maia_bob: Me posing on a pink canon (Default)

Out of curiosity, I had a go at mapping the OTW Board visually over time. I couldn't find a tool that let me do everything I wanted but it turned out rather pretty - and possibly informative too.

*Numbers may be dodgy as I pulled them from the Board of Directors page and had to make some assumptions. If you have better information - please share!

We've had 22 board members in the last 7 years - that's a lot of dedication :)
OTW Board Population by Year

Key
  • Green shades & large dot = served full term
  • Orange shades & medium dot = served a full term and resigned early from second term
  • Red shades & small dot = resigned
maia_bob: OTW Logo with text "OTW Board 2013 (wtfpolarbear)" (OTW Board WTF)
Dear All,

I have resigned from the OTW Board and the official announcement is up.

This is the item I wasn't posting about, it wasn't an easy decision to make.

I will be continuing to volunteer with the OTW on the AD&T committee, helping support the new QA sub-committee, and working with VolCom to help write monthly Chair Discussion emails.

I'm open to discussion and feedback, but I'd like to flag that I'm feeling a bit vulnerable right now and would appreciate a gentle-ish approach.

Cheers, Maia
maia_bob: OTW Logo with text "OTW Board 2013 (wtfpolarbear)" (OTW Board WTF)
My apologies for not updating last week, things were happening that I did not know how to talk about. I shall continue to not talk about them for now but as a distraction I offer this: the 2012 Annual Report is now on the OTW website in PDF form.

I remember promising to talk a bit about Finances and I should make good on that promise. 'Finance' is not a language everyone speaks (I'm reasonably literate but don't get invited to Finance-speaking cocktail parties) so I'll try to condense pages 14-16 into something simple and accessible.

Page 14: STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION. As at Dec 31 2012 we had (this is about how much money we had at a point in time)
  • $ 76,765.71 - cash in bank accounts
  • $ 53,260.19 - physical assets - mostly servers
  • $ 10,073.36 - 'other assets' this is what the US calls a Certificate of Deposit or COD and Australians call a Term Deposit
It adds up to $140,099.26.

Page 15: STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES. For the 2012 calendar year we did (this is about how money moved throughout the year)

We spent money!
  • $ 41,925.43
We received money!
  • $ 92,341.54
As a non-profit we had a surplus! (For Profit organisations have Profits)
  • $ 50,421.90

Page 16: STATEMENT OF FUNCTIONAL EXPENSES. For the 2012 calendar year we did (this is the more detailed version of money moving separated by what type of expense it was, and who it was spent on / by)

Some of these are obvious:
  • $80.00 of Bank Charges
  • $2000.00 Insurance
  • $22,023.95 of System Expenses (buying servers)
Some are more mysterious at first glance:
  • $45.00 of Bank Charges to Journal (this was a wire transfer for copyright on media studies reader)

All of them are explainable. The point to financial reports is to have a way to clearly explain / demonstrate that money is being managed, and demonstrate that to the people who care (the board, our staff, volunteers and donors) and of course governments who give us tax exempt status.

Questions / comments welcome.
maia_bob: OTW Logo with text "OTW Board 2013 (wtfpolarbear)" (OTW Board WTF)
Still bitter about my numbers being invalidated but I have worked around it with excessive use of automated tagging.

Sod knows how many emails in total this week of which 175 are labeled OTW - !General and 90 are labeled OTW – Board. My calendar says ~9 hour week.
  • We didn't have a Board meeting this week - Wiscon and me having people at the house meant attendance was very small so it was canceled.
  • Webmasters kindly put some of our completed minutes on the OTW website - more incoming (I have a checklist).
What I have been doing is reading the OTW Bylaws. I haven't discussed the below with the Board yet, this is my initial thought process developing, I need to think out loud to do that and this is far from 'done' - I invite feedback and suggestions.

This was inspired by having now been on the Board long enough to see how we do things, and how that works out. I'm also wondering what I would offer a newly elected Board member in terms of training and orientation and feeling like I don't have much to give... which is a problem.

After 21 weeks of Boarding I've now got a few data points and I'm starting to develop views (that should probably read 'Views") on how we do what we do. In my head said views can be divided into thoughts on Governance, Transparency and Accountability which are on the one hand dreadful buzzwords and on the other hand really important concepts.
  • Governance: the wikipedia entry is pretty good so here's the highlight: is the act of governing. It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of decision-making or leadership processes.
  • What I'm experiencing is what we don't do this well or consistently. There are historical reasons for this, the most pressing being that the Board is exhausted trying to deal with day to day issues and introducing fundamental change is hard when you're trying not to drown.

    I feel that we need to have better defined processes around our attempts to define expectations, grant power, or verify performance and I would very much like to develop them.

       
  • Transparency*: I recently confirmed the OTW Bylaws are a lot more forgiving than the ones I'm used to as a West Australian in relation to communication and documentation. I'm now wondering if my quest to document, minute and communicate is partly driven by different cultural and political expectations.
  • This is so closely related to Governance for me that I find it hard to untangle. I'm not talking about the OTW being transparent to the World here (although that is super important). I'm talking about the OTW Board communicating openly with the OTW Organisation in order to define expectations, grant power, and verify performance.

    I see this as having easy to find, visible information about policies, procedures and plans plus regular updates on future expectations.
     

  • Accountability: Also a horrible buzzword, seems to come up a lot tied to 'authenticity' which makes my teeth ache. In the above context I see it as measuring and taking responsibility for making sure Governance and Transparency happens, and that it happens at a high enough level... except that's measuring again... which is important and not just because I adore spreadsheets and am fast becoming a fan of corporate dashboards.

Any and all thoughts, comments or feedback is welcome.
*LegalLeaks has some good commentary on Transparency
maia_bob: OTW Logo with text "OTW Board 2013 (wtfpolarbear)" (OTW Board WTF)
Gmail has started listing chat line by line so my email numbers are no longer valid. Thanks gmail.

I'm still writing Board minutes and bouncing them to the Board email list for approval - it's been interesting reviewing what we've done and I'm having some thoughts about our communication that I need time to work my way though - no articulatable conclusions yet!

There was staff approving, planning, communication planning and 'stuff.'

Sorry for the short update - there's a heck of a lot going on but it's all stuff I can't see a way to talk about meaningfully in public.
maia_bob: OTW Logo with text "OTW Board 2013 (wtfpolarbear)" (OTW Board WTF)
419 emails this week of which 278 are labeled OTW - !General and 185 are labeled OTW – Board. My calendar says ~4 hour week and I am still in a low-coping place.

Tthere were a lot of emails, but that was partly because I've started drafting Board minutes and I'm emailing them to the Board list for approval as I draft them.

We got some external validation: Archive of Our Own | 50 Best Websites 2013 | TIME.com, discussed the AO3 draft Diversity Statement, talked about the Board approving all staff members (currently required by our Bylaws) and talked about and did some communicating on an issue I can't talk about.

Also! the 852 Prospect import happened: 852 Prospect Archive on AO3!

I might be in a low coping place, but if people have any questions I'm still open to discussing them = feel free to comment.

maia_bob: OTW Logo with text "OTW Board 2013 (wtfpolarbear)" (OTW Board WTF)
288 emails this week of which 177 are labeled OTW - !General and 107 are labeled OTW – Board. My calendar says ~8 hour week and I am still in a low-coping place.

The board did a number of things this week including something intensive that I can't talk about that left me pretty drained. It's good we have these conversations, but the impact on me as a person is huge.

The Open Board meeting was committee updates, we talked about money management - making sure we do it well; staffing changes; and two external requests for relationships with the OTW. The Closed Board meeting was about the Strategic Planning Open Doors Report, how liaisons fit into our structure (inconsistantly) and how our structure is working (not as well as we want it to). We're not suddenly about to make changes, it's more that it's an active conversation. We also talked about a committee rename proposal, and some staffing questions.

The Annual Report should be out ANY DAY NOW.
maia_bob: OTW Logo with text "OTW Board 2013 (wtfpolarbear)" (OTW Board WTF)
17. It seems like a big number. 295 emails this week of which 162 are labeled OTW - !General and 56 are labeled OTW – Board. My calendar says ~6 hour week which is good because it's been a low coping week.

I didn't go to the Board meeting - it's the v. early morning one - but I did attend the All-Org meeting and chaired it. There were new people (yay!) present representing the Tag Wranglers and Systems so we did introductions. Mine looks like this: I'm Maia, I'm on the Board and on Accessibility, Design, and Technology (AD&T). I answer to 'Maia', 'umh', and '...I have a question...'

There were various committee updates then a presentation / discussion on password management tools - I have a mere 44 stored logins so far but there were people who had up to 188.

Five Fun Facts:
  1. Annual Report = SO CLOSE TO DONE I CAN TASTE IT IN THE AIR.
  2. Archive Diversity Statement = final draft under internal review, I am excited about this.
  3. Fanlore is coming up to 25,000 articles.
  4. The "SOPA/PIPA" tag on the AO3 now has five works.
  5. Fundraising, it is happening*. The AO3 Fundraiser Auction on tumblr has received an amazing amount of pledges and there's a Multimedia Auction on Livejournal right now.

*For tax reasons, the OTW cannot officially endorse such events, but it's fine for individuals to host them and for us to appreciate them. Which we do. A lot.
maia_bob: OTW Logo with text "OTW Board 2013 (wtfpolarbear)" (OTW Board WTF)
306 emails this week of which 196 are labeled OTW - !General and 118 are labeled OTW – Board. My calendar says ~9 hour week.

The Meta thing still looks like this although step 4. is now quite advanced and we probably don't need to do step 5:
  1. Decide we're going to do it AKA talk for ages then come to a decision (we did this)
  2. Discuss it a lot internally (we have been doing this)
  3. Publish the proposed revised Terms of Service (ToS) for people to comment on (public post up for comment) (152 comments)
  4. Discuss people's comments and feedback and revise again (after 3.)
  5. Depending on people's comments, like, if people all say 'hey, it should be more like this' and everyone seems to agree and we think it looks good too then we might be able to go straight to 6. or we might need to do 2-4 again.
  6. Publish the Terms of Service (ToS), make changes to the Abuse and Support policies so they match the Terms of Service.
  7. Make a Design for Meta on the AO3 and plan when to make code changes. This will probably take a while, we need to have 1-6 first PLUS we have limited coder resources AND we prioritise improving and fixing performance over new features - even very important ones. *loves on AD&T*

I was not able to be at the board meeting this week so I read the transcript then wrote a lot of emails. The high points this week were approving new staffers we're keen on, a monster discussion about diversity, and a final review of the Annual Report.

The All-Org Meeting is coming up on the 27th and is at 1pm my time (+8 UTC) which is VERY EXCITING but not quite as exciting as Iron Man II planned on Friday night \o/
maia_bob: OTW Logo with text "OTW Board 2013 (wtfpolarbear)" (OTW Board WTF)
378 emails this week of which 244 are labeled OTW - !General and 90 are labeled OTW – Board. My calendar says ~7 hour week.

The Meta thing still looks the same, we're in stages 4-5.

The fundraising drive was most excellent and getting DevMem's updates throughout the drive was very interesting. I believe sanders is going to do a write-up about donor patterns which I look forward to and will link when it happens. Thank you to everyone involved :D
  • Between April 3 and 9
  • We received 2,054 individual donations
  • Totaling US $ 53,243.99

The Annual Report is that -> <- much closer to being finished and RECRUITING IS NOW OPEN \o/ Ahem. This is now a significantly more organised process and a GREAT BIG thank you to VolCom for masterminding it.

There was a Board meeting. The Open session was updates about the membership drive, VolCom recruitment opening, Tag Wranglers have some interesting and useful suggestions for improving the wrangler and user experience, and Directors and Officers insurance is officially renewed (I hear the paperwork is substantial). The Closed Board session was productive, we agreed on some stuff I shan't be talking about, worked out who was going to write some stuff we need written, discussed some future plans I can't talk about, briefly tangented to talk about whether 'guys' is now gender neutral, then talked about some other future things one of which I shall be following up.

We have launched a joint Board-VolCom committee chair discussion group for general support and self-improvement (first discussed about five weeks ago) and the first round just started. I hope it is useful.

There was liaisoning, loitering in chat, and trying to explain Quokka to non-Australians. I am mildly disappointed "Quokka" does not appear in DW spell check :p
maia_bob: Me posing on a pink canon (Default)
599 emails this week of which 462 are labeled OTW - !General and 78 are labeled OTW – Board. My calendar says ~9 hour week.

The Meta thing still looks the same.

Many of the emails counted above relate to the OTW April fundraising drive! If you're in a position to contribute financialy now is an excellent time to do so! Not that you can't donate any time ;p
Fandom Is Love: Organization for Transformative Works Membership Drive, April 3-9

My younger woofer totally supports the OTW

In other exciting news we're been powering through the financials in preparation for the Annual Report. I like knowing what kind of shape we're in very much and statements of financial performance are almost as good as charts. *does the geeky stats dance*

Once the numbers are out in public, I'll talk about them a bit here - are people interested?
maia_bob: OTW Logo with text "OTW Board 2013 (wtfpolarbear)" (OTW Board WTF)
Late post brought to you by Swancon and an opportunity to hear Gail Simone talk about Batgirl.

581 emails this week of which 457 are labeled OTW - !General and 133 are labeled OTW – Board. My calendar says ~9 hour week.

The Meta thing still looks like this:
  1. Decide we're going to do it AKA talk for ages then come to a decision (we did this)
  2. Discuss it a lot internally (we have been doing this)
  3. Publish the proposed revised Terms of Service (ToS) for people to comment on (public post up for comment) (145 comments so far)
  4. Discuss people's comments and feedback and revise again (after 3.)
  5. Depending on people's comments, like, if people all say 'hey, it should be more like this' and everyone seems to agree and we think it looks good too then we might be able to go straight to 6. or we might need to do 2-4 again.
  6. Publish the Terms of Service (ToS), make changes to the Abuse and Support policies so they match the Terms of Service.
  7. Make a Design for Meta on the AO3 and plan when to make code changes. This will probably take a while, we need to have 1-6 first PLUS we have limited coder resources AND we prioritise improving and fixing performance over new features - even very important ones. *loves on AD&T*
We (we being AD&T, Comms, Legal and Support with various Board members looped in) had a thumping big conversation about what Inviting the greater AO3 community to be part of the ToS discussion might look like and eventually came to the conclusion that:
  1. We think talking about potential ToS changes is something a small number of interested people care about
  2. We think contacting every AO3 account holder when we do this would not be a good idea.
  3. We do think advising every AO3 account holder when the ToS is changed is important and while email will probably not be the way we go, we can certainly do a banner on the AO3

The updated AO3 roadmap was published! This includes scheduling any changes that need to be made as a part of the meta decision. SO MUCH WORK went into this.

Strategic Planning's report on the Volunteers & Recruiting Committee was a mammoth effort, and the second draft of the Annual Report is now under review.

I learned a lot about recruitment from Volcom. I've been recruiting people (or trying to) since 2009 and my personal experience may or may not have included some small amounts of frustration. I am SO GLAD we're improving our system and I am so full of love for VolCom for the work being done here. I dearly want to be able to recruit people effectively and will cheerfully write position descriptions and training plans for HOURS if it means I can lure more of the many capable, awesome people in the community into being part of the OTW.
maia_bob: OTW Logo with text "OTW Board 2013 (wtfpolarbear)" (OTW Board WTF)
OMG ROADMAP OMG

So much work went into this, like, mind-boggling amounts of work.

This is one of the things I have not been talking about*, the amount of behind the scenes negotiating that went on around this document is huge. It's not just about content either, it's about how it gets created, who is involved, and whether various needs are acknowledged and met.

A serious hiccup was the Board composition changing twice since the Roadmap update project started. This impacted the content of the Roadmap as different issues became more visible, it also meant new people had to be brought up to speed, and a thumping great discussion about process happened.

I'm contemplating ofering to run a Retrospective, I think it could be useful, just trying to figure out how best to do it with a global virtual team. And, of course, if people want to do it :p
*publicly that is, I've been talking about it within OTW (and my kitchen) all the time.
maia_bob: OTW Logo with text "OTW Board 2013 (wtfpolarbear)" (OTW Board WTF)
404 emails this week of which 217 are labeled OTW - !General and 71 are labeled OTW – Board. My calendar says ~8 hour week.

The Meta thing still looks like this:
  1. Decide we're going to do it AKA talk for ages then come to a decision (we did this)
  2. Discuss it a lot internally (we have been doing this)
  3. Publish the proposed revised Terms of Service (ToS) for people to comment on (public post up for comment) (145 comments so far)
  4. Discuss people's comments and feedback and revise again (after 3.)
  5. Depending on people's comments, like, if people all say 'hey, it should be more like this' and everyone seems to agree and we think it looks good too then we might be able to go straight to 6. or we might need to do 2-4 again.
  6. Publish the Terms of Service (ToS), make changes to the Abuse and Support policies so they match the Terms of Service.
  7. Make a Design for Meta on the AO3 and plan when to make code changes. This will probably take a while, we need to have 1-6 first PLUS we have limited coder resources AND we prioritise improving and fixing performance over new features - even very important ones. *loves on AD&T*

That thing I can't talk about that I didn't talk about last week or the week before x3, that got approved and communicated internally is still, still in the works. One day!

All-Org meeting this week which means we only do a Closed Board meeting and not an Open Session. I chaired and we powered through four things that we wanted to talk about, none of which I can talk about here /o\. I can say it was fruitful, cooperative, and everything I could ask for in a meeting including the bit with the bear.

One of those things is a personal project taking shape that I look forward to talking about more :)

As always, please comment, ask questions, express opinions or do what you feel comfortable with.
maia_bob: OTW Logo with text "OTW Board 2013 (wtfpolarbear)" (OTW Board WTF)
317 emails this week of which 171 are labeled OTW - !General and 52 are labeled OTW – Board. My calendar says ~14 hour week. If this happens to level off to ~150 emails a week and 10-15 hours that might, I think, be sustainable.

The Meta thing now looks more like this:
  1. Decide we're going to do it AKA talk for ages then come to a decision (we did this)
  2. Discuss it a lot internally (we have been doing this)
  3. Publish the proposed revised Terms of Service (ToS) for people to comment on (public post up for comment)
  4. Discuss people's comments and feedback and revise again (after 3.)
  5. Depending on people's comments, like, if people all say 'hey, it should be more like this' and everyone seems to agree and we think it looks good too then we might be able to go straight to 6. or we might need to do 2-4 again.
  6. Publish the Terms of Service (ToS), make changes to the Abuse and Support policies so they match the Terms of Service.
  7. Make a Design for Meta on the AO3 and plan when to make code changes. This will probably take a while, we need to have 1-6 first PLUS we have limited coder resources AND we prioritise improving and fixing performance over new features - even very important ones. *loves on AD&T*

That thing I can't talk about that I didn't talk about last week or the week before, or the week before that, that got approved and communicated internally is still in the works. One day!

I got a beta invite to Loomio which is a collaborative decision making tool. I like their explanation video - its cute, clear, and I like how it uses wireframes to communicate. I'm hoping to trial it with the Board.

Daylight savings kicked in for some people but not for me.

Open Board and Closed Board was at 4am - this is the one I don't even try to make so I read the transcript the next day. It sounds like some issues came to a head and now we're working through what that means and how we're going to make it work out. *hugs all round for ppl* This is one of those moments where there is so much history, so many feelings, and so many different opinions about what to do next that it feels like we should all lock ourselves in a room together and not be allowed out until we've come to some sort of clarity. I would be that awful person who cut the Gordian Knot with a sword, I would chew it apart.

And now I'm getting uncomfortably close to the line of excessive disclosure I'll stop.

As always, please comment, ask questions, express opinions or do what you feel comfortable with.
maia_bob: OTW Logo with text "OTW Board 2013 (wtfpolarbear)" (OTW Board WTF)
Happening! Please go read and comment if you have feelings / thoughts / opinions.

The Meta thing now looks more like this:
  1. Decide we're going to do it AKA talk for ages then come to a decision (we did this)
  2. Discuss it a lot internally (we have been doing this)
  3. Publish the proposed revised Terms of Service (ToS) for people to comment on (draft public post being worked on so happening in the not too distant future)
  4. Discuss people's comments and feedback and revise again (after 3.)
  5. Depending on people's comments, like, if people all say 'hey, it should be more like this' and everyone seems to agree and we think it looks good too then we might be able to go straight to 6. or we might need to do 2-4 again.
  6. Publish the Terms of Service (ToS), make changes to the Abuse and Support policies so they match the Terms of Service.
  7. Make a Design for Meta on the AO3 and plan when to make code changes. This will probably take a while, we need to have 1-6 first PLUS we have limited coder resources AND we prioritise improving and fixing performance over new features - even very important ones. *loves on AD&T*
maia_bob: OTW Logo with text "OTW Board 2013 (wtfpolarbear)" (OTW Board WTF)
393 emails this week of which 276 are labeled OTW - !General and 52 are labeled OTW – Board. My calendar says ~16 hour week (I have a spreadsheet and a chart - I aspire to things levelling out at some point)

The Meta thing now looks more like this:
  1. Decide we're going to do it AKA talk for ages then come to a decision (we did this)
  2. Discuss it a lot internally (we have been doing this)
  3. Publish the proposed revised Terms of Service (ToS) for people to comment on (draft public post being worked on so happening in the not too distant future)
  4. Discuss people's comments and feedback and revise again (after 3.)
  5. Depending on people's comments, like, if people all say 'hey, it should be more like this' and everyone seems to agree and we think it looks good too then we might be able to go straight to 6. or we might need to do 2-4 again.
  6. Publish the Terms of Service (ToS), make changes to the Abuse and Support policies so they match the Terms of Service.
  7. Make a Design for Meta on the AO3 and plan when to make code changes. This will probably take a while, we need to have 1-6 first PLUS we have limited coder resources AND we prioritise improving and fixing performance over new features - even very important ones. *loves on AD&T*

That thing I can't talk about that I didn't talk about last week or the week before that got approved and communicated internally is now being set up which is exciting (for me). Maybe one day I can talk about it ;)

I also chaired the Open Board meeting which was committee updates (next DevMem drive, what the next org-wide meeting topic should be, timetable for feedback on annual report draft, and me asking if ppl would be interested in a committee chair discussion group for general support and self-improvement. Point the last was later gently brought to my attention as a thing that VolCom plans to do so I have apologised for toe-stepping and offered my energy to support their plans *apologises again*

The Closed Board meeting was amazing, we talked about important things like “what would Axl Rose do” (Me, I live by What Would Modesty Blaise Do) and talked about Meta *points at checklist above* and what step seven might look like. I learned more about what the Category Change Workgroup is doing (yay Cat Change!) Then we had a long talk about feelings, mine in particular, how Boarding is working out for me and how I perceive the things that we’ve done. I appreciate how willing the Board is to talk to me about these kind of things, and to share experiences and perceptions. I am always aiming to create a safe enough space that people will talk to me, and trust me enough to share what’s going on for them* and I’m so glad the Boardroom is turning into one of those spaces.

FYI: the Board chatroom tag is “Group hug Time!”

*If I'm not and you can find a way to tell me I will always listen, and I will try to fix it.
maia_bob: OTW Logo with text "OTW Board 2013 (wtfpolarbear)" (OTW Board WTF)
468 emails this week of which 308 are labeled OTW - !General and 37 are labeled OTW – Board. My calendar says ~7 hour week of which most of those hours were talking about Meta.

I'm not sure how much I can say right now but the conversation seems to be breaking down into:
  • Meta Policy (how to define, what to include, exclude, how to manage)
  • Technical Stuff (precise terminology, early design discussions, how to handle 'Work Type' labels on existing works on the AO3 AKA: legacy data)
  • Abuse Specific (guidelines have to be very clear and fair)
  • Support Specific (as above)
  • Other (how would the above relate to how we treat original works - would it affect it at all)
It's probably worth mentioning that what happens will go a bit like this:
  1. Decide we're going to do it AKA talk for ages then come to a decision (we did this)
  2. Discuss it a lot internally (doing this right now)
  3. Publish DRAFT #1 for people to comment on (happening at some point in the not too distant future)
  4. Discuss people's comments and feedback and add to DRAFT #2 (after 3.)
  5. Depending on people's comments, like, if people all say 'hey, it should be more like this' and everyone seems to agree and we think it looks good too then we might be able to go straight to 6. or we might need to do 2-4 again.
  6. Publish the Terms of Service (ToS) for people to comment on, make changes to the Abuse and Support policies so they match the Terms of Service.
  7. Make a Design for Meta on the AO3 and plan when to make code changes. This will probably take a while, we need to have 1-6 first PLUS we have limited coder resources AND we prioritise improving and fixing performance over new features - even very important ones. *loves on AD&T*

I also chaired the Open Board meeting which was committee updates, and the Closed Board meeting which was a discussion about Annual Report writing and the Board's goals. In exciting news we're pretty much in alignment on what our goals are, we just argue a lot about how to go about making them happen. That's pretty normal.

That thing I can't talk about that I didn't talk about last week got approved and communicated internally \o/ I wrote a proposed policy for something and I need to get it approved and happening. This is one of the many things that would make me happy.

I also read this: Power linked to tendency to punish harshly (warning for white text in a dark background *judges*) which is a good thing to bear in mind.

In reflecting on the impact of Boarding on my own life I'm finding the time I spend engaging in Board type activities tends to be very intense and tiring. My initial intention to spend a lot of time in chat rooms being available has been replaced by the need to spend a fair amount of time regenerating emotional energy. It's good for my knitting and fanfic reading but something I'm wary of. I think it has bad implications for long term survival. I'm still hoping things will settle into something less full-on and I'm trying to remember we're still forming as a team and we're working through a lot of stuff from previous years.

Readability score: 66.3 / Grade 9.4
maia_bob: Me posing on a pink canon (Default)
We are holding a global virtual conference on International Women's Day - March 8 2013 called Voices. We start in New Zealand at 10am and working our way around the world streaming sessions from women in every region to talk about technology, topics of interest to the technical women's community and to offer ideas and best practices on a regional, national and international level on how we can encourage more women in technology and inspire the women in this community.

www.globaltechwomen.com

This is an opportunity for women, no matter where they are on the planet, to access 30 hours of continuous coverage including: 
  1. Professional development by leading speakers in the Women in Tech community such as:
    • Jo Miller – “Resiliency defined”
    • Barbara Fittipaldi – “Hands on the Steering Wheel: A model for turning a breakdown into a breakthrough”
    • Stacey Sargent – “Inner success and inner critic”
    • Linda Bernardi – “The role of women in global companies. How do we push the envelope?”
    • Valerie Aurora - "The Power of Internet Activism."
  2.  Technical talks on virtualization, Open Source, and big data among others.
  3.  Connect with other women in the region, country and internationally.

The cost of this event is only $20 USD and attendees will have access to recordings of each session up to one month after the conclusion of the event. No travel, hotel or time off of work required. Please celebrate International Women's Day with us.
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