Editing Policy Wonks

= About Policy Wonks =

The Policy Wonks are a Noisebridge committee dedicated to greasing the wheels of Noisebridge's vast administration, and cutting through red tape. We're here to tidy up policy matters, and make Noisebridge's structure easier to understand and navigate. We're the secret cabal that does this tedious work in the shadows so that you don't have to put up with it at [[Meetings|weekly meetings]].

== Members ==
The current members of the Policy Wonks committee are:
* [[user:hurtstotouchfire|Kelly]], Noisebridge's [[ Board and Officers | treasurer ]]
* [[user:snail|Snail]], a facist [[Board and Officers | board member]]
* [[user:flamsmark|Tom]], he's just this guy, you know.

If you want to join the Policy Wonks help us out, or keep us honest, please join the [https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/policy mailing list], and introduce yourself. You can watch this page to see when we meet next; we also send iCal-style invites to the mailing list, and post our next meeting on the [Noisebridge#Upcoming_Events front page].

= Meetings =

This page contains the agenda for the next meeting of the Wonks, and the tasks that we have to do by then. If you have something to add to the agenda, please do so here. Previous meeting agendas, tasks, and notes are at [[Policy/Past_Meetings]]. We use [https://pad.riseup.net/p/0OyA0MRFYKtS a Riseup etherpad] as a back-channel during meetings.

== Next Meeting ==
16 Feb 2012, 1730h
Location: Noisebridge, Turing Meeting Room

Attendees:

Agreed items:

Administriva:
* Agree who is going to edit the wiki pages.
* Copy this agenda to the [https://pad.riseup.net/p/0OyA0MRFYKtS etherpad] for group contribution.
* Agree on our next meeting time/place, post to the [Noisebridge#Upcoming_Events front page] and NB calendar, and invite policy@lists.
* Note the attendees of this meeting.
* Note any items of agreement.
* Add any proposed consensus items to next week's meeting notes.

Agenda:
* Kelly reports on CA public benefit law
* Tom reports on minimization of the bylaws
** Tom: proposal for ongoing Bylaws WG and system to maintain & update the bylaws
* Discuss modifications to the by-laws
* Discussion item: rulers versus rules. Is it un-Noisebridge to use community-agreed provisions to protect ourselves from bad behavior?
* Potential consensus item: empower NB's denizens to do-ocratically kick people out, pending mediation.
* Potential consensus proposal: it is not excellent to admit someone to Noisebridge unless you are willing to take responsibility for their actions here
** Could be NB's consensus, could not: either way, may stoke thought about this during the meeting rather than in the nb-discuss echo-chamber
* Potential consensus proposal: Noisebridge is a place for hacking

To-do:
*Kelly
**Research '''California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law'''
***http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/california/forming-nonprofit-corporation-california
***http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/bylaws-nonprofit-corporations
***http://managementhelp.org/boards/index.htm#anchor314119
*Tom
**Rewrite bylaws into a skeleton format identifying issues that need to be fixed

= Not a Manifesto =
A tiny manifesto found in "[http://ramshackleglory.com/paradigm14.pdf Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology]" by David Graeber. This is not the manifesto of the Wonks, but it does warn against things we should avoid.

<blockquote>
The notion of “policy” presumes a state or<br>
governing apparatus which imposes its will on<br>
others. “Policy” is the negation of politics; policy is<br>
by definition something concocted by some form of<br>
elite, which presumes it knows better than others<br>
how their affairs are to be conducted. By partici-<br>
pating in policy debates the very best one can<br>
achieve is to limit the damage, since the very<br>
premise is inimical to the idea of people managing<br>
their own affairs.
</blockquote>

= Projects =

==By-Laws==

Our current big project is updating and rewriting Noisebridge's [[bylaws]] so that they better represent our ethos. We have a [https://github.com/flamsmark/nb-bylaws GitHub repository] for managing the changes that we're going to propose. If you'd like to help us out, please file issues, fork the repo, and send us pull requests! If you don't know how to use Git or GitHub, please read the man pages, ask one of use directly, or email the list.