Krystal V.
There’s a small crowd tonight, hopefully anyone else who wants to join later will. We’ll get the ball rolling now. 🙂
Hi everyone, and welcome to our candidate chats! My name is Krystal and I’m a member of the Elections Committee. I’ll be hosting today.
This is the fourth in a series of five 90-minute-long chats with our Board candidates – the candidates present today are Alex Tischer, Atiya Hakeem, and Katarina Harju. The purpose of these chats is to see how candidates interact, both with each other and the public, and to give OTW volunteers and members a chance to ask questions not already covered in their manifestos, bios, and Q&A, as well as to ask individual questions of specific candidates. Transcripts of this chat will be posted publicly on our website.
We welcome all questions, subject to the following restrictions:
- Raise your hand to speak, like this: o/. You will be called on when it is your turn to speak. Use /done when you’re finished asking your question.
- Specify who your question is for, or if it’s for all candidates.
- Refer to everyone in the room by the name given in the sidebar for them. Don’t use other names you may know them by.
- Please keep questions reasonable and polite (these are our expectations:
https://elections.transformativeworks.org/node/534 ). - Make sure your question is not a repeat of one already answered in the manifestos ( http://transformativeworks.org/news/board-candidate-manifestos-qa-and-chats ) or the Q&A ( http://transformativeworks.org/news/elections-2014-qa-and-chats ). If it’s a follow-up to one of those, please say so.
Let’s get started. Please raise your hand if you have a question.
DeepFic
o/
Krystal V.
Yes, DeepFic?
DeepFic
Hi! In the recent Drive, it seemed like your fundraisers got some flak from users for various budgetary issues and other stuff. Do you agree with the criticism of the committee and if so, what would you have done as a board member before, during and/or after the drive to prevent or mitigate it, and if you do not agree with the criticism what would you have done differently from the way the current board did. /done
Krystal V.
DeepFic, who is this question directed towards?
DeepFic
Oh, sorry! Everyone 🙂
Krystal V.
Our candidates are typing now 🙂
Katarina H.
I strongly agree with some of the criticism yes. There definitely should have been a budget, which is the Board’s job in the first place and not Development and Membership’s. Since we knew there wasn’t a budget, we should at least have had some answers prepared for when question’s about the money inevitably were asked. /done
Alex T.
This seems to be a couple of questions in one, really. I had concerns about budgetary issues and other things myself. Not all of those were in any way related to DevMem (the committee that runs the drive). I think the way Board reacted to the criticism that was for Board in particular was not the best way to react to that criticism. I would have tried to have a short note “We’ve seen your criticism and are working on an answer” up much sooner. I would have also wished for a better answer to the budget issues in particular not the handwavey, wishy-washy statement we got. Other concerns about the drive like the theme, the arbitrary amount and so on I would hope to see addressed with DevMem before the next Drive planning starts, really. /done
Atiya
I think the most important (although not the only) issue was the lack of a budget. That’s a pretty fundamental and obvious thing that our donors would want to see, and that’s something that Board/the Treasurer needs to take care of _before_ a fundraising drive. As a long-time Support staffer, I also think that the way in which user concerns are addressed is very important, particularly when people are angry. As a director, I would use that experience to make sure Board responses were prompt and useful. /done
Krystal V.
Thanks, everyone! DeepFic, did you have any follow-ups?
DeepFic
Just a little one.
Krystal V.
Go ahead. 🙂
sbarmarj
o/ I have one too
Krystal V.
sbarmarj, why don’t you post yours too, so our candidates can answer them both at once.
sbarmarj
Do any of you have experience developing a budget for a nonprofit management organization? Training in accounting, bookkeeping, or US tax preparation specifically reading 990s as well as the specific reporting requirements for various states as the OTW raises more in those states? i.e. what practical experience do you have to deal with the lack of a budget? And were you concerned about this prior to your candidacy?
DeepFic
About the budget, I agree it’s really important. But didn’t they just change treasurers right before the drive? I am not sure how everything went down, but it seemed like there wasn’t much time between the drive and the treasurer change. And sometimes life doesn’t just give you enough time to do everything that needs to be done, so like what if it happened again right before a drive, how would you do it differently to make sure there was a budget. I mean anyone can say they’d have a budget, but what would _you_ do to make sure that the OTW did in case of emergency or whatever.
Krystal V.
Candidates are typing! They’ll say who their answer is directed towards when they’re ready.
Atiya
For sbarmarj: As a scientist in academia, I have worked on budgets for a number of major grant applications (and funded grants), and I do my own taxes (which are necessarily different from, but in some ways more complicated than the OTW’s). I don’t have any formal training, but I have found that there are _a lot_ of resources online, so while this is something I expect to take work, it’s not something I am concerned about. /done
Alex T.
Ok, first, sbarmarj, I, personally, have no practical experience developing a budget for a US nonprofit. I have worked the budget for my student union in Germany and been involved in the budgeting process of a couple of my professional orgs (which are registered in the UK and … I think Denmark, actually). So, I have a general knowledge on how to draft and handle a budget and that involves a good knowledge of when I would be in over my head and better ask for professional help. And yes, I was concerned about this prior to my candidacy and thought about it in detail. /done
Katarina H.
in answer to sbarmarj: I don’t have experience in US accounting or specifically for nonprofits (not a US citizen). I have worked as an accountant for several years, before taking up my current studies in IT, which involved doing the books and taxes for a lot of small businesses, including one small nonprofit. Obviously there are differences to US law and US accounting, but the basic principles are much the same, and I think I have pretty good place to start from. /done
Krystal V.
Thanks, guys! They’re composing replies to you now, DeepFic.
Atiya
For DeepFic: The lack of a budget isn’t something that should have come as a surprise to anyone; a budget should have been done for the year _long_ before October. I believe that restoring a functional Finance committee is something vital that needs to be done as soon as possible. Having more one or two people in charge of our finances will help provide the resources to do the work as needed, and will mean that if a single person fails to do something, we’re not left hung out to dry. /done
Alex T.
For DeepFic, yes, of course the change of treasurers right before the drive was less than ideal. But the Drive planning starts a couple of months before the posting, so the lack of a budget should have been brought up much sooner – when it became apparent during those first planning stages. And yes, life doesn’t give you enough time to react to things occasionally, but what you do in those situations is triage, assess and react as quickly as possible (sorry, I work in an emergency clinic, can’t help it) If having a concrete budget was not possible for the drive, *saying* that we don’t have a concrete budget for this, this and that reason and are doing this and that about this is the minimum you can do in my opinion. /done
Katarina H.
for DeepFic: It’s true the Treasurer change happened pretty suddenly and I am not saying that the new Treasurer should have produced a budget out of the blue. The budget should have been done by the end of 2014 or at the beginning of 2015 at the latest, long before any Treasurer change, and it might be primarily the Treasurer’s job, but it is still a responsibility that falls on the Board as a whole. The budget shouldn’t be a thing put together in an emergency, and I can’t really see a good reason why it would be. /done
Krystal V.
There we go! Do those replies answer your questions?
DeepFic
Yup! Thanks, I may have more later if it is quiet though. I appreciate the answers! 🙂 /done
sbarmarj
yes thanks.
I have a question on a different topic
Krystal V.
Go ahead, sbarmarj.
sbarmarj
Many of you have been in the org for quite a while and have developed friendships, are you ready to put your duty to the org as a board member above your personal relationships including firing a friend because it is necessary to safeguard the org?
Krystal V.
Good question! Candidates are typing 🙂
Alex T.
To begin with, we are all volunteers in the org, ‘firing’ isn’t really something you do with volunteers? And obviously, I am able and willing to go up against a friend when the situation requires it. Would I vote for having a friend removed from a committee if they are obiously working against the orgs best interest? Of course. ‘Safeguarding’ is such a vague term though, I would expect my justification for voting on such a matters to be on more solid grounds. /done
Katarina H.
The OTW has a very clear process of how to to remove people, and no one is removed without a good reason and without following procedure (and they shouldn’t be). Personally I don’t see how this question even needs to be asked, of course I would stand up against anyone, whether I was friendly with them or not, if the situation called for it. /done
Atiya
I think that volunteers should only be removed from their positions for serious violations and via strict due process (which I think currently needs improvement). If I encountered an Org volunteer (friend or not) failing in their work in some way, I would talk to them and work with them – in my experience, people here are generally very open to criticism and suggestions for improvement. (As my friends here know, I will always speak up to them if I think it’s needed!) Of course, if a friend actually committed some act so heinous that the Org needed “safeguarding” from them, they’d hear about it from me, and I would have no problem participating in their removal. /done
Krystal V.
Thanks, guys! Is that all, sbarmarj?
sbarmarj
let me clarify
Krystal V.
Yes?
sbarmarj
I am sorry. I may not have been clear. As for the org’s internal HR polices and procedures I am not familiar with them as a member though my background professional in management (still typing
However I was specifically referring to some action that is illegal or open the org to legal liability and as such may require immediate action. Do you have experience identifying actions that qualify as such i.e. endangering the org legally, which your duty of care requires you to then take action. I am not curious about HR policies but rather your understanding and willingness to act to protect the org
which, you may have answered but I do worry that your decision to follow procedures would increase liability.
/done
briar_pipe
Hi sbarmarj! I’m briar_pipe, Chair of the Elections Committee.
After some quick discussion, it looks like your question is not really a question but is a statement.
As such, I’m glad you got to give your opinion, but there’s nothing for candidates to answer. We’ll be moving on from here to other topics.
sbarmarj
I am sorry the middle sentence should have ended with a question mark.
briar_pipe
Thanks for bringing your question!
sbarmarj
the one that begins “do you have…”
I can put it more succinctly, “would you fire someone immediately if your lawyers told you to?”
hele
o/
sarken
o/
Krystal V.
hele, sarken, we’ll get around to you two soon 🙂
hele
(thank you! And no problem.)
briar_pipe
sbarmarj, the candidates have agreed to answer your question, but we’ll end this line of questioning after this. It’s fairly clear to all of us what’s happening at this moment, and I don’t want to spend the entire chat digging into and trying to justify recent events, rather than talking about the candidates and their goals.
Alex T.
I don’t know how to answer this any different than I already have. If I am friendly with someone, I don’t lose my ability to think critically. I am still able to look at what they do and assess it critically. Following correct procedures to remove people is the appropriate way to deal with those situations, and if our lawyers told me to, I would still follow correct procedures to have people removed. /done
Atiya
As I said in my earlier answer, if someone did something so heinous that the Org had to be “safeguarded” from them, then I would certainly participate in their removal. HR policies are designed to reduce liability, not increase it. /done
sbarmarj
I am sorry for taking up so much time, but it is my understanding that the Board of Director’s must safeguard the org. As a donor its extremely concerning to me that so much confidential information is available. Thank you for answering my questions.
Katarina H.
Now the fact is that a lawyer isn’t going to appear out of the blue to tell me I need to do something, usually if I get an opinion from a lawyer it is because I’ve asked for that opinion. An opinion from a lawyer doesn’t meant that proper procedure doesn’t need to be followed. In the end I can’t give you any other answer than I already have if the situation necessitated the removal of someone I was friendly with, then I would vote for that removal, my personal relationship have no affect on that. /done
Krystal V.
Thanks, guys! Thanks, sbarmarj. We’re leaving this line of topic.
hele, your question?
Alex T.
/As a donor myself, it is extremely concerning to me that there is not enough information available, sbarmarj.)
Different tropes and all that I guess 🙁
hele
(Same, Alex!) For all candidates, how do you think the Board should proceed in the event that the chair of a committee disappeared?
Alex T.
If the chair of a committee disappeared, I think Board should reach out to the remaining staff and/or volunteers of that committee ask them about their impression of the situation and then try to find a new chair among them. If that wasn’t effective I would try to find people willing to help out in other committees and hope to give them as much help as required to get the committee back on their feet. If there was no staff and no volunteers left in that committee I would try to get an overall impression among the other committees if the committee in question actually needed to be revived or if their tasks had been shifted to other committees already. /done
(committee has stopped looking like a word now, thank you)
Atiya
In the case that the committee still exists, but the chair has gone awol, I think the Board should work with the remaining members to select new chair(s) from among them. If the committee is gone, or no one remaining is willing to become chair, and the committee is in fact performing a useful or necessary function, one (or ideally two) candidates should be found within the Org to re-constitute it, and given as much support as possible. /done
(except that I agree with Alex…definitely not looking like a word)
Katarina H.
The most important thing I think is to notice it as soon as possible. Practically speaking, currently the staffers in the committee are much more likely to notice the absence of a chair than the Board is, but when the staffers contact Board about it they shouldn’t hesitate to take action. Currently a lot of the committees have co-chair’s or chair’s in training, or other staffers who could probably fill the position at least temporarily, and I think Board should reach out to the committee to hopefully find a new chair among them. If the committee is gone entirely then if necessary new chairs should be found from within the organization (unless the better choice is to not revive the committee at that point) /done
Krystal V.
Thanks, guys! Any follow ups, hele?
hele
nope! Thank you all for your answers!
Krystal V.
Thanks, hele!
sarken, you’re up! What was your question?
sarken
Great! First, I just want to say thanks to Elections for running this chat, and to all the candidates who are participating! Coming back to finances for a minute, I have a question for everyone. Our new treasurer recently asked chairs to produce budget proposals for their committees on short notice (about eight days). Because the org hasn’t had a budget in the past, many of our committee chairs have no experience preparing a budget, nor do we have any training resources available. What kind of support do you think Board should provide chairs in the future to make them better equipped to handle this task?
Krystal V.
Thank you, sarken! Candidates are typing 🙂
Atiya
Obviously, for a start, more time to work with! It would also be useful to have more information on the process by which the final budget will be put together (for example, will there be back and forth with the committee on which items are priorities/affordable, or does all information need to be spelled out in the document submitted). I think that having a rough idea of how much money the committee has to work with would also be very helpful. In terms of training, there’s good information out there that could be collected and linked on the wiki for use by chairs, and could be supplemented by info learned after going through the process. /done
Krystal V.
It seems we’re going to be going a few minutes over. Please bear with us for this last question 🙂
Katarina H.
At the very least there should be some documentation available for everyone, so everyone could read up on the basics and what they need to do. And of course, the process of making the budget should be started well in advance, so there’s enough time for enough back and forth between all the parties involved. Eight days really isn’t a lot of time, I hope you at least got some feedback on your proposals! /done
Alex T.
Demystifying the budgeting process would be my first step. Creating a budget in a black box is not going to work out smoothly if at all. I think one of the first things Board needs to do to provide training resources for the chairs. It would probably not a bad idea for the Board to make use of those resources themselves, even if it was just for a refresher, and meeting up with interested chairs to talk and work through things in detail would be very useful too (though obviously time consuming and not mandatory for that reason alone). /done
Krystal V.
Thanks for that, guys! That wraps up this Q&A, thanks for coming!