Free Geek 2012 AGM Results

I'd like to (belatedly) welcome the directors who were elected on July 19th:

• Board facilitator lead: Scott Nelson
• Assistant board facilitator lead: Nigel Cornwall
• Treasurer: Nigel Cornwall
• Secretary: Chris Hooper
• HR lead: Sarah White
• Anti-harassment lead: Sarah White
• Marketing lead: Anne Der
• Recycling lead: Mike McManus
• Legal and bylaw lead: Chris Hooper
• Volunteer recruitment and management: Sarah White

That's 6 directors divided up amongst 10 roles.

The process this year was different, following on a fair amount of discussion on the fg-general mailing list. We took some cues from the Sociocratic Method for elections, as outlined in We the People: Consenting to a Deeper Democracy by John Buck and Sharon Villines. Overall the process worked remarkably well.

The motivation for these changes was to find a better way of selecting a board from the available candidates, that would allow for critical, informed decision-making, but without causing the candidates to feel judged.

The main tool for this was the use of a set of roles which were suggested by the outgoing board, and open to modification before the selection began by the attendees of the general meeting. Each role represents a "personality" along with a skillset; however, a single director might be chosen for more than one role. Of the full list of roles, only two were absolutely required per our bylaws: the treasurer and secretary.

I would like to join the rest of the Free Geek Vancouver community in thanking the outgoing board for all of their hard work, and all the 2012 AGM candidates for their generous offers of service. Congratulations to the new board. If you see a director in the hallway, thank them -- it's hard work.