Re: [HOT] Recap of Community Call 2, reminder of CC 3

[nicolas chavent]

Hi Russel and all


Thanks for you and Harry in facilitating the meetings and putting up
minutes,
Thanks to all who participated in.
It was not possible for me to attend any of the first two CommunityCalls
(CC.
I put up some notes about them in order to prepare the next #3 Call.


   -

   By reading the first two CommunityCalls reports, it seems important to
   stress out better what those calls.
   -

  A consultation of the membership about how to best handle the
  transition period that will follow Kate’s resignation (April 10).
  -

  That all options are on the table to work this transition out :
  -

 with an ED (interim/long term)
 -

 without an ED with current Staffs and Board/Working Groups/Members
 or with additional paid time in admin, project management/coordination
 -

  That a decision will be taken and that in the context of the running
  of an election, the final call shall be on the newly elected
Board and the
  membership.



   -

   About the hiring of a new ED, one shall be aware of the following
   -

  In the context of an election which result will be announced in 2
  weeks time, this Is the prerogative of the new Board
  -

  It’s up to the new Board and Members to discuss in the light of the
  impact of Kate decision to adjust/redefine the roles and balances between
  Board and ED/Operational staffs as well as WG and members
  -

  This decision will have a high impact for the organization given the
  centrality/powers of Kate
  -

  Kate’s profile and experience is hard to find specifically in terms
  of HOT field and HQ experience as well as the combination of her skills
  project management, strategy, communication, mapping, IT
development, admin
  etc. It’s very unlikely to identify such a person with time and even more
  unlikely in a shorter time period.

Time is needed for such a decision to be fully endorsed and thought of
collectively within the organization.


   -

   Context It’s agreed that the timing (resignation and renewal of the
   Board) is bad and consists a risk for the organization, obviously
   -

  This situation is the consequences of choices (ED/ Kate legitimate
  and understandable decision to change job) and actions (ED/former Board).
  -

  On shall have expected that things would have been worked out
  upstream from the Kate side
  -

 While maturing her decision, it would have been possible to
 informally prepare for a possible/future handing while working
 with Board/ProjectManagers/WG
 -

 Allow for more time to give notice,



   -

   The origin of this situation and the risk it represents for the
   organization is rooted in the organizational model built up over time since
   the HOT US strategic retreat of 2012 characterized by:
   -

  The disputable and disputed concentration of powers in the hands of
  the ED couple to the vision of the HOT US Board (a focus on strategy
  without involving in the Operational side of the organization)
endorsed and
  practised by the former majority of the Organization.
  -

  The way that Kate run the Operations side with limited collegiality
  by terminating weekly technical leadership meetings since Fall 2013.

The consequence : any changes in the person of the ED of HOT US is a risk
for the Organization to lose or inadequately transmit her
organizational/operational knowledge, that is the situation in which we are
at.

This leads to a consensus into the need for a change/adjustment in the
definition of the role of the Board which shall be more active vis a vis
the Operational side of the organization.


   -

   In making that decision, It’s important to define/quantify what will be
   the workload that the organization needs to handle in the interim and look
   at the work areas involved.
   -

  Finances
  -

 Handled by Kristen/Accountant with mechanisms in place for
 expenses tracking. Arrangements can be made for Board
oversight for non
 regular payments/expenses (stipends and pre-approved/defined
 expenses for on-going projects).
 -

  Project management
  -

 Project Management Workplan (over next 3-6 months) shall be in
 place.
 -

 On-going projects are staffed with Project Managers who can work
 in autonomy. if needed, they can report directly to the Board and ask
 guidance in case that Board/WG/Members/Partners can answer
 -

 Projects about to be launched (Tanzania) are already designed with
 no specific additional project design work required.
 -

 There is no on-going projects bid/negotiation (supposedly)
 -

 During the interim, the organization can pause on actions to
 secure new projects/grants.
   

[HOT] Recap of Community Call 2, reminder of CC 3

[Russell Deffner]

Another great community call has come and gone, do hope you get a chance to
attend the final one at 19:00 UTC  

 

We made some more progress thinking through the issues and noted them here:
CommunityCall#2
  and had a great talk through some ideas (and the
agenda) which you can listen to here: MumbleRecordingCC2
 

 

Please submit any specific things you'd like to hear discussed by adding it
to the bottom of: CommunityCall#3
 

 

Thank you!

=Russ

 

From: Russell Deffner [mailto:russell.deff...@hotosm.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2015 1:54 PM
To: hot
Subject: [HOT] Recap of Community Call 1, reminder of CC 2

 

I already feel like we've made some huge progress with only about a dozen of
us on a one hour mumble chat!

 

But we need more input! If you missed the first one, there are two more over
the next 24 hours or so (either midnight tonight
  or 19:00 UTC
  tomorrow).

 

If you can make it, I hope you will take a moment to review what we did -
these notes:
  CommunityCall#1 and if you
have an hour between now and then, you can listen to what was said:
MumbleRecordingCC1
 

 

Although we will try to build on the momentum of CC1, we have a fresh agenda
for: CommunityCall#2
  and CommunityCall#3
  - so if you're only expecting to be at one or the
other and want to submit a specific question or suggestion for that timeslot
- please do! Also we'd like to keep the notes from each call separate for
now - although rest assured that the Board and myself as voting member Chair
will be capturing all that was said and done during the three meetings as we
work through the transition.

 

Best regards,

=Russ

 

Russell Deffner

Chairperson for the Voting Members

russell.deff...@hotosm.org

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT)

http://hot.openstreetmap.org/ 

 

 

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