Mark Havens, care to comment?

Off Topic
#44

Here are some highlight quotes:

4:45
Interviewee says:
“Nobody will teach a class unless they have $50 or a $100 bucks coming their way.”

This is something we have actively been trying to address. There are multiple threads about it on talk. We have listened to the membership and made adjustments to the honorarium system that are financially sound and encourage more teaching.

Here is one of the current threads:
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/crazy-dumb-honorarium-idea/72421/10

There are many others to choose from.

Mark is implying that we are not addressing this concern and that’s just a lie.

The issues with the calendar system and honorarium the interviewee is describing happened 2.5 years ago, and have long been addressed with both improved code and improved process. Mark knows this, his fellow candidate reply Max is a prolific teacher who has no issues using the system and collecting honorarium for himself and the committee.

At 10:20 Mark says it shouldn’t be a second job, I don’t work all day to go work at the makerspace.

Excuse me? What on earth does he think it means to serve on a volunteer board?

The amount of tasks the board faces every day is a second job. We do it for free because we love the space and the community.

I have no idea what he expects is going to happen should he get on the board but I think this is clear indication of what the Dallas makerspace will get from him on the board.

That should be their slogan “I don’t work all day, just to go work at the makerspace!”

Their trolling is insulting to the directors and officers who work every day to keep the makerspace open, welcoming and safe for it’s members.

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#46

We don’t dispute he’s been here since the beginning, but as it’s been pointed out by many of the people who were there and involved, it was a group effort that began well before him and well before the paperwork.

To claim principal founder is just more evidence of that creepy/slimy feeling.

#47

I Beg to differ. I’ve somehow managed to host two dozen classes and events without ever taking a dollar in Honorarium for myself: it ALL went back to the committees. Some were non-Honorarium events and this only counts items which I submitted to the Calendar - it doesn’t count Open Forges I attended but which others added To the Calendar or ad hoc training which never even made it to the Calendar at all.

I know other Members are similarly giving o their time and teach without ever accepting the Honorarium for themselves.

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#48

The filed Form 1023 does not, those 5 board members listed in the attachment are the first elected board.

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#49

To clarify, the address Mark put down under his name on the filling isn’t his personal address or anything like that, it’s the address of the space we were already renting and using. Mark sent in the paperwork because he volunteered to.

I feel like in my previous comments I may have come across as if I don’t acknowledge Mark’s early contributions to the space. He did a lot of work especially on the admin/finance side. He just didn’t found the space.

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#50

Did Mark say, “a principal founder” or “the principal founder” in that video? I can’t tell. Not that I really care about any of this.

1 Like
#51

I don’t know what “principal founder” even means. People usually use the term “founding members” to describe the early crew. It sounds like he’s trying to land on a term that implies he was the sole founder without using those exact words.

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#52

In every business I’ve worked at a principal is the main stakeholder of the line of business. They supply the vision and direction for the whole line of business they are in charge of.

That’s the offensive part to me, it’s clear from the published history and the people here who were there then, that it was a group effort. Everyone, even Mark, deserves equal credit.

Now a decade later he’s trying to play it off that he was the “principal” founder. Like it was his vision and his leadership that guided all of his assistants to build this place. He never outright says it, he just implies it to gaslight everyone who was there or who questions his version of history.

#53

Principal is a complicated definition and often depends on how companies define it. In my opinion this is Mark’s loophole he can define it for himself and not explain to anyone what he means by it. Then he can include the word founder and create an even more official sounding title that is even more ambiguous. This is especially true since he seems to have given the title to himself. Here is the best definition of principal I have been able to find.

According to the IRS “ the definitions of principal officer and officer differ. A principal officer , for purposes of completing Item F in the header, is a person who has ultimate responsibility for implementing the decisions of the organization’s governing body, or for supervising the management, administration, or operation of the organization. An officer who is authorized to sign the form (in Part II) may be the organization’s president, vice president, treasurer, assistant treasurer, chief accounting officer or other corporate or association officer, such as a tax officer. For purposes of reporting officers and their compensation elsewhere on the Form 990 and schedules, an officer is a person elected or appointed to manage the organization’s daily operations, such as a president, a vice president, secretary or treasurer. The officers of an organization are determined by reference to its organizing documents, bylaws or resolutions of its governing body, and at a minimum include those officers required by applicable state law. For purposes of Form 990 reporting, treat the organization’s top management official and top financial official as officers.”

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#54

Honestly this title scares me more (from his LinkedIn page):

image
image734×393 30.3 KB

I just hope DMS isn’t found culpable and ultimately forced to pay for partial lobotomies to the victims :frowning:

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#56

mblatz you took the words out of my mouth. lol I am so glad to see he isnt the norm here. Geeze I was thinking if takes HIM 6 min to say nothing and does nothing but talk in circles this place isn’t for me. Whew.

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#57

We get the same distribution as anywhere else. With a slant towards intelligent / creative / artistic / inventive folks. And all the fun that goes with that demographic.

We’re hearing a lot from one or more of the tail ends of the curve lately.

Join for the middle. Ignore the outliers… :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#58

before even watching the video my first question to this sight was how was it funded. How many members. I was thinking surely some kind of fundraisers or corporate sponsors. I would think paint sprayers turbine hvlp setups would be wonderful to test which system is best for an application or surfprep vs festool. I was shocked no corporate sponsors allowed. is that correct? Just my opinion. But i would be hitting them up for donations I mean if i were to become a member lol oops my bad i misread no corporate memberships

#60

Mark Havens is a PhD fellow and that was just an introduction video. The Case Study will be a series of videos. He wants to talk about the decline in membership and I’m sure other topics. He is just introducing the series that I’m sure will take many months.

Do your research on doing a Case Study. Also, the video does say “Introduction.”

#61

10 character long groan

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#62

Wow, I didn’t know you were that eager to watch Mark’s videos.

It might be sooner. I don’t speak for Mark.

1 Like
#63


I believe you are looking for this

Corporate sponsors are allowed and we do have some

We used to but it just became too hard to track equipment authorization so we switched to a simpler model.

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#64

@team_moderators I believe the videos being posted by the Blue Tape candidates are a violation of the DMS privacy policy and they should not be allowed to be displayed on the DMS-maintained forum.

To wit:

In addition, the Dallas Makerspace will not provide or display any information which may subject a member to fraud, identity theft, harassment, or provide a means for subjecting the member to increased risk of fraud, identity theft, or which may enable another person to engage in Internet fraud or attack, or may enable another to identify, contact, or distinguish any member, without the express written consent of the member(s) owning the data.

Any video which names another member is in violation of this policy and links to these videos should be removed to protect DMS from liability to the injured members.

In my humble opinion.

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#65

Well I guess on the other hand, we live in a free country, and wouldn’t this fall under free speech? I can go online and make a video saying anything I want about anyone or anything, so I don’t know if you’ve got a leg to stand on there… I mean I WISH we could limit freedom of speech from people who just want to shit on others, but unfortunately there isn’t a shitty person clause in the constitution. Not directing this at any one person, just in general I hate it when people are jerks to others

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#66

(1) don’t be so sure about that, and (2) that’s not what this is about

Free Speech: You are free to say whatever you want without fear of government retribution.

DMS is not the government, and can limit speech on its property, as you can limit speech on your property.

@mrhavens is free to post his videos on YouTube (provided they stay within YouTube’s policies), but DMS has policies against displaying the types of information quoted above.

Both can happen in a “free speech” nation, they are not mutually exclusive.

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