[alicebot-archcomm] Organizational Chart

[Dr. Richard S. Wallace]

Here is a Board memo dated May 12, 2002.  The roles are a bit outdated now
due to the apparent resignations of Gene and Brenda.  Note that it was clear
to everyone in this message that Kim was President/CEO at least on that
date.  Noel is the VP of Marketing as well as Webmaster as well as a Board
member.

-----------Original message:

This organizational chart was something I drew up in preparation for the
LUGOD meeting last month.  Remember, I was considering partnering with them
because they had established 501(c)(7) status.  But upon further research,
Brenda discovered that subsection (7) does not permit tax deductions for
charitable donations.  Also, when I finally met them in person they seemed
young and inexperienced.   They were grad students.

Coming to the point: the org. chart is meant to reflect "where we are now"
rather than "where we want to be" as an organization.  Here is the tricky
part.  Each box represents a functioning component, in some sense, of the
existing organization.  Here is the problem:

Board of Directors: Rich, Noel, Nika, Gene, Brenda
Board of Advisors: Under Construction
President: Kim
Director of AIML Standards: Noel
Director of Marketing: Noel
Webmaster: Noel
Directror of Finance: Rich
Director of AIML Community: Noel

We can quibble over the titles and roles of officers, but I think the
general point is clear that the Board has too many responsibilities on the
right hand side.  Neither Noel nor I should have ANY jobs on the right hand
side.  Simply transferring the job of Finance Director to him, or to Nika
for that matter due to conflict of interest, does not appear to be the
solution to our problems.

Using this chart I would like to again emphasize that our best course of
action would be to hire a professional president to replace Kim.  That
person will be responsible for the IRS 501(c)(3) application, the
accounting, and many of the tasks currently assigned to Noel until such time
as we can hire more professional staff.  That person should be independent
of, but answerable to, the Board of Directors.   This is a fundamental of
principle of business organization, found in many books and codified in the
law, applicable to both for-profit and non-profit organizations.

Countless organizations have run into problems (read: quarrels just like
ours) just because the board did just what we are doing and micromanaged the
organization.   Those who forget the mistakes of history are condemned to
repeat them.

Rich



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