[Ec-ncuc] On (mis)trust and cooperation

[Tapani Tarvainen]

On Sun, Feb 03, 2013 at 06:28:50PM +0000, Milton L Mueller (mueller at syr.edu) wrote:

> The people who preceded you don't know what you don't know!

Well of course - that's why I'm asking these questions!
When I ask something, please feel free to assume I don't
know the answer. :-)

> Most of us have never met you in person.

Actually I believe I have met all of you in person now.
Including you, even if you don't remember me. :-)
(That's fine with me. I don't always make much of an
impression on people.)

> There are bound to be surprises and a learning curve. but it is more
> than that, it is a resource problem. It takes a lot of time to mesh
> gears, explore these knowledge gaps and convey the information you
> are seeking - and we are all volunteers with extremely demanding
> other jobs.

You're absolutely right there. But since the situation is likely to
happen again and again, it would be worthwhile to build processes that
make it easier - which I believe Bill is trying to do.

That is, processes that are auto-documenting, that leave trails that
are easy for newcomers to track to get the hang of things. Even if
such a change of processes inevitably takes time and effort that could
be used for other, more urgent tasks - it will pay back later.

> Really, if a $2000 expenditure knocks people for a loop, what will
> happen when this EC faces a real, hard problem?

I asked the same question when a $160 proposal for a new server
was turned into a follow-the-process thing. I figured it was
for the purpose of getting things on a new track, making the
process smooth now so it wouldn't get in the way later.
Which I actually think is a good idea.

But it did confuse me when a $4000 proposal was then seemingly
about to be passed just like that. Even if there obviously
was old history behind it.

And, time-consuming though this discussion now is, I think it is
useful for the purpose of sorting out problems now that would get
in the way later, in more critical situations.

> 5 or 6 years ago $5000 was our entire contribution from PIR, now it
> is a relatively minor expense.

Yet you said earlier sending people to ICANN meetings at NCUC's
expense would be a major expense.
I am really in the dark about what kind of money we have
at our disposal.
And I'm afraid I treat money seriously, especially when deciding
about other people's money.

So, is it really hard to tell us something about our finances
in the past? Any reason not to post actual bank statements?
Or at least tell roughly how much money NCUC received and
spent last year, total?

> Let's try to see some real leadership and
> mobilization of the resources we have!

Leadership I'll leave to Bill, I'm still trying to figure out what
resources we do have...

-- 
Tapani Tarvainen