[TheThinkTank] full-timers/directors/project coordinators: how's the job treating you?

[Macho Philipovich]

hey everybody.  just wanted to contribute to this discussion.  i can 
respect other people's cynicism about opposing hierarchy: it seems quite 
often that people who demand that setup are going to be unwilling to 
address its consequences.  on the other hand, the bike dump has worked 
this way since its inception two and a half years ago, and we are still 
going strong, without relying on an insular or cliquey group of volunteers.

i mentioned our subcommittees for dealing with various aspects of the 
shop's functioning in my last email.  it's not always fun: we also 
rotate who cleans the bathroom among all of our active volunteers!

still, for us it is totally worthwhile to create our shop in the same 
way we'd like our world to be: minimizing (and hopefully eliminating) 
anyone's dominance over anyone else, or coercion of anyone else.

as some other people have pointed out, the main roadblock to this kind 
of setup is accountability.  non-hierarchy SHOULD NOT MEAN 
non-accountability.  people need to follow through on what they say 
they're going to follow through on, and mechanisms need to be developed 
to make sure this happens.  but it doesn't require a boss.  at least-- 
not for us.

one other important thing, though, is that aiming for non-hierarchy and 
equality does not mean that you can assume people are the same as each 
other.  they're unique.  they have different talents, skills, 
capacities, interests, and amounts of free time.  this needs to be 
recognized in a way that doesn't force everyone into the same mold, 
which always ends up reflecting the people in the majority or the 
dominant society.  deciding you're "a collective" also is not going to 
eliminate any informal power imbalances.  my class, race, gender, and 
educational background give me a buttload more power than almost anyone 
else who works at our shop, no matter how non-hierarchical we say we 
are.  keeping this in the open, and being aware of it when making 
decisions also goes a long way.

okay, i'm not trying to make myself feel good by being "more leftist 
than you", or to showboat, or anything, but i think this stuff is 
actually pretty important, and i appreciate the discussion from all ends.

take care everyone,
macho
http://bike-dump.ca