I apologize for typing another book to you but...
I do not currently have a position in mind, other than perhaps holding up the framework of the organization while in infancy. I can think more about
it later, when the structure is better defined.
I think the best way to go about setting this up is as follows:
If you are the principal organizer of RL (and I assume you are) we should sit down together and lay the framework without the intervention of others.
This will allow progress to be very rapid, and the bylaws will allow others to change rules as they see fit through the voting system once the
organization is officially started and the leadership positions filled.
To lay the groundwork, we first need to define explicitly the minimum tasks that each leader type is responsible for. We should create a private
folder in Drive for the new charter, as well as a folder for each leader to work from.
Each leader folder needs to be prepared for use by populating them with sample documents to be used by that particular leader. For instance, the OL's
folder will start off with a sample meeting minutes sheet, a blank org chart/head count, employee list, and a list of the minimum of topics in which
that Leader needs to report on in each Skype call, so they can prepare what they need to present. There will also be some basic instructions as well
as the offical job description as outlined in the charter, and instructions that clearly state that the leader has the authority to modify any process
in any way as long as the minimum requirements of the job (as outlined in the charter) are maintained, which will promote improvement to the likely
less-than-perfect setup documentation. However, no matter how basic, it is crucial that this documentation be provided as it will establish
cross-position congruency and direction to both the position and the organization. I.e., it makes it easier for people with no experience to
understand what their job actually is.
As it stands, the current draft charter contains specifics about YouTube stuff and challenges. Since these standards in particular would ultimately be
the responsibility of one of the leaders, and they need to be able to edit their standards, this necessitates their removal from the charter and
instead be included as standard documents in the respective leader folder. This reflects many corporate standard systems - most businesses have groups
which own subsets of standards, which together make the company standards as a whole.
The charter itself will contain no standards other than governmental policy standards (which is the literal definition of a charter), and will end up
being a "standard document" under the OL's care, with the exception that it is the only "standard" document where voting is required to make changes
to it. (Other than formatting/spelling/grammar)
Once this framework has been laid, we can then reveal it to the public (as view-only) and officially start accepting applications for the respective
positions. The "basic instruction/job description" document in each folder will allow prospective applicants to understand their duties and examine
the paperwork and reporting requirements before accepting them. A vote can be taken to assign positions, or you can just choose who goes where based
on the applications. At that point, the leader folders are unlocked to allow only that leader to edit his own folder, and everything else remains
view-only to the public.
During the official position assignment (which will undoubtedly be over Skype call), the first bi-weekly skype meeting can be scheduled, and the new
OL can start on the org charts, minutes, attendance, etc., which will now be relevant and in need of updating.
The first bi-weekly meeting will really test the salt of the organization, and all things considered will be an exciting and progressive development
for RL. As long as the system is designed to properly hold people accountable for little bits of progress on a regular basis, great leaps will be made
by the organization as a whole.
Lastly, there should be a document somewhere to define goals for the organization, (in lieu of a first-term director) designed to stoke the fire and
really give things momentum. This document should set first-term goals for all the leaders before kickoff, like "publish 3 new videos" or "get 20 new
RL members this term" for the PR/M L, "Organize 5 challenges in the first term" for the COL, etc. As long as everything is laid out in baby steps,
these large goals are easy to achieve, especially if everyone reports on them once every two weeks, and leaders can suggest to each other how to go
about meeting these targets. Goal progress is easily tracked by chart, and the Director will probably be responsible for presenting this data as well
as generating and quantifying these measurables into useful data, to track the progress of goals. In the meantime, someone will have to be a
"director" in this sense, but without the capacity to create new goals as the "full" director will be able to after the initial term.
I feel that we may need to reorganize some of these positions and their responsibilities. The harder we think about it, the better understanding we
will have of actual workload, which needs to be balanced about equally across all the leaders.
At any rate, this will take a while and a bunch of Skype calls to lay out, but I think the payoff will be big as long as we are willing to put in the
effort to make this bulletproof before launch.
If you would like to orgainze RL this way, I would gladly make the effort over the next few weeks to help design a goal-oriented structure that has
the potential to propel RL to unprecidented heights for an organization of this type, given the right people.
Best regards,
Prax
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(But this is an honest offer).
You do have some expertise with
software; you could be our dev wing!
but we
need to get our feet on the ground and start getting out there.
Where have you been?