GEEKS AND GOVERNANCE
No heads were broken at tonight's monthly Park Slope Food Coop General Meeting, which I attended because I have no life.
Whether to convert a programmer from freelance consultant to salaried staff was the first order of business. The current programmer wants benefits. The coordinators like his work and don't want to lose him, knowing how hard it is for a new programmer to inherit a previous one's work. The usual anti-coordinator suspicion challenged this motion. The rebel Democracy Initiative Groupies (DIGs) and a newbie attendee asked why the post had not been competitively advertised with sensitivity to race, gender, and astrological sign. They did not accept the coordinators' claim that the programmer had specialized skills and unique coop experience. DIG de facto leader Stewart voiced financial and procedural concerns, and later apologized for an emotional howl at coordinator Joe. The motion was passed.
The second item was to shrink the Governance Referendum Committee. That committee is a mostly DIG group to propose new ways of disemboweling the coordinators -- whoops, I mean, running the coop. But not even enough DIGers are coming forward to be elected to the group. Stewart, speaking for his teeming yet oddly hidden masses, proposed shrinking the group to give it a better chance of existing for the upcoming elections. After much bickering it passed overwhelmingly. Few people dig DIG. But it's politically sticky to oppose an opposition group. Maybe it'll keep the DIGgers focused.
The third item was ignored due to the lateness of the hour and an overwhelming lack of interest.
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