BOD List

["Linda B. Merims" <lbm@naisp.net>]

 

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.