[penguicon-general] Bylaws Committee officially forming.

[Tracy Worcester]

On 8/4/06, Rob Landley <rob at landley.net> wrote:
>
> > No, we're not going to chop each other's head off with swords.  Instead,
> we
> > are going to create the shape of PenguiCon's future.  We're going to
> create
> > a full version of the bylaws,
>
> As opposed to amending them as needed when they inevitably turn out not to
> match reality?


There's going to be that, too, eventually.

> and likely a mission statement as well.
>
> I remember a meeting we had at IBM to come up with a mission statement for
> our
> department during a reorganization.  I was unaware that Penguicon had
> senior
> management (or a venture capitalist) to please.


We don't.  However, you've unhappy being part of the Board, and I'm going to
be neck deep in education for at least a year, and possibly longer.  I
personally want to make sure that the people who get involved one year,
three years, five years down the road have some idea what the vision you and
I started out with *is*.

> We have to figure out what we want the convention to be, and then make a
> > structure to support that vision.
>
> s/support/enshrine/


To a certain degree, yes.  But since one of the things I'm going to be
enshrining is the fact that every five years, they're going to have to do a
review of the bylaws and customary practices, updating them for changing
reality, I'm not too worried about ossification.

Just the phrase "make a structure to support that vision" is not something I
> ever expected to hear in the context of Penguicon.  (At least the
> words "proactive" and "synergy" haven't shown up yet, but it's only a
> matter
> of time.)


Rob, I don't enjoy bureaucracy.  But as a visionary, I've come to conclusion
that if I want to leave any legacy at all, I have to actually a) tell people
(preferably in written form) what the vision is, and b) create structures
and processes which will serve some of the purposes I have been serving
within the organization.

Somewhere down the line, I'm going to want to stop doing work related to the
convention which I find no fun at all, and go back to doing the bits I do
enjoy.  And that means I have to help train the people who will end up doing
my job.

> This is going to be more than a picky
> > word festival.  We've got to decide what should be in the legally
> binding
> > document (the bylaws) and what should simply be customary practice.
>
> If we ever get to the point where the people running the show don't grok
> it,
> how will any cleverly worded document ever help in the slightest?


Some people will arrive, grok it, and want to check the document to make
sure they've understood correctly.  Some people will arrive, love it, and
not have any idea what makes it so cool, but know they want to see it
continue.  This will help them hit the ground running.

There is going to be a continuing role for visionaries in the organization;
PenguiCon can't afford not to adapt, change, and continue to collect
interesting things and people.  But there are more than enough jobs for
people who couldn't have created this themselves, from scratch, and some of
those folks may need additional direction.

We do cool stuff.  What the cool stuff is depends on who is doing it.


Yep.  And I want to make sure that their right and ability to do so is
protected.  One of the reasons I've decided to make a priority of this is,
right now our infrastructure is half-broken.  If we can get a smoothly
running machine in place, then the wildcatters like you, and to some degree,
me, will have specifications on when and where we can graft on cool new
things, instead of being told a different set of rules every time a question
is asked.

> And
> > once we've figured out what we want the bylaws to do for us, we have to
> > figure out how to say it, and put checks and balances in to make sure it
> > works for the benefit of the convention and community, consistently.
>
> Good bylaws say as little as humanly possible.  The people running the
> show
> matter.  The knowledge those people have matters.  The ISO90001 documented
> procedures and policies, whether or not we follow them, do not.


In a perfect world, yes, they don't matter.  And I want to keep the bylaws
as thin as possible.  But I don't live in a perfect world.  Should, at some
point, we have people who gain power within PenguiCon who are unwise,
powerhungry, or other forms of stupid, I want to have a structure in place
to minimize the damage from the mistakes they might make.

Someday, I have to do a decent write-up of the three waves thing.  All I
> have
> is the six year old thing I did for TMF way back, and it's from the other
> side...


Actually, I still remember the Three Waves Theory you came up with.  It's
one of the reasons why I knew, if you and are both leave the Board
eventually, much as I hate to, I have to create these things before I go.

But, I also pretty much knew you were going to hate the idea.  (:

...Tracy
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