Disarray at the Hacker Dojo • Hacker News Board

Re: Disarray at the Hacker Dojo

#41

Post by OliverJones » Fri, Apr 01, 2016, 12:02 PM UTC

I've been part of other not-for-profit orgs with countercultural missions. It's always been possible to get a few members -- not on the board -- to step forward and do a yearly audit of the books. These audits aren't high-end finance work products: you'd have to pay big bucks to somebody like PWC for that. But they do spot stuff like misuse of payment cards.

It's interesting how members who have finance experience, and members who want to learn something about finance, both step forward. A good volunteer audit can be part of the educational mission of the org.

Re: Disarray at the Hacker Dojo

#42

Post by ZanyProgrammer » Fri, Apr 01, 2016, 12:22 PM UTC

emarkz wrote: post #39

From the trenches of those Dojo Members seeking to regain control of our nonprofit... In my opinion: The last executive director was brought in to fund raise via grants and sponsorships, and failed miserably, instead raising that $400K ($300K + $100K stolen), off the backs of it's members by doubling membership fees, and converting a quarter of the Dojo into a private VC incubator. He also wasn't an entrepreneur or a…

Looks more like a failure of the people running HD to get their shit together, not a failure of laws.

Re: Disarray at the Hacker Dojo

#43

Post by varelse » Fri, Apr 01, 2016, 1:35 PM UTC

simoncion wrote: post #28

educar wrote: post #12

Are there any other places similar to Hacker Dojo in the bay area?

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.

Re: Disarray at the Hacker Dojo

#44

Post by swimfar » Fri, Apr 01, 2016, 2:02 PM UTC

mtviewdave wrote: post #31

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…

The Dojo is still at 599 Fairchild (it's second location, where it's been since 2012). The lease will run out end of May. The Dojo has a potential new space in Santa Clara, though they have not signed a lease yet. Marie Knox has been suspended, so I suspect the web description of her being in charge is merely out of date. FYI, membership is $195/month. And yes, with TechShop at $125, and Founders Floor in downtown Sa…

They have different membership levels: http://www.hackerdojo.com/Membership

The $195/month is for people who use it as their office all day. If you're only there on evenings and weekends it's only $100/month.

Re: Disarray at the Hacker Dojo

#45

Post by drdeadringer » Fri, Apr 01, 2016, 3:26 PM UTC

I am amazed in reading this.

Granted that the last time I was involved at HD was their 2012 move and shortly after, but at the moment I feel like I have rediscovered something in the middle of an implosion or hyper-political tempest.

Re: Disarray at the Hacker Dojo

#46

Post by ghufran_syed » Fri, Apr 01, 2016, 3:49 PM UTC

emarkz wrote: post #39

From the trenches of those Dojo Members seeking to regain control of our nonprofit... In my opinion: The last executive director was brought in to fund raise via grants and sponsorships, and failed miserably, instead raising that $400K ($300K + $100K stolen), off the backs of it's members by doubling membership fees, and converting a quarter of the Dojo into a private VC incubator. He also wasn't an entrepreneur or a…

I'm guessing I'm the target of this anonymous attack "the $30K number is a made up number by the most recent board member, who bought his board position, and is the most responsible for harassing the recently resigned whistleblower member." Since that makes me pretty easily identifiable, I therefore feel I should respond.

"bought his board position" - First of all, isn't donating money to a non-profit a good thing? Are you saying that you're proud of the fact that you don't donate any time or money to the organization? I'm a full-time emergency physician, and have lot's of my own tech projects I want to spend time on, what possible reason would there be take on what is currently almost a full-time job fixing the mess?

In fact, Sudarshana ('Sophie') Bannerjee is the reason I got involved, she asked me to to get involved as an 'independent observer', and she is the one who nominated me to be treasurer in her email of March 2nd 2016: "Appoint a new treasurer immediately. I would recommend Ghufran, who along with his wife just donated $10K to the Dojo. He is passionate about the Dojo, and volunteered over 20 hours in the last two days. "

https://gist.github.com/ghufransyed/db9c923b49efe57ef1edf0f0...

"made up number" - This is the message I posted on slack, while trying to provide members as much information as we reasonably could. HN readers can decide whether this is an accurate characterization: https://gist.github.com/ghufransyed/393de8dc0a06782cdebb0099...

If you look at the comments at the bottom of the original mv voice article, it looks like quite a few people have posted further information that was mysteriously missed by the author and many of the sources, who IMO quite clearly have an axe to grind. The fact that Sophie was unemployed during this entire time, wanted the $55k / year executive director fired so she could take his job, and left the board as soon as she found other employment is pretty well documented...and still doesn't take away from the fact that she did the Dojo a huge service by uncovering the financial issues.

I think there was a shocking lack of financial controls by the previous treasurer and board members, but those people are no longer on the board. The question is whether the way to fix it is by shouting a lot like the poster of this message, or actually do the work.

If we're talking about culture, Hacker Dojo never claimed to be a 'democracy', but a 'do-ocracy' - you want something done, you go do it. The current board are all people who are putting lots of their own time to try and fix the Dojo, along with full-time work elsewhere. We are not 'at war' with anyone, but you claim to be 'at war' with us: well, we don't plan to show up for your war, we'll just focus on actually putting in place the financial controls and other issues that will make the Dojo stronger. We'd love it if you would do the same. [typo edited]

Re: Disarray at the Hacker Dojo

#47

Post by VonGuard » Fri, Apr 01, 2016, 4:47 PM UTC

bickfordb wrote: post #9

whbk wrote: post #2

Wow. Marie Knox, the woman that has already admitted to stealing the money, has her hands in a lot of different organizations in the Bay Area. She was the cashier, website manager, and person responsible for ordering inventory at her last position. Sure hope her past employers/nonprofits are all checking their books closely now.. Good on Sudarshana Banerjee, who took her board responsibilities seriously and uncovered…

Or maybe this is a failure of the non-profit system: these charities are not required to make their finances transparent by the government or their funders

All non-profits have to make their books available, especially if they want to be on a big site like Starnavigator.com or Causes.com

Re: Disarray at the Hacker Dojo

#48

Post by VonGuard » Fri, Apr 01, 2016, 4:50 PM UTC

marincounty wrote: post #35

nongaap wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Transparency is very much part of the non-profit system. Non-Profits have to annually file an IRS Form 990 (it's like an annual report) which discloses finances and are required to have them available for public inspection during business hours. Sounds like Hacker Dojo was not following the rules already in place to prevent this sort of abuse.

It's not that difficult to abuse power in the non-profit system. I'm not referring to blatant theft by an employee, but other shinagigans usually by the founders--like mixing personal assets with the non-profit assets. 1. Is the non-profit in Deleware? So many shady non-profits set up shop in Deleware. When you read the requirements you will see exactly why. I've gotten to the point, I will only listen to CA non-prof…

Don't bust on Delaware. My NP is registered in Delaware, as is the Apache Foundation. Now, 5 years later, I wish I'd registered first in CA, but being in DE is not a black mark. I did it there because Apache was there, so I figured, good enough for them, good enough for us. Additionally, most US businesses are registered in DE.

Re: Disarray at the Hacker Dojo

#49

Post by mtviewdave » Fri, Apr 01, 2016, 5:02 PM UTC

emarkz wrote: post #39

From the trenches of those Dojo Members seeking to regain control of our nonprofit... In my opinion: The last executive director was brought in to fund raise via grants and sponsorships, and failed miserably, instead raising that $400K ($300K + $100K stolen), off the backs of it's members by doubling membership fees, and converting a quarter of the Dojo into a private VC incubator. He also wasn't an entrepreneur or a…

Having been a member the Dojo until recently, and a fan since they opened, I disagree with a lot of your characterization, and am going to give Ghufran the benefit of the doubt. However, this is important:

>Lesson: Bake your culture into your DNA, or when the good King era ends, the bad king era will begin...

What I see at the fundamental problem with the Dojo is that, baked into its DNA, is the belief that legal compliance and good management are not really important. The Dojo had to leave its old space because they were so in violation of Mountain View building codes that it would have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring them into compliance. A problem that could have been easily avoided if they had bothered to talk to the City about code compliance before moving into that space.

And now they've demonstrated a lack of interest in basic financial governance.

I wish Ghufran, and the new board, the best in terms of turning the Dojo around. But I worry that the disinterest in compliance and management is so integral to Dojo culture that it will have another (completely avoidable) crisis in 3-4 years.

Re: Disarray at the Hacker Dojo

#50

Post by educar » Fri, Apr 01, 2016, 5:06 PM UTC

simoncion wrote: post #28

educar wrote: post #12

Are there any other places similar to Hacker Dojo in the bay area?

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!