Welcome! Please introduce yourself

Hi, I'm Jonathan Ogden at-large member of the MNA. I enjoy Systems Dynamics and working hard to decentralize the decision-making of the Association to the neighbors at large.

This is a first step, I hope that neighbors will begin taking the time to come up with some awesome proposals/ideas in this space that can turn into neighborhood projects (we have the ability to become fiscal sponsors and donate to/fund through SE Uplift grants).

Let's make something cool together!

Thanks for making this happen Jonathan.

@jonathanogden2, thanks for giving members a tool to inform and debate one another, and to build support for things they're passionate about. It looks better than Facebook in principle, for encouraging volunteerism and bottom-up initiatives.

It's not an appropriate means for the MNA's official decision-making. Members have many ways to connect with and move each other, that don't imply MNA endorsement of their activities. If one of these is selected as the official one, the rest are demoted. Still, this is the most potentially valuable resource the new board has provided for the membership, in my opinion.

Would you be willing to add the requirement to use legal names, rather than online handles?

Oh I hear you, this is just the official platform for the membership communicate live survey data to the board.

I would consider it if you could get enough support from the membership, but would contest that if authentication can be handled on the back-end (through the member registration) this is more than adequate to resolve member disputes and removes any issues of someone not wanting to participate on a publicly-searchable forum (the MNC FB group moderator comes to mind, they're pretty adamant about that).

Why not try pitching your idea in a thread to the community?

Also for the record, decisions are still only official when conducted at an open public meeting (with quorum and yada yada). So this is simply a hub to generate ideas/data from the community.

I won't participate in public debates where some of us are in disguise. Either our identity is irrelevant because it's purely an exchange of ideas, or it's transparent to everyone who can read it. In this case, I can't see how identity is irrelevant, so I can't participate. I wish you success, regardless, Jonathan. If it works for bringing people together to share ideas, and if it gives you insight, its good.

Ok? I mean have you never had a conversation in a comments section before?

Sorry, I just find it a bit tenuous that you would be deterred by that alone. Plus, if I recall correctly, the request for a platform like this was actually yours (or at least we talked about it at that meeting)!

Come on, give it a try?

@jonathanogden2, it's your idea, and a good one. But anonymity is a problem for me. Have you ever been subjected to an anonymous smear campaign? If it's supposed to be MNA membership based, then anonymity is not appropriate.

I disagree, I'm saying it's very appropriate for a public-facing forum to allow each individual to manage their exposure. Have you ever had to do any systems management for user-end authentication?

Any issues you'd be able to experience could be handled just like any other web platform, report them and the user and the Coordinators (Loomio's name for admins) can help resolve the dispute. If it is severe enough, use the formal grievance process per the MNA bylaws.

It's all pretty cut and dry, and per my interpretation of this (and pending a review from ONI) I might push for at least the Board Meetings to be completely online:
https://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/192.670
https://www.lawinsider.com/clause/electronic-meetings

That would allow that time to be used for more engagement at a physical general meeting, as well as allow everyone unable to attend (weekdays) a means to participate/review the meeting information. Additionally because it's already in text form it's much more conducive to accommodating the hearing impaired and multiple languages.

Please give it a chance, we can make it cool?

Coincidentally, this issue arose in a separate thread before I even raised my objection. It's a perfect example. Anonymous attacked the real-life name of another member. The Coordinator protected the unequal relationship, by guarding the identity of anonymous. This arrangement could be used to ruin a business or charity, while hiding behind the coordinator's power to protect anonymity.