Frosty? Me?

Frosty?

Frosty?!

How about under very tight self-control so as to not scream, cry, or run away?

I am about to hit my Rothstein limit.

Mantra for Mega Issues

So I'm being all gung-ho with getting work done on my many committees. It's kinda fun and I'm enjoying the sense of making things move forward. Fall is such a productive time of year for me!

The Charter is nearly ready for presentation, and I expect that I will be able to have a motion on the October AMC agenda to thank an dismiss that committee... which has been going in one form or another for what, four years? Geesh. It's time to get this puppy over with!

In addition to having been volunteered to work on the AMC's "Mega Issue" about increasing the value of membership, I'm also starting to move on the Local Group Service & Funding project. Bothof these involve forming questions, gathering data, analyzing that information, arriving at conclusions, and then forming recommendations for action.

To me, this seems obvious, but as I learned with the LG Funding Task Force three years ago, this is a novel approach for Mensans.

The key is to be at peace with not knowing the conclusion in advance of the research. The second key is to accept the conclusion the data supports even when it's not what you expected.

This is my mantra for these sorts of ""Mega Issues":

I don't already know the answer. I don't already know....

Thoughts about Transparency

According to Wikipedia, "Transparency, when used in a social context, implies openness, communication, and accountability. Transparent procedures include open meetings, financial disclosure statements, the freedom of information legislation, budgetary review, audits, etc."

I think we have that now.

One of the questions I have put to those members clamoring for more transparency is “what information did you used to have access to that you no longer to?” So far, no one has answered that. The closest answer came from Pam, I think, who noted that the frequency of executive sessions during AMC meetings has increased in recent years.

What I have gleaned from conversations and elists and forums and such is that some members wish to be in the loop on our thinking and discussion processes in advance of the actual formal motion-second-discussion-vote records.

I am not overly afraid of this. If I have half-baked ideas, I’ll keep them to myself or talk quietly with a few people out of public view until I get them fully formed. What does concern me is if the membership were to see how some of our internal “discussions” end up with one AMC member making another look utterly foolish via with superior arguments. I confess I’ve done that more than once. I’m not regretting it, since I think the results were better board decisions, but I’m glad for Mensa as a whole that the other members didn’t witness it.

…………………………………………..

More from Wikipedia: "Radical transparency is a management method where nearly all decision making is carried out publicly. All draft documents, all arguments for and against a proposal, the decisions about the decision making process itself, and all final decisions, are made publicly and remain publicly archived."

This is certainly something some members wish for.

How can we increase the members’ opportunities to know the WHYs of our decisions?

Suggestion #1: Would it be possible to consider the AMC elist non-confidential except when the poster requests it to be? That way we each have control over how public we’re willing to be with our words and half-baked ideas and yet those of us who do feel comfortable participating on the forums can have the freedom to share with members much more of what we on this list talk about?

Suggestion #2: Assign someone to write and submit short monthly articles to InterLoc (or make it a regular column in the Bulletin) about what the various committees and appointments strive for, accomplish, and need. Pull the goals from the quarterly reports and publish them for members to see. Stop assuming that burying something on the huge and complex Web site is enough.

Suggestion #3: Play with the members. Suck up the courage and participate in the Online Community. Do so in the fun areas, not just the Mensa Matters section. Go ahead and throw sheep at people on Facebook. Tweet about mundane things. Let people see you as individuals and not just TPTB.

Transparency means proactively showing our thoughts, our process, our goals, our failures, and OURSELVES… to the members via many venues and mediums.

What I'm Mulling Today

What actions will increase member trust in the wisdom and objectivity of our decision-making process?

What actions will result in members feeling like they are more clued-in to the process of how decisions are made?

What is the best way to correct widely spread incorrect/slanted "information" about the lawsuit, AML's finances, the legality of RVC replacements, hearings, etc?

What can I do to promote a collegial atmosphere that is welcoming to unique perspectives or decrease barriers to effective work and decision systems and increase the numbers of members willing to serve in elected and appointed positions, improve leader effectiveness and confidence, or attract younger members to leadership roles?

The Great Forum Storm of '09

I finished my giant set of replies regarding the Online Community storms. I won't paste all seven pages of text here, so if you'd like to learn more, I suggest you go to:

http://www.community.us.mensa.org/forums/t/15521.aspx

Forums Terms of Service

The moderators are working to rein in the toxic members and get the overall spirit of camaraderie back in the AML Online Community. So obviously, we're had lots of discussion about the TOS and how to interpret and apply it.

In a perfect world, it would be short and sweet and clear:

Don't be a dick.

I wonder what would happen if I really wrote that into the formal TOS document?