Electronics/Robotics Committee Meeting (Nominating Chair for Board Approval)

Electronics
#1

The Electronics/Robotics Committee needs to have a member meeting to handle the committee business of selecting a new chair for Board approval (Rules & Policies: Committees). The Board approves who is the chair of the committee but members can suggest a list of those willing to serve. Due to our chairman stepping down the leadership model reverts to a consensus model. Once a chair is selected the committee membership can then select their leadership model. It is the committee members that appoint a sub-chair but not the chair.

Having a meeting in a timely manner is difficult due to the holidays. To give committee members sufficient notice of at least 7 days, we have a suggested initial date of Saturday 27th at 3pm. Unfortunately this is two days after Christmas, so if you have a suggested alternate date please suggest a day and time below on this thread.

If you would like to join the committee please visit the wiki page and add yourself to the member list. This is the list that we will use to determine who is eligible to nominate a chair. The committee is open to all DMS members in good standing.

2 Likes
Electronics is better than ever, can we improve it?
#2

Could I suggest suggest Monday night, 12-29-14? I have family in town and the weekend is rather tightly booked.

Thanks,
Nick Sainz

#3

That’s fine with me and I probably have commitments over the weekend I don’t know yet from the wifey.

#4

You may not have all the facts. I suggest you walk the space and find out what is going on. It is possible that no change is needed. The consensus leadership model is the most difficult form of democracy. It is slower, and more tedious. No one person has any real power. From a by-stander’s viewpoint it can look even messier than regular democracy when compared to an authoritarian style dictatorship. It requires very high skill level from people involved in organization. But the long term results have proven scientifically to be superior to any other organizational style, all else being equal.

If you have a functioning consensus body and replace it with a chairman it could be said that you have decided on a lesser form of democracy. That having been said, a lesser form of government, up to and including dictatorship, is justifiable when there is a short-term need for expediency (speed).

Walk the space and decide: Are things getting done? Is there a need for speed? What is the rate of improvement, and how does it compare with past committees and a potential future committee? And find out exactly who it really that is imvolved? It is just possible that you got real lucky with what you have now.

#5

While I commend you on quick action and encourage you to continue. The issue is that per the rules you don’t get to decide you are the dictator. DMS’s own rules state that when a chair resigns it reverts to a consensus model. So unless you have had the board appoint you the chair we need to vote on a replacement.

And actually I do have the facts as I have been a member for over 3 years and on the committee for just about as long. I’m at the space at least twice a week. I have only missed the last two committee meetings due them being moved to a date I could not make and another due to an abusive person who is no longer a member.

Again speed is not the issue. We have had many a member go off the plan and waste our time and money. Once we moved to the new space, members decided we did not want a lot of shelves in the room as it would collect junk. We got more shelves and they got filled with junk. The electronics room is not a place to store seldom used stuff. That is what the committee shelf in the warehouse is for.

I’m not sure how long you have been a member but it is disingenuous to say that I (we) got lucky. Apparently you do not know or remember what a wreck the electronics room was at the old place. With DJ and many members help it was much improved in a short timeframe. Can it get better, very much so. Thanks for the help but you have to consider what all the members want.

4 Likes
#6

You are twisting my words, and insist on making this personal, and yet have not involved yourself directly in the activity now in progress to judge for yourself how things are done. You were not at the last electronics committee meeting when the shelving idea was proposed, discussed and approved, and all other purchases in progress, except for one, were put on hold.

Far more of what you have just said doesn’t ring true, and I will not embarrass you by debating it here. I suggest, we meet, and you voice your concerns, one-by-one. I would be especially interested in anything constructive you have offer.

#7

The position of committee chair is currently vacant and must be appointed by the Board of Directors. If no chair is appointed, the committee may be dissolved. That said, we (the board) take the opinion of the committee members into account, which is what @Lampy is trying to accomplish in this thread.

@Lampy, since the holidays are rather hectic, it may be preferable for the committee to vote via the forums, IRC, or some other mechanism than trying to get everyone to the space at the same time.