Turns out a non-profit run by volunteers isn’t the most efficient organization in the world.
Joining the board of the Django Software Foundation, I was very disappointed by the lacklustre onboarding process and lack of documentation. I’m not sure if this is a common experience for new board members, but I thought I’d write up my experience and specific questions asked along the way.
The first meeting
The first meeting is first and foremost the last meeting of the “previous board”, and of departing board members. This meeting of the departing board follows the agenda structure of all other meetings. During this time, newly-elected board members are allowed to comment but technically aren’t on the board yet.
We start the meeting with introductions, then go through the usual meeting agenda. Once the meeting’s agenda is exhausted, the newly-elected board members’ new role becomes effective, and it’s time to elect the new board’s officers. Officer elections involve people declaring which role(s) they are interested in. If multiple people are interested in the same role, the candidates formulate a statement on the spot, and other board members then vote on candidates.
For my first meeting, we didn’t do introductions until the very end, after which we did officer elections. I wasn’t too clear on what officer roles were available ahead of time and how the elections worked, which doesn’t feel fair as far as making informed decisions as a new member.
The roles
Currently there are 7 board members, and a DSF Assistant to the Treasurer. There are four “Officer” roles.
President
They chairs the meetings of members and of the board. They do other admin tasks.
Vice President
They oversee DSF Individual Member matters – nominations, adding and removing members.
They also:
- Manage voting on Officer positions after new board members are elected
Treasurer
They work with the DSF Assistant to compile a monthly report on financials, coordinate with corporate sponsors, and file annual returns.
Secretary
They prepare the monthly meeting agenda, post the public minutes on the Django project wesite, and manage Board elections. They’re also generally involved with the Board’s communications.
Other three board members
The other three members on the Board informally have other roles they take on based on their interests and expertise.
Assistant to the Treasurer
They work with the Treasurer to compile a monthly report on financials, coordinate with corporate sponsors, and file annual returns. They also help with general DSF Board tasks such as answering emails to the board, and are heavily involved with managing financial aspects of the project (accounting, receiving payments, paying Fellows and grants, etc).
My role
I ran for President against the incumbent Chaim Kirby, and lost. It was then suggested I go for the Secretary officer role, seeing that no one else was interested in it. I accepted, and was elected.
The one bit of onboarding I really appreciated was 2023 Secretary Katie McLaughlin’s time and expertise showing me the ropes. In particular sharing information about how we manage meeting minutes, and her existing elections documentation.
My takeaway from those first few weeks
From this experience, my main takeaway is setting my expectations quite a bit lower for my productivity in making things happen at the DSF over the next few months. There’s lots of potential in the wider community, but also lots of baseline organizational maturity that needs to be built up.
So the first step will be – documenting onboarding for future board members, and asking lots of questions as fellow new board member Sarah and I onboard ourselves.