Just over a week ago, I told everyone that for all the psuedo-accountability I was presenting, in the end it just came down to having to trust me.
Well I’m working on changing that this week, so things won’t have to rely on just trust anymore.
Accounting
Already we have a volunteer bookkeeper, yyy. A big thanks to him for volunteering. The IT team (now on with their own email address: [email protected]) have arranged for the stripe income report to be emailed automatically to YYY every week. I’ll provide him with receipts for outgoings, and an update on paypal income manually. (That’s another reason why I’m trying to avoid Paypal contributions). He’ll provide a monthly update of how the finances are looking and reconcile it with the balance of accounts to make sure it’s all where it should be.
Governance
Next, I want to set up a Governance Board, a bit like a Board of Directors, if I were an MD. They will have the power to hold me to account, question my decisions, and replace me if needed. I can share sensitive information with them when it’s in everybody’s interest that that information is kept temporarily secret. This protects me from being accused of keeping information for my own benefit.
They will also review, and approve me carrying on being paid each month, for the next three months.
Exactly how we will work is open to suggestions from them. Perhaps a weekly skype conference call, and published minutes for the whole group to read. Perhaps they have other suggestions.
When we have a few candidates volunteering here I’ll ask them to give a biog, an outline of their claim size, and suggestions on how they would like to run the Governance board, and then contributors will vote to select 3-5 people. We already have some good candidates, but I urge others to get involved. For instance so far I think the list is all male volunteers, which I think is a weakness.
To some this may seem a little over-complicated. But it’s important for two reasons: firstly to build trust in the decisions we are taking, and secondly so we have authority when I (or whoever is representing us) is negotiating on our behalf to the court, or with other vested interests.