Teresa.

I support the idea of every member being able to vote in committees, with the inability of making quorum in membership meetings, committees are really the only place an individual member’s vote caries weight within the space on the day to day. It is also the area that brings the most member services. So having that input at that level is valuable and has a direct effect on the pay off.

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Member conflicts and banning
#14

AFAIK (I could be wrong) there has been one person permanently banned from DMS, and nobody even knows his real name (guy that had the police called on him). There have been temporary suspensions etc., but I don’t know of any bans.

Member conflicts and banning
#16

To bring this back on topic:

I’m Nathan Jones and I’m running for chair of the Foundry Committee.

My goals for Foundry include:

  • Increased communication with the general membership.
  • Increased communication within the committee.
  • Increased cooperation with other committees.
  • Continued focus on teaching.
  • Building a base of members who use the area regularly.
  • Building roster of teachers.

Thanks to individual efford and Board support we have built a great work workspace at DMS for pottery, stained glass, fused glass, and glass beads. I think we have the potential to add much more by combining resources with other committees and working on joint classes or projects.

3 Likes
#17

Considering that Jay was just confirmed as Digital Media Chairman at the last meeting, I wouldn’t think he would need to re-confirm at this meeting. At the least, his name ought to be listed as a candidate, unless he’s trying to make good his escape.

#18

I would say the same for @AnneGullett and Small Metals.

3 Likes
#19

@lukeiamyourfather and @JayJohnson600 both were appointed last board meeting. In the meeting I asked that they each have a meeting with their committees and make it official again as we are trying to standardize a process and a time frame for all committees. This should all happen again in April.

4 Likes
#20

It’s good to know where you stand, but I disagree with the process you are implementing. I believe that you are unnecessarily duplicating work and taking up people’s time by doing this.

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#21

You yourself are asking for processes ( https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/what-plans-for-dms-processes/5596) , but raise your arms when one is implemented?

Its only 3 committees out of the 22 that this effects, and 2 were notified at the meeting. If someone doesn’t want to show up to the meeting they can simply send in a proxy vote.

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