|
Grex > Coop > #346: Nominations for the 2014 Grex Board of Directors (Second Special Election) | |
|
| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 102 responses total. |
cross
|
|
response 56 of 102:
| 
Apr 10 19:02 UTC 2014 |
resp:55 I have yet to see a concrete, actionable, suggestion from
you. Most of what I see are snarky exclamations that may be
summarized by saying that, if we just used, e.g., Roberts Rules,
all of our problems would disappear. I think that's laughable.
If you want to snipe from the sidelines, be my guest. Don't be
surprised, however, if people ignore you.
|
kentn
|
|
response 57 of 102:
|
Apr 10 19:17 UTC 2014 |
I'll see if I can update our Board web page (assuming I can find start and
stop dates).
That page is mostly legacy info from whoever put it together previously.
I've just been adding to it.
|
tod
|
|
response 58 of 102:
|
Apr 12 19:43 UTC 2014 |
I was working in Randall Labs when Rane was on the board. I remember
this because I used to shoulder surf when kermit read Grex and she knew
the who's who of the board at the time.
|
rcurl
|
|
response 59 of 102:
|
Apr 12 20:48 UTC 2014 |
I sent my dues check to the POBox given at
http://www.cyberspace.org/member.xhtml
It was returned as "box closed/unable to forward/return to sender". This
updated knowledge of Grex seems much like me old outdated knowledge.
|
kentn
|
|
response 60 of 102:
|
Apr 13 01:21 UTC 2014 |
You can use PayPal.
|
tod
|
|
response 61 of 102:
|
Apr 13 01:21 UTC 2014 |
Has anyone seen the treasurer or is he also closed?
Perhaps the board should re-elect a treasurer with a modification of
duties?
|
kentn
|
|
response 62 of 102:
|
Apr 13 01:23 UTC 2014 |
Again, and again, and again...broken record here: call TS and
find out.
|
cross
|
|
response 63 of 102:
|
Apr 13 01:47 UTC 2014 |
I think it's time to side-step TS and appoint someone new. Any volunteers?
It makes sense, perhaps, to have someone who is a Michigan resident do it.
Rane? Would you like to volunteer to be Grex's treasurer?
|
kentn
|
|
response 64 of 102:
|
Apr 13 02:12 UTC 2014 |
We certainly need treasurer help. Any reliable, honest volunteers that
are will to help, would be appreciated. It doesn't take a lot of time,
but it does take consistent, regular effort to keep things up to date.
I can say though, from the previous to-do getting the treasurer signed
up with the bank, it takes a fair amount of effort to add or subtract
people from the account.
It is good if the person is local or near to Ann Arbor so they can check
the PO Box, and deposit any checks that come in there (when the box is
active). I think the state corporation renewal form also comes to the
PO Box. Most other things can be done remotely, I think.
The ability to effectively communicate is a necessary attribute as
is the ability to keep accurate financial and membership records
and produce monthly financial reports (these are not difficult).
Above all the person needs to be above reproach when it comes to the
corporation's bank account. Other duties include verifying users,
sending membership renewal notices, and providing the list of valid
voters for our elections in a timely manner.
I'd say approx. an hour or two each month would go a long way toward
getting things back on track, though at first it might take more time to
get the information needed and get things set up.
|
rcurl
|
|
response 65 of 102:
|
Apr 13 05:08 UTC 2014 |
Sensible words. However I doubt the job would amount to only an hour or
two each month. There may be daily communications from users, reports to
write, visits to the bank with checks, in addition to your list - and a
lot more time "getting things back on track".
Also, doesn't anyone think http://www.cyberspace.org/member.xhtml should
be corrected?
So, where do I send my dues check? Someone reading this board must
know.
I don't have time for a new responsibility.
|
cross
|
|
response 66 of 102:
|
Apr 13 12:42 UTC 2014 |
I thought as much.
|
kentn
|
|
response 67 of 102:
|
Apr 13 16:12 UTC 2014 |
Re 65: Okay, let's waste our time speculating on how much time it takes.
If we were to get 2 hours EVERY month that is way better than what we
are getting now. Maybe the time investment is more like 5-6 hrs. a
month. But that is just arguing details when we have much bigger issues
finding someone to do ANYTHING.
It may be that some time every other day, or every 3 days, would be
enough, in which case, the time commitment might be more like 2-3 hrs. a
month. Some months of the year would be worse than others, of course.
Some months would have no activity at all other than produce a financial
report (the treasurer should verify this rather than ignore the job).
Bear in mind, many of the functions of the treasurer should be available
at the touch of a button (or a command at the command line). We are
spending WAY more time right now because the treasurer believes in
pencil and paper records. Every report, every query, every update,
is manually-generated by searching through paper records (and PayPal
statements). This is unacceptable and a big reason why being the
treasurer takes so much time. Someone who is organized can and should
REDUCE the amount of time spent by the treasurer.
I would rather a treasurer spend 10 min. each day than ignore our
business for months on end. What is happening now is that those little
bits of time are not invested. Then a month or two goes by and a simple
task becomes a 10 hour mess to straighten out (and many phone calls by
me--it would be good if others would help with this). Fire-fighting is
not the way to manage things, if it can be easily avoided (and it can be
in this case). Some days the only task would be to check that there is
nothing to do. I doubt that would take 10 or 15 min.
As I've already noted, initially the amount of time would be more
getting set up to do things in a better way. After that, it should be a
relatively easy task to stay up to date if the treasurer consistently
and periodically makes the necessary updates.
Whoever takes this task on should be able to count on the Board to help
them get set up. It is not necessary that the treasurer be a Board
member, although we will have a Board officer to oversee the treasurer
function, even if that officer is not the day-to-day treasurer. There is
a list of tasks that the treasurer has traditionally done in an old coop
conference. Thus it's not like there are no instructions at all and
no help.
And, as I've noted before, it might work better to split the treasurer's
jobs among 2 or 3 people to reduce the time commitment for any one
person. Communication in that case becomes very important. We've
allowed some tasks to remain in the treasurer function because the
treasurer has or should have the information to do them. If that is not
the case, or the treasurer is not doing the tasks, then moving something
like membership management to another person might make sense. But
handling the money (e.g. membership donations) is still the treasurer's
responsibility, hence the need to communicate and cooperate with others,
if we were to to make such a split of duties.
|
cross
|
|
response 68 of 102:
|
Apr 13 17:08 UTC 2014 |
Perhaps if we used RRoO the treasurer's job would take less time. (Note for
Rane: that was sarcasm.)
|
kentn
|
|
response 69 of 102:
|
Apr 13 18:05 UTC 2014 |
As to the PO Box, that is being looked into (one of those 10 hour
messes I mentioned above). If we can get our previous box number
working again, fine. If not, we'll get another number and update the
member.xhtml web page. If things ran smoothly they would take much
less time.
|
kentn
|
|
response 70 of 102:
|
Apr 13 18:58 UTC 2014 |
In regard to how to get a payment in you have two alternatives:
1. Use PayPal. 2. Broken record time again: call the treasurer
and ask. I don't know why people act like they can't figure
this out or that they are afraid to make a phone call.
|
cross
|
|
response 71 of 102:
|
Apr 13 19:33 UTC 2014 |
resp:69 (It's too bad a smart and capable person like Rane isn't interested
in helping out.) (Note to Rane: that is NOT sarcasm.)
|
kentn
|
|
response 72 of 102:
|
Apr 13 19:35 UTC 2014 |
I've put a note on the member.xhtml page to say that our PO Box is out
of service. Hopefully that will help disuade people from trying to
send checks there right now. Note: I brought up the PO Box with the
treasurer weeks ago. Nothing has been done about so far.
|
kentn
|
|
response 73 of 102:
|
Apr 13 19:37 UTC 2014 |
Re 72: s/disuade/dissuade/
|
tod
|
|
response 74 of 102:
|
Apr 13 20:16 UTC 2014 |
I've been treasurer for many non-profits. The first thing to change is
the bank. Get a national bank where deposits can be done by a phone app.
The board need simply sign a piece of paper at their local branch to
get the ball rollings. The existing monies can simply be removed by
transfer or check, yes?
As for the PO Box, what is the purpose of that really? Can not the
treasurer at the time use a mailing address of their choice so long as
it is made available on the website?
|
kentn
|
|
response 75 of 102:
|
Apr 14 01:45 UTC 2014 |
The corporation needs an address and usually it's better that it be
a P.O. Box.
As far as changing banks, we'd need to make sure that we are not going
to get charged fees on our rather low account balance (relative to
most banks' levels for getting free checking). If that isn't an
issue, then this sounds like a reasonable idea for making the banking
easier. The fees tend to become one of the biggest expenses if we
get charged them because they occur every month.
|
dtk
|
|
response 76 of 102:
|
Apr 14 05:02 UTC 2014 |
Resp:75
A common technique I have heard from some SMEs here is the corp opens a
POBox, but has the mail forwarded by the POBox operator (Mailboxes, Etc;
UPS; & al) forward the mail to whichever officer is responsible for
receiving and replying to mail. The POBox is opened in the corp's name,
with multiple individual signers, so if the responsible officer becomes
incapablr to discharge his duties (or her, I suppose, but women tend to
keep it together better, and give more notice before dropping out or
flaking out), the corp board sends orders on corp letterhead to the
POBox operator to change the forwarding address to that of the incoming
responsible corp officer.
|
kentn
|
|
response 77 of 102:
|
Apr 14 12:36 UTC 2014 |
Thanks, dtk. That sounds feasible. The letterhead bit might be
problematic, though. :)
|
tod
|
|
response 78 of 102:
|
Apr 14 16:53 UTC 2014 |
re #76
USPS charges $17/wk to do that. What's the best thing out there?
(I supposed I should check the RV bug-out community forums for mail
forwarding options.)
|
kentn
|
|
response 79 of 102:
|
Apr 14 17:13 UTC 2014 |
That's a lot of money to forward mail.
Now we see why the box hasn't moved. The thing is, if we can have an
agent in Ann Arbor check the box, that would help a remote person. We'd
likely spend some bucks mailing important docs from Ann Arbor to the
remote person from time to time, but not $17/month. The main things
that come into the PO Box are donations which need to be deposited in
whatever bank we use (and relatively quickly), and the state corporate
renewal form. If the checks can be deposited locally, then it's just
the renewal form that would need to transfer.
|
cross
|
|
response 80 of 102:
|
Apr 14 17:22 UTC 2014 |
At a minimum, we clearly need to have more than one person who has access to
the relevant things (P.O. Box, bank accounts, etc).
|