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This is a summary report from the SoylentNews PBC meeting of Monday, July 31, 2023. An IRC log of the full text of the meeting (from channel #meeting) is available, as well as a log of the related discussion (IRC log of #meeting-discuss channel).

[Ed. note: the # sign gives problems so here they are in plain text, feel free to left click and open in a new window]

#Meeting:
https://logs.sylnt.us/%23meeting/2023-07-31.html
#Meeting-discuss:
https://logs.sylnt.us/%23meeting-discuss/2023-07-31.html

The Meeting

The significant events of the meeting were as follows:

• matt_ called the meeting to order at 4:34pm EDT with all members (matt_ and NCommander) present. The community was invited to sit in on the meeting and participate in a Q&A session afterwards.
• matt_ moved that minutes from the previous meeting be accepted; NCommander seconded; motion passed.
• NCommander nominated kolie to be added to the board of directors of SoylentNews PBC as the third member (after matt_ and NCommander). matt_ moved that the board be expanded to three and kolie added; NCommander seconded; motion carried unanimously.
• kolie put forth a detailed proposal for the establishment of a governance committee to replace the existing governing structure. There was general agreement, and discussion about the legality of such a move.
• It was decided that such a governance committee should decide on a new governing structure going forward, which the PBC would then transfer its assets to (all ip, including the domain, trademarks, data, etc.).
• The proposal was restated by matt_ as a motion, "Motion to approve the formation of a committee of volunteers to explore the formation of a new entity for the purpose of acquiring the PBC's assets, including all internet domains, data, and intellectual property, which committee shall present a proposal to the Board within 14 days of today's date, which may be extended to a maximum of 90 days at the committee's discretion."
• Both kolie and NCommander seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
• There being no further official business, matt_ moved to adjourn, kolie seconded, and the meeting was adjourned at 5:28pm EDT.

After the meeting there was a Q&A time, and some steps were taken towards the formation of the governance committee.

The Q&A

• cmn32480 asked: Why have there been no responses to any of the buyout offers that were sent to the shareholders?
• • NCommander responded "Ultimately, the proposal was sent to matt_ and I, and discussed breaking up the shares. As I discussed with you in DM, that ultimately didn't solve the issue in regards to the general ownership problem, but I was agreed to at least using it as a starting point point. I did send it to matt, and got no response, which I did tell you on Discord, there was no follow-up over it, and I didn't talk with matt_ from [before] that discussion until now... communication on the backend has ... well let's just say its a known problem, and one that def. needs a better solution."
• Veyrdite asked, There are lots of opinions about which parts of the org structure are problematic (and I suspect this will get brought up in the meeting), so instead I am curious as to which parts of the org structure work well? What should new aspiring communities potentially copy?
• • NCommander responded in part, "Ultimately, while I was in the role in project manager, I also held the role of president. And I acted as executioner of the communities wishes. There's *a lot of very long posts to that*. However, after I stepped down in 2021 from that role, there essentially became a large disconnect to this. The problems had been building well before that, but the wheels essentially fell off when the business/legal side became detached from the operations/community side of things."
• Veyrdite asked, It sounds like having the org worked at first. Would you suggest other (new) projects do an org the same way, or something different?
• • NCommander answered in part, "For the new org? It needs to be specifically defined who is responsible for who does what. And there needs to be a clear way to change the guard. No one should be stuck in a position they don't want to be, and people need to be replaceable; any of us can be hit by a car tomorrow."
• Veyrdite asked, I have heard "NDA" been mentioned. This seems dissonant for a public site with volunteers. Can you explain what is going on here?
• • Kolie answered, "I approached NC when the shutdown happened. We were discussing the site, its data, etc. I agreed to an NDA to not disclose anything. As an outsider - I was given access to the internals of the data, pbc, etc. The purpose of the NDA was to safeguard the PBC from liability given access to someone outside of everything. It was overly broad, generic NDA. It has since been removed and is not in effect. It was from legal zoom - it's purpose literally for liability and there was no nefarious background being discussed behind it. Everything discussed at that time has since become public."
• Another question from Veyrdite, Are there any other NDAs currently in force in this organisation?
• • Kolie and NCommander both said that they knew of no other NDAs.
• For the final question of the Q&A session, Deucalion asked, What are the next steps? Proposed first step is to contact the suggested committee members to see if a committee can indeed be formed as suggested.
• • The result of the question was discussion among the potential governance committee members about forming the committee.

The governance committee

As of this writing, the governance committee consists of kolie, audioguy, mechanicjay, requerdanos, Deucalion, and Fnord666, with possible other new members added from among staff/editors within the next few days.

Of the committee, kolie says "The committee is to self govern and determine its own fate. I want a call to those who haven't accepted yet to answer - and to those interested to come around. [For] the community to participate in #governance and to work with myself as the chair or committee members to include their input and set up whatever's coming next."

The business of the governance committee will happen in the #governance channel on SoylentNews IRC and in their expected upcoming meta and/or journal posts.

1. "IRC log" - https://logs.sylnt.us/#%23meeting/2023-07-31.html
2. "IRC log" - https://logs.sylnt.us/#%23meeting-discuss/2023-07-31.html
3. "detailed proposal" - http://paste.debian.net/1287520/

printed from SoylentNews, Notes for the Community from the July 31, 2023 SoylentNews PBC Meeting on 2025-07-08 11:53:47