• Randy's report on the current organizational situation of WS.
  • Conflict resolution (Randy currently handles member disputes)
  • Do have LLC, a legal entity... could be 401(c)(3)
  • Have a small budget, goes for hosting, any paid development (once so far)
    • All from donations
    • Warmshowers has own bank account
    • Warmshowers has paypal account (both owned by LLC)
  • Improvement efforts are sheerly whimsical currently... no real structure... no real plan
    
    
    
    
• What are possible goals?
  • Do a website redesign for usability and "this century" type of look (not a blog)
  • Better financial accountability (more encapsulated warmshowers finances)
    • Randy gets most donations from paypal and checks in the mail and tries to report as best as he can
  • Communal policy decision making and enforcement
    • e.g. ( Women reports guy to have given her negative reco... all heresay... guy talked to Randy for 45 minutes... turns out everyone who doesn't leave him thank you note... he follows up with negative feedback.  In this case Randy made the executive decision that as a policy, don't leave negative follow up emails)
    • Another example, everything in the FAQ
    • What is the policy about folks not actually travelling on bicycle?  Can they stay?  Historically made, informally, by Randy
    • Annual deletion of inactive members.
  • (Growing the org) Should we actively promote WS more than we currently do?
    • What mediums of advertisement?
  • Shared, sustainable leadership
  • Faster website
  • Change or clarify scope. 
    • Currently EXCLUSIVELY bike touring hospitality...however
    • People often say stuff like Why don't you have a calendar of tours?  Why don't use the forums more effectively?
  • More integration with social media? Facebook?
• How should we organize ourselves to achieve goals we choose?
  • What will allow us to achieve above goals?
    • Technology needs
    • Financing organizational expertise required
  • Shared responsibility for goals
  • Leadership committee
    • Defined meetings
    • Defined goals
    • Policy statements (Make a clear policy statement!)
• What are our legal, financial, and ethical obligations and risks?
  • Legal
    • Crazy person will do something crazy, is WS protected?  Is Randy protected?  Should we get some legal counseling?  Can we reach out to WS members for a quick free consultation?
  • Financial
    • Pay taxes on income
    • Obligated to do something with the excess (Chris's opinion)
    • Clear statem
  • Ethical
    • Better reporting on site of donations (Randy)
    • Try to weed out problem members (Randy)
    • Statement on site (does not necessarily exist explicitly) (Mark)
• Tax issues (intermingled finance, etc)
  
  

Action items:

• Review current stated rules/policies (and update, add them)
  • Post a request for comments on the forums
  • Mark will follow up with a concise list of current policies.
• Review tax issues
• Randy will follow up with an email/posting about action items and next steps