6 ms·

Those who belong to a small volunteer-based, mostly offline organization, know how hard it is to keep people who will do essential administrative work for free.

by vba616 4y ago

Those who belong to a small volunteer-based, mostly offline organization, know how hard it is to keep people who will do essential administrative work for free. You can hold elections, people can have fancy titles, but frequently there's still only one person if you're lucky who will "run" for office. And so they can't be fired, and if/when they burn out and quit, the organization may crumble. When I think of the sort of person who is unreasonably demanding of an open source maintainer, I think of the sort of person who is on LinkedIn and has padded their resume/profile with various wholesome volunteer gigs. But this is a contradiction - because if the latter is true, they should be intuitively aware of the dynamic. Also, another expectation I would have is that anyone with more than a year or two of corporate experience would know that even when people are being paid little attention is given to preparing for transitions, people quitting, people retiring, and so on. Clearly there are some significant false premises buried somewhere.

yakak 4y ago
> even when people are being paid little attention is given to preparing for transitions, people quitting, people retiring, and so on. I was looking at some contract jobs that seemed to be examples of a manager outsourcing the problem of finding a replacement that will somehow take responsibility while probably no longer having any access to the skills to interview them.. So in corporations there's a kind of eventual consistency if the replacement is actually essential.
pessimizer 4y ago
> You can hold elections, people can have fancy titles, but frequently there's still only one person if you're lucky who will "run" for office. And so they can't be fired, and if/when they burn out and quit, the organization may crumble. I think that in these cases you don't actually have an organization, you have an elaborate ritual to convince a single person to facilitate the activity that you wish to happen.
- vba616 4y ago
  There might be more than one office, while each office is generally uncontested in the elections. This can be true in local chapters of fairly sizable and well known national organizations.
  - Aeolun 4y ago
    Hmm, my 20 people youth organisation had like 5 positions that you had to fill (by law). Elections were generally of the ‘does anyone else wish to run for this office?’ and then ‘does anyone have a problem with this person retaining their position?’ kind. Meetings had good cookies, so in my opinion it was worth it though.
    - cwillu 4y ago
      ““You’re late,” Erica told her. There was no malice in her voice, only confusion that someone might risk missing her cooking. She’d poured blood and sweat and tears into building our little community, but the secret ingredient had turned out to be soup. She was a really good cook, and what her magazine and occasional impassioned speeches couldn’t do, an invitation to one of her dinner parties might. It was weird, the way little things like that turned the wheels of destiny. I’ve always wondered if history is missing some story like how the Founding Fathers only declared independence because Martha Washington served amazing stew every time there was a Continental Congress.” -- https://unsongbook.com/chapter-5-never-seek-to-tell-thy-love/ https://unsongbook.com/chapter-5-never-seek-to-tell-thy-love...
mooreds 4y ago
I remember being a part of a volunteer organization. We actually had some assets and so some rental income. Not a ton, but enough to be able to make some grants and do some good. It was still really tough to find people to be officers and do what needed to be done to keep the org running. There were those 10-20% who stepped up and took roles (president, chairs of committees). Some had different ideas on how to do things, but I was absolutely grateful they stepped up, even if I might have done things differently myself.
- ethbr0 4y ago
  > but I was absolutely grateful they stepped up, even if I might have done things differently myself This is a truism in running volunteer orgs well: you get to pick from the people who show up, not the people you wish had shown up. And often "willing to donate time at all" is a higher priority skill than any subject matter expertise.

by vba616 4y ago

yakak 4y ago

> even when people are being paid little attention is given to preparing for transitions, people quitting, people retiring, and so on. I was looking at some contract jobs that seemed to be examples of a manager outsourcing the problem of finding a replacement that will somehow take responsibility while probably no longer having any access to the skills to interview them.. So in corporations there's a kind of eventual consistency if the replacement is actually essential.

pessimizer 4y ago

> You can hold elections, people can have fancy titles, but frequently there's still only one person if you're lucky who will "run" for office. And so they can't be fired, and if/when they burn out and quit, the organization may crumble. I think that in these cases you don't actually have an organization, you have an elaborate ritual to convince a single person to facilitate the activity that you wish to happen.

vba616 4y ago
There might be more than one office, while each office is generally uncontested in the elections. This can be true in local chapters of fairly sizable and well known national organizations.
- Aeolun 4y ago
  Hmm, my 20 people youth organisation had like 5 positions that you had to fill (by law). Elections were generally of the ‘does anyone else wish to run for this office?’ and then ‘does anyone have a problem with this person retaining their position?’ kind. Meetings had good cookies, so in my opinion it was worth it though.
  - cwillu 4y ago
    ““You’re late,” Erica told her. There was no malice in her voice, only confusion that someone might risk missing her cooking. She’d poured blood and sweat and tears into building our little community, but the secret ingredient had turned out to be soup. She was a really good cook, and what her magazine and occasional impassioned speeches couldn’t do, an invitation to one of her dinner parties might. It was weird, the way little things like that turned the wheels of destiny. I’ve always wondered if history is missing some story like how the Founding Fathers only declared independence because Martha Washington served amazing stew every time there was a Continental Congress.” -- https://unsongbook.com/chapter-5-never-seek-to-tell-thy-love/ https://unsongbook.com/chapter-5-never-seek-to-tell-thy-love...

mooreds 4y ago

I remember being a part of a volunteer organization. We actually had some assets and so some rental income. Not a ton, but enough to be able to make some grants and do some good. It was still really tough to find people to be officers and do what needed to be done to keep the org running. There were those 10-20% who stepped up and took roles (president, chairs of committees). Some had different ideas on how to do things, but I was absolutely grateful they stepped up, even if I might have done things differently myself.

ethbr0 4y ago
> but I was absolutely grateful they stepped up, even if I might have done things differently myself This is a truism in running volunteer orgs well: you get to pick from the people who show up, not the people you wish had shown up. And often "willing to donate time at all" is a higher priority skill than any subject matter expertise.