Act like an independent 501(c)(3) before becoming one

[carlvlewis]

We must START to:

• Have, on paper and in actuality, clearly defined leadership roles;
• Hold those in leadership accountable for their roles;
• Regain the organizational capacity necessary to act as an independent legal entity.

Contributors: Caila Brown, Rob Lingle, Nick Palumbo

[kplawver]

How can you use the advisory board to help with this?

[carlvlewis]

That's an important question, @kplawver, thast I think goes into our defining of clearer roles both for leadership and advisory team. We've never fully on-boarded the Advisory Board (granted, one of the key members was out on medical leave for 7 weeks, thus leading it to be postponed), but given the frenetic schedules of much of the people who support our work and who want to help yet lack the bandwidth to get their hands dirty, I think there's a very important role in having champions and those with experience leading agile, diverse teams inside and outside of government. Moreover, while we say we work in the open in our Core Principles, we could do a better job at improving communications and making the invisible visible by keeping the Advisory Board (and the public at large) more abreast of what we're doing regularly. The question that then hits is:

• What format is best for the most people?
• How often should we share updates?
• Who is responsible for taking and posting notes?
• Without adding yet another tool of confusion, how might we make the updates collaborative in nature, with welcome (and accessible) invitation for passersby to leave suggestions?

We touched on these questions and -– after thoughtful analysis – proposed maybe just a Facebook group might be the best option. Granted, none of us is crazy about this idea... but it does meet people where they are. Or email.