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BOD List



 
I had a chance to snoop on the archives of the BOD list
a couple years ago (somebody cc'd Ridecamp but the
main To: was to the BOD list and I did a little parallel
directory structure reasoning and found the archive.)  I
only got through a few days before somebody discovered
the directories were world read and closed that off (so
don't bother trying :-) but it gave me a sense of what
kinds of things transpire on the list.  The give-and-take
of the discussion--so necessary when a group of people
are trying to come to concensus--is *not* in a form that
is suitable for public consumption.
 
Every public body has this problem.  In my town, the
Planning Board is required to hold all its meetings in
public with advance notice.  The result is that the
Planning Board never has time to do a good job
considering anything as a group, and you can *see*
the results in the development and traffic mess my
town has become.
 
I don't know the legalities of incorporated organizations
and public meetings, but this is what I would propose
as a compromise:
 
1.  Leave the Board their private channel.  They need it.
 
2.  Create a new list, the AERC Member Feedback List
     (or whatever).  This list may or may not be *not* in
     continuous operation.
 
3.  One member of the Board is the designated Moderator
     of this list. 
 
How this list actually gets run could take many forms.  It
could be a real-time chat.  It could be a listserve that runs
either continuously, or for a 24 or 48 hour jam session.
 
What follows is one possible organization.  It is essentially
an analog to the old Request for Comment  (RFC) system by
which the Arpanet and Internet were designed.
 
4.  As issues get put on the agenda (which presumably
     happens incrementally and continuously, right? or are
     clearly a "hot topic" on the Board list) the Moderator
     schedules a member feedback session on the
     Member Feedback list.
 
     As preparation for this session, the Moderator creates
     an abstract of the issue--where it came from, what the
     major positions are, what the proposed solution is,
     perhaps quoting from various Board members--and posts
     it to all the major lists along with the announcement of when
     the formal member feedback discussion will be held.
 
    This is critical:  it eliminates most of the thrashing
     that goes on as people try to figure *why* an agenda item
     is being considered at all.  This abstract is like an
     RFC.
 
5.  The session happens.  It could be restricted to AERC members.
      It could (and maybe even should) run as a truly Moderated
      discussion.  In a real Moderated list (like the old Request for
      Comment discussions that were the original genesis of *all*
      listservers going back to the early 70's), all emails go to the
      Moderator *first*.  He basically keeps the discussion on track,
      makes sure new ground and ideas are developed, and returns
      to the sender any comments that are not forwarding the discussion
      or are degenerating into  personal attacks.  He is God.  Thou
      shalt respect him/her.  What he/she passes as quality input is
      sent out to everyone.
 
6.  It is critical that Board members monitor and participate in
     these 24/48 hour feedback sessions so the participants are
     not just chatting up themselves and that Board members
     cannot later claim ignorance of what transpired.  Board members
     are just as subject to the Moderator's control as anybody else.
 
After the directed discussion is over, transcripts are posted on the
AERC web site (or they could just go into the archive on hosting
site, I suppose).
 
These member feedback sessions do *not* take the place of
the Annual Member meeting, nor the BOD meetings.  No
decisions are made on them.  They are strictly a parallel
channel for collecting member feedback.
 
Linda B. Merims
lbm@naisp.net
Massachusetts, USA
P.S. To forestall any criticism along that line,
I fess up that I am not an AERC member.  At least not yet.
 
 
    


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