[H-GEN] My nomination for President

[Mark Ellem]

Hi,

On 13/08/2009, at 10:14 AM, Russell Stuart wrote:
>
> This is just to let you all know I will be nominating myself for
> President, and to tell you what I plan to do so you can figure out  
> if I
> am worthy of your vote.

Great to hear. I'm glad you'll be putting your hand up this AGM.

> The principle reason is I would like to see the club run a little more
> openly than it has been in the past.  To achieve that I want to  
> change a
> few things:
>
> 1.  Currently we have a number of private lists, such as the Exec  
> list.
> We also have some "secret" lists, such as the SysAdmin list.  These  
> are
> lists only a select few members know about, and even less are  
> invited to
> join. To me this seems a very odd way of running a club that champions
> open source, as it is anything but open.  It also seems to be counter
> productive, as in people who might like to help out in these tasks
> aren't aware they can.
>
> If elected president, I will be replacing these lists with open
> equivalents, and closing lists if inactive.  The archives on the
> existing private lists will remain private, as people who posted to  
> them
> did so under that assumption.  If you would like to see it handled  
> in a
> different way put up a motion at the AGM.

The only question I'd like to ask regarding this point is what will be  
the process for discussing 'sensitive' topics where premature  
disclosure to the membership may have dire consequences, without a  
Exec mailing list?

While I'm all for openness, I'm sure there will be some topics that  
will need to be discussed privately first. This is why I think the  
Exec list should remain. Similar reasoning with the Sys-Admin list as  
it would be good to have a discussion outlet where we can talk about  
Sys-Admin topics where the information contained in the thread may not  
be a good idea to disclose publicly too quickly.

>
> 2.  The committee we elect seems to be at odds with the work that  
> has to
> be done to keep the club running.  Here are the tasks that need to be
> done in order for Humbug to run, and committee elected to do them
> roughly in order of importance:
>
>   Meeting scheduling [1]       - None elected.
>   Running meetings             - None elected.
>   Ensure computer systems work - None elected.
>   Handling the money           - Treasurer.
>   Correspondence               - Secretary.
>   Managing club assets         - Librarian.
>   Bludger                      - Vice President.
>   Make sure above happens      - President.
>
>  [1] Meeting scheduling means ensuring rooms are booked, network is
> available, and scheduling who is responsible for opening / closing.
>
> I prefer to see that the tasks that matter have people allocated to
> them.  So, if I am elected, the responsibilities will be:
>
>   Meeting scheduling           - Vice President.
>   Running meetings             - None elected - as scheduled by Vice.
>   Ensure computer systems work - Librarian.
>   Handling the money           - Treasurer.
>   Correspondence               - Secretary.
>   Managing club assets [2]     - Treasurer.
>   Make sure above happens      - President.
>
>   [2] The assumption here is the only assets Humbug has are used at
> each and every meeting, and are passed between those responsible for
> opening and closing the meeting.

That seems reasonable to me. I've always thought the Vice-President  
role was wasted on nothingness.

> 3.  The committee members are elected to do particular jobs.  Right  
> now,
> unless things change dramatically from every prior Humbug AGM I have
> attended, the only idea you will have on how well each committee  
> member
> did the the job they were elected to do will be based on hearsay.   
> This
> is not conducive to electing a committee that gets things done.
>
> If elected president, I will be asking each committee member to  
> submit a
> formal written (electronic) report on their area of responsibility at
> each regular committee meeting.  These will become part of the  
> minutes.
> If no report is submitted, the minutes will say "this slack-arse
> committee member didn't do their job" - or words to that effect.  If  
> the
> secretary doesn't published minutes with 7 days, I guarantee to  
> publish
> my own version sometime in the week following.
>
> The reports will at a minimum consist of:
>
> Vice President  Dates we have confirmed bookings to, changes to
>                meeting open/close roster wiki page, total meetings
>                closed and opened by each committee member YTD.
>
> Treasurer         Bank balance at last report
>                  + Itemised Income
>                  - Itemised Expenses
>                  = Bank balance now.
>                AND: Changes made to assets list, which
>                will be a wiki page.
>
> Secretary       outstanding correspondence from last meeting,
>                correspondence received, correspondence sent,
>                date PO Box last checked, date he sent minutes
>                from last meeting to general, names of new
>                financial members (which have been added to a
>                wiki page of all financial members).
>
> Librarian       List of any configuration changes made, disk and
>                CPU Utilisation, backup status, distro/patch status,
>                $ costs incurred since last meeting.
>
> President       Report on who did what tasks above.  Hopefully this
>                will consist of one line "All committee work was done,
>                and was done by the member elected to do it - well
>                done".  But if this is not the case it will be
>                longer, giving credit to who did it, and with an
>                explanation as to why it happened.
>
> Just to make it clear, the idea is these reports are very brief - a  
> few
> lines each, hopefully.  But they are sufficient to allow a club member
> to see the committee is doing its job, ie is keeping well in hand all
> administration tasks required to maintain Humbug in good day-to-day
> heath.
>
> By the by, if you are planning to nominate yourself for the committee,
> and then see I got lucky and was elected, it might be an idea to
> re-consider your nomination if you find the above burdensome.

Sounds great. I'm all for reports as it keeps the membership in the  
loop about how HUMBUG is going. Had it not been for our current  
President moving interstate we may have done this sooner.

> 4.  Meeting times.  This has always been a contentious issue.  I would
> like to change the way we close meetings so being on the committee is
> more attractive to early risers.  Below is my proposal.  The idea is  
> to
> bring it in line with how Humbug used to do it, as outlined here:
>
>  http://lists.humbug.org.au/pipermail/general/2006-August/026156.html
>
> Although this is just a proposal, don't vote for me unless you agree
> with procedure something like the one below being followed:
>
> There will be a wiki page for the meeting.  It will be initially set  
> up
> by the VP, and will consist of a minimum of:
>
>  - Where it is,
>  - A link to UQ contact numbers and information,
>  - A link to obligations of people opening and closing meetings,
>  - Who will open it at 3PM,
>  - Who will close it, and the earliest time the undertake to close
>    it, which will be no earlier than 10 PM.
>  - The latest time the meeting can close according to UQ's rules.
>
> A eligible person can close the meeting later if the indicate they are
> willing to take on the obligations for closing the meeting by  
> personally
> modifying the wiki page under their own login.  Included in the
> information they add must be:
>
>  a.  Their name.
>  b.  A way of obtaining their contact details (home address & phone -
>      could be just a link to their home page on the wiki),
>  c.  The earliest time they plan to close the meeting,
>  d.  The words "I undertake to fulfil all the obligations listed
>      in the link above".
>
> To be eligible you must be either:
>
>  a.  Noted as such in the minutes of a committee meeting, or
>
>  b.  Be:
>      i)    A financial member in good standing, and
>      ii)   have attended a majority of meetings in the last 3  
> months, and
>      iii)  not be declared ineligible in the minutes of a committee
>            meeting.
>
> So in summary, the rule is the meeting closes when the last regular
> attendee who is willing to take on the responsibilities associated  
> with
> closing leaves.  It must be no later than UQ permits, of course.

Sounds good too. Though be aware, as others have mentioned, that there  
already is a 'Meeting Deputy' system in place that does pretty much  
what you're describing. All that would need to be done is 'wiki' it up  
and it would be good to go.

I wish you all the best Russell with your nomination.

Cheers,
Mark.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.humbug.org.au/pipermail/general/attachments/20090815/00e53d54/attachment.html>