From the trenches of those Dojo Members seeking to regain control of our nonprofit... In my opinion:
The last executive director was brought in to fund raise via grants and sponsorships, and failed miserably, instead raising that $400K ($300K + $100K stolen), off the backs of it's members by doubling membership fees, and converting a quarter of the Dojo into a private VC incubator.
He also wasn't an entrepreneur or a hacker, but more the slick politician type, and killed the Dojo culture, driving away most of the best volunteers and people, by ending member voting, spying on members, and banning anyone he didn't like (at the slightest of excuses at times). This and the previous board ignored members complaints, until he let the corporate status lapse, and there was no corporate veil for the board to hide themselves behind.
And now we are at war with this board, trying to gain back control that existed as a gentleman's agreement between the founders and the members, but wasn't written in the bylaws because clueless lawyers were consulted.
Also - the $30K number is a made up number by the most recent board member, who bought his board position, and is the most responsible for harassing the recently resigned whistleblower member. There are few to no records kept of the purposes of expenditures. If all unaccountable expenditures were added up - it'd be double or triple that $30K number...
Lesson: Bake your culture into your DNA, or when the good King era ends, the bad king era will begin...
Kind of blows my mind that in Silicon Valley - the Valley of the Disruptors, Hackers build an organization utilizing 100 year old feudal corporate antique autocratic bylaws.
Don't tell me we can't smart phone app, wisdom of the crowd, self govern our own hacker asses.
The last executive director was brought in to fund raise via grants and sponsorships, and failed miserably, instead raising that $400K ($300K + $100K stolen), off the backs of it's members by doubling membership fees, and converting a quarter of the Dojo into a private VC incubator.
He also wasn't an entrepreneur or a hacker, but more the slick politician type, and killed the Dojo culture, driving away most of the best volunteers and people, by ending member voting, spying on members, and banning anyone he didn't like (at the slightest of excuses at times). This and the previous board ignored members complaints, until he let the corporate status lapse, and there was no corporate veil for the board to hide themselves behind.
And now we are at war with this board, trying to gain back control that existed as a gentleman's agreement between the founders and the members, but wasn't written in the bylaws because clueless lawyers were consulted.
Also - the $30K number is a made up number by the most recent board member, who bought his board position, and is the most responsible for harassing the recently resigned whistleblower member. There are few to no records kept of the purposes of expenditures. If all unaccountable expenditures were added up - it'd be double or triple that $30K number...
Lesson: Bake your culture into your DNA, or when the good King era ends, the bad king era will begin...
Kind of blows my mind that in Silicon Valley - the Valley of the Disruptors, Hackers build an organization utilizing 100 year old feudal corporate antique autocratic bylaws.
Don't tell me we can't smart phone app, wisdom of the crowd, self govern our own hacker asses.