Hi Smitty,
In that case, I think you have the major bases covered.
I have some minor suggestions:
1) Make the Treasure's job as simple as possible. Good Treasurers
are very hard to find.
2) Put as much decision making power as possible in the members'
hands, so that they feel it's THEIR club. I can't take credit for
this -- LEAP's Max Lang gave me this advice, and I've used it
advantageously ever since.
3) Have someone greet people as they come in the door to a meeting.
That makes a HUGE impression.
4) Have an agenda published before every meeting, so your officers
will know the issues. Conduct meetings quickly and efficiently
according to the agenda.
5) Promptly publish the meeting minutes, including votes and who
voted for what. It's good for the general membership to know what's
going on.
6) Find a way to let officers know their contributions are highly
valued. Even if they do nothing but cast an informed vote, that's a
HUGE accomplishment.
7) In the bylaws, place a procedure for a vote of no confidence
against individual officers and against the board as a whole. It's
always possible that a hypothetical "future rogue board" will try
to pull a coup and exclude membership from all decisionmaking, or
even rig elections by deceipt or intimidation. I've never seen
anything remotely like this happen in any organization to which
I've belonged, but it's essential to protect against it.
Only 1 and 7 are bylaw elements. The rest are culture.
SteveT
On Monday 19 December 2005 12:27 pm, tom smith wrote:
> Thanks, Steve.
> FLALUG has a similar list policy that is posted online. After a
> rocky start, our list has been very peaceful for the last 2 1/2
> years. In fact it states, "No spam, no libel, and subscribers
> shall take any hostile (not intellectual) disputes off the list."
> Those who want to flame, know they need to go elsewhere to upset
> people. Thus, we do not see them here.
> Keeping rules down to the minimal essentials is quite important.
> Our list subscribers are all mentally adults and are responsible.
> We don't need to constantly remind them of unnatural, unnecessary
> rules.
> I think that has become an established tradition with flalug.
> Best regards,
> Smitty
>
> Steve Litt wrote:
> > Hi Smitty,
> >
> > When formulating bylaws, I suggest you include a provision
> > banning personal insults, and *enforce it*.
> >
> > There's a temptation to leave out such provision in the name of
> > "free speech". Indeed, as one of the 10 co-founders of LEAP, I
> > fought tooth and nail to keep such a provision OUT of our
> > bylaws, all in the name of free speech. I was successful in
> > keeping out the provision, and perhaps more tragically, I was
> > successful in moving LEAP toward an "anything goes" email
> > culture.
> >
> > A couple years later I found out just how far afield "anything
> > goes" could go in the hands of a persistent and determined
> > troll. A significant percentage of my technical and vendor
> > based posts were met with multipage diatribes insulting my
> > character, abilities and intentions. I stopped recommending
> > friends and business associates join LEAP because I didn't want
> > them hearing all this
> > anti-Steve-Litt garbage.
> >
> > As a member of LEAP's elected Exec Committee and LEAP's
> > 2001-2002 president, I tried to undo my earlier mistake by
> > championing a no-personal-insult policy, which was passed by a
> > slim majority of the Exec Committee. No matter, the Exec
> > Committee, whether under my presidency or later, would not
> > enforce the the rule, so there were almost monthly personal
> > insults against me and several others.
> >
> > By Feb 2004 I was convinced that LEAP would never quash
> > personal insults, so I formed GoLUG, with a very strong
> > no-personal-insult policy. I made sure this policy was not only
> > written, but a part of our culture. Interestingly, I never had
> > to enforce the policy -- everyone knew the expectations and
> > nobody crossed the line.
> >
> > It's now late 2005. GoLUG has been a pleasant and peaceful
> > place for almost 2 years.
> >
> >From what I see in their archives, LEAP is also at peace. You
> > see, the troll drove away some with whom he disagreed (at least
> > two are in GoLUG now), and silenced others to the point where
> > there are certain reasonable positions on vendors and technical
> > subjects that are never advocated on LEAP. In my opinion it's
> > unofficial censorship, with the troll, who has never been an
> > officer, in charge of what is discussed, and who stays and who
> > leaves. From my perspective, the troll controls LEAP's culture,
> > regardless of who the elected officers happen to be.
> >
> > It is interesting that my vigorous 1999 campaign to prevent a
> > "civility clause" in the name of "free speech" resulted in what
> > I perceive to be censorship, while my 2004 GoLUG
> > "no-personal-insults" rule resulted in almost completely free
> > speech, except that you can't call somebody a "no good
> > %*&%@##@".
> >
> > Well, that's my advice, given as an officer (at various times)
> > of ELUG, LEAP and GoLUG.
> >
> > SteveT
> >
> > Steve Litt
> > Founder and acting president: GoLUG
> > http://www.golug.org
-- Steve Litt Founder and acting president: GoLUG http://www.golug.org
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