A League of Wonders

That’s just one of my favorite lines from Futurama—it’s the leader of the Neutrals calmly reacting to the beige alert.

Anyway, I want to further examine the ideas put forward in the early vision post. My point in this is to establish some talking points about the organizational part.

I’d like to talk about those organizational things first, even with a goal of a community center lurking around. Before we jump to our building, or at least in parallel to that conversation, I’d like us to have a conversation about the basic framework in which we’d tackle projects of that scale.

What we’re talking about here is a neutral ground, comprised of experienced leaders of fan-run organizations.

• Establish a basic requirement of tenure as exec, director, or other leader in a fan organization (could set additional organizational requirements too)
• Set a limit on number of board representatives from any one organization
• Experience and “sweat equity” would be critical components
• Maybe invite a non-affiliated at large member as an adjunct (the way many boards often have community leaders as participants)

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been asked what neighborhood this will be in, where the money is coming from, what programs it could offer and whether we’ll have vending machines.  My favorite is: “What’s the vision?” to which I respond, “What do you think it should be?”

Each of the contributors here know what their own vision is, but it is important to hear what other ideas may be out there.  This site is a key part of the process of developing a shared vision, with the contributions of anyone who wants to participate.  I’m not disturbed that a final outline of the center and its programs is still wanting; I’d be far more worried if someone handed one down from a mountaintop and declared:  It Shall Be So.

I submit that the only question immediately relevant is “What would we like to see in a community center?”  All the other questions will be important in their turn, but this needs to be first because it’s the foundation.

What is the process from there?  What kind of structure, finance, rules and whatnot will we develop?  I don’t know yet.  To decide any of that before we finish developing a vision is foolish.  That’s the point of a vision: it’s the end in mind when you figure out a path to accomplish it.

So for now, let it be enough that we’re talking, listening, brainstorming.

So, ideas?

Okay one definition of SMOFfing is the practice of people sitting around discussing cons and geek community politics, and sometimes people joked as if decisions were being made by “secret masters of fandom” (hence the acronym). I find it has grown to be a fairly repellant term. Its meaning has become self-fulfilling, and not nearly as funny as when it was first used. Originally it was a kind of humorous self-deprecation: you know, “Oh we’re the secret masters of fandom” — funny because of course it’s so obvious we are not. But over time, some people actually smof and kind of mean it. The problem I have there is the first letter: “S”, as in secret.

Well, rather than turning this into a smofpit exercise, here’s a chance to invite public comment and input. This is intended to be a public exercise in talking about organizing. Partly so no one can later say “oh it’s just ______ trying to do ______.”

We aren’t just _____. We aren’t trying to do _______.

We are you, and asking you to help us figure out some good ways of working together at inter-organizational levels.

So let’s start by unpacking some of the original pieces of the ideas as they’re in progress:

I propose that we create a new, neutral non-profit organization with the goal of serving as a coordinating space between any and all willing fan-run organizations in the region.

• A small, nimble nonprofit board organization
• A nonprofit which has the ability and the mandate to look for larger projects benefiting multiple organizations.

Why something new? Trust. That’s not the only reason, but it’s a significant portion. There are trust issues in these communities. Sometimes concoms don’t trust the boards of their parent organizations, and vice versa. When these ideas were percolating, word got out (word always gets out), and I heard from members of Anime Detour’s own board that they’d heard that CONvergence had put together a plan to “take over” Anime Detour! No really, the impression in the earliest days—when this was just a smoffing exercise—was that they thought we thought we’d be “showing them how a real con is run.” Telephone!

Well, direct conversations between people in CVG and AD seem to have ameliorated some of those feelings (I hope), and I think you can see some of the good will that was present in the panel discussions and is here on this site.

But you have to imagine what I was thinking. Srsly? Oh my goodness, we have a four thousand attendee convention of our own to run over here! Does anyone think we really have time to “take over” another existing and functioning one? Maybe make another con, but not “take over” somebody else’s!

But the complaint is fair, because sometimes we convention committees and boards have fallen down on representing ourselves respectfully and even trustworthily to other organizations!

Quick! Name a concom or a board you have never heard a rumor about.

. . . Are those crickets I hear?

We would like to offer each other’s communities a framework of being able to trust their leadership to remain true to their own spheres, while also working together on their behalf. We would like to trade on the trust relationships that partner organizations have built up with their constituent members and personal networks, without asking those communities to just trust us out of hand. And we need to leave those relationships protected against outside interference.
Read the rest of this entry »