Disarray at the Hacker Dojo • Hacker News Board

Re: Disarray at the Hacker Dojo

#51

Post by simoncion » Fri, Apr 01, 2016, 7:23 PM UTC

educar wrote: post #50

simoncion wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know of a few. There are likely several that I don't know about: Noisebridge in SF https://noisebridge.net TechShop in SF, SJ, and several other non-Bay Area locations http://www.techshop.ws/ Ace Monster Toys in Oakland http://acemonstertoys.org/ Sudo Room in Oakland https://sudoroom.org/

I have been to some of these. noisebridge - it's a very good place but the last two times I was there it was quite dirty. it also had homeless people (nothing against the homeless but it's not the right place for them) which made it hard to work there. TechShop - is not a computer hacking place. mostly for mechanical/engineering. I will try the other two, thanks for your suggestions!

> noisebridge - it's a very good place but the last two times I was there it was quite dirty. it also had homeless people...

Have you been there since this happened? https://noisebridge.net/wiki/Reboot The character of the place has changed dramatically for the better.

Anyway, happy to help.

Re: Disarray at the Hacker Dojo

#52

Post by simoncion » Fri, Apr 01, 2016, 7:29 PM UTC

varelse wrote: post #43

simoncion wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know of a few. There are likely several that I don't know about: Noisebridge in SF https://noisebridge.net TechShop in SF, SJ, and several other non-Bay Area locations http://www.techshop.ws/ Ace Monster Toys in Oakland http://acemonstertoys.org/ Sudo Room in Oakland https://sudoroom.org/

TechShop is amazingly cool. Noisebridge scared me. Unless it's moved since 2014, it's in a dilapidated building in the mission pointlessly cluttered with ornamental mid 20th-century scientific equipment and it seemed to me that all it needed was a match to go up in flames.

> Unless it's moved since 2014...

Noisebridge is still at 2169 Mission St.

> ...it seemed to me that all it needed was a match to go up in flames.

The space has been inspected by both the fire marshal and professional electricians and is not a fire hazard and is (after some work during the Great Noisebridge Reboot back in mid 2014) up to code. :) Appearances can be (and often are) deceiving.

If you're in the neighborhood, maybe pop on by during open visiting hours to see if the changes alleviate some of your concerns.

Re: Disarray at the Hacker Dojo

#53

Post by veemjeem » Fri, Apr 01, 2016, 7:38 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #18

What a mess. I knew Hacker Dojo was having problems, but didn't know the details. I was a member for a while a few years ago, at the previous location, but just to take classes. It's mostly a co-working space now. As of a year ago, people sat silently at laptops under harsh industrial lighting, coding apps into the night. Now that the get-rich-quick app boom is over, not sure what's going on there. $199 per month is…

Well, there are more details to the story that the author omitted. Here's a few from a comment on the article:

The article appears to somehow have missed some key pieces of information. I leave it to you to decide whether Mr Klug and Ms Sudarshana Bannerjee's motives are:

1) Brian Klug, a disgruntled previous member who was banned from the premises failed to submit tax returns on time when he was executive director of the organization

2) Sudarshana and Mr Klug were romantically involved in the past

3) Sudarshana applied for the Executive director position at the organization in late 2015, with a salary of around $55,000, but another candidate was selected.

4) During the time of her election and investigation, she was unemployed.

5) She has previously admitted being friends with Marie Knox (who in turn, was hired by her former boyfriend, Brian Klug)

6) Sudarshana resigned just before a board meeting where a conflict of interest vote was on the agenda, stating that no current or former board member would be eligible for a paid staff position (all board members are unpaid volunteers)

7) Sudarshana resigned as soon as she received confirmation of a new paid position, apparently working with the Kamala Harris Senate campaign.

Sudarshana was not forced out of the board, she resigned herself. She posted her resignation on the HD slack channel.

Mr Klug is also the person who created this submission (dustball)

Re: Disarray at the Hacker Dojo

#54

Post by saul_goodman » Fri, Apr 01, 2016, 8:53 PM UTC

makomk wrote: post #40

diskcat wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the non-profit system isn't designed to allow people who embezzle money to be caught within a day or whatever. I don't think any accounting system is. The fact that the thief is eventually caught shows that the system does work, and the amount of damage that has been done isn't fatal to the organisation. There is going to have to be some amount of trust between the staff of an organisation and this trust can be…

No, it doesn't show that the system works. According to the article, the board had to be strong-armed into allowing members to elect Sudarshana Banerjee by someone they'd actually banned from the space, and she's since resigned under pressure from the rest of the board. It seems clear that the entire board is complicit in covering up the misuse of funds and the non-profit system has done nothing to stop this or to ma…

For most small organizations there is no accountability except from the members, non-profit or for-profit. However non-management members of for-profits tend to expect less control. Generally those who want to help the most in an NFP float to the top (the board), but when a group of theives float to the top you are screwed no matter what style of organization you have. Then you have a conspiracy of people who can collude to hide their thefts and mismanagement.

I’m amazed how many people think there’s some all seeing eye watching everything a non-profit does. That’s no more true for a for-profit. Sadly it’s mostly the thieves who realize how little there is to prevent massive theft. Oversight/the Government only cares when it realizes it’s not getting money it thinks its owed, and that only shows up after YEARS of leaving accounting mistakes in the wake. Loosing non-profit status by not filing taxes is not only incompetet, but now the government cares because it wants taxes on any property owned by what it sees as a for-profit company now.

And the government doesn’t care about personal purchases made by the board using NFP funds. However it does care about the sales-tax it’s missing out on, and $30k is likely just barely enough for them to even care about that. It only turns into a criminal case when the crime is reported to the police because the members or the rest of the board realize theft from the org is happening.

Why the diatribe? Running any organization with a physical space is hard work. Hackers just want to work on projects, and keeping the doors to a hackerspace open is a pain in the ass. However it can be rewarding to the right people who want to learn more about running a non-profit. But it’s too easy for us to turn a blind eye and otherwise ignore what is going on behind the curtain because you just want to pay your money and have a place to hack. It’s ok for a few people to do that, but you need an active community of people involved in running the place. It’s also hard work creating a culture of open-nes from the boards perspective. Hackers are not always the most socialized folks, and inviting critisism is hard for anyone, let alone hackers to do. But creating a transparent board from the start helps the members to expect that transparency as new people fill the ranks. And if a board tries to go rouge it makes it harder as the members will be more likely to notice the lack of transparency. Not that it makes it impossible to commit theft at that point, any report provided by the treasurer is still just taken on good-faith without anyone else actually seeing the banking records.