JoomlaLeaks

I hadn't planned on blogging again now that OSM is not overseen, can appoint its own board members and, in my opinion, is likely to go further downhill. But, as I have been pointing out all along, OSM's failure to be transparent is likely to result in some cover-ups that the community won't be aware of until it is too late to salvage the brand of Joomla. The failure to post monthly financial reports is one example of where things can go wrong quickly without, at least some public oversight. To my knowledge, the Audit Committee has never performed an audit so that only leaves the public to keep some eye on what is happening.  For example, it is 5 months into the year and we have only seen the January financial reports. How much longer till we see another? Who knows?

This blog will be short and sweet as I don't really want to go into another long haranguing blog spurt with this group again. But it is only appropriate that I let the community know what I discovered today. For some time I have been eying the New York Charities Bureau site wondering why they didn't post the 2011 CHAR500 and the 990 that OSM had obviously completed. After all they had a copy of the 2011 report posted on the OSM website. So, I figured they must be behind and waited and waited and checked and checked. Nothing. So, on May 12, 2013, I sent this email to the Charities Bureau not really expecting an answer:

I spent several weeks in the Caribbean towards the end of February and the beginning of March.  Temperatures were in the 80's and I missed several snowfalls at home. While at in Philipsburg, St. Maarten we had a great opportunity to crew a 12 meter racing yacht and re-create the America's Cup regatta. Dennis Conner's America's Cup winning Stars & Stripes, Canada II and True North compete in this regatta.  "Crew members" (about 11 of us and three regular crew) grind a winch… trim a sail… or punch a stop watch for the approximately three hours that the race takes. If you have never been sailing in a 12 meter racing yacht, this is definitely one of the BEST experiences ever. It is also a great life experience about cooperation and communication in business and life in general. You can't decide suddenly not to participate nor can you fail to communicate to the winch grinders or boom winch operator. By the way, I was in True North and came in second - Stars & Stripes first - Canada II third.

Hmmm, that would assume that OSM board members are actually capable of feeling shame for their many failures to keep the community informed and fulfill their fiduciary duty to the organization. So far there is no evidence of that at all.

Let's see, we are in the first week of February 2013 - what have the members of OSM's board failed to do so far?

• Publish the minutes of the last three board meetings on the OSM website (November, 2012, December, 2012, and January, 2013)
• Ensure that their treasurer timely filed all required tax returns (CHAR500 and IRS990 NY Charities Bureau and IRS1120 filed with the IRS)
• Questioned the Treasurer why there hasn't been a posting of the above on the OSM website and why the NY Charities Bureau hasn't been able to post their required returns on their website if they were filed on time.
• Questioned the Treasurer and the president of OSM why there hasn't been a completed financial report for the years 2010, 2011, and so far 2012 that has been attested to as correct by both the President and the Treasurer and made available to both the community and the NY Charities Bureau as required by both OSM Bylaws and NY Law.

 For the past two plus years transparency at OSM has been mentioned in passing but unfortunately missing in reality!

I first heard this phrase from Andrew Eddie. It seemed highly appropriate for the period after Thanksgiving and continuing on through  New Year's day that is certainly full of people acting out and doing silly foolish things.

Also according to this same Wikipedia article:

 In the United States, this phrase refers to the period lasting for a few summer months typified by the emergence of frivolous news stories in the media - the slow news season.

So, how does this connect with Open Source Matters, Inc.?

No matter how many times I point out the many opportunities for OSM, they just go out and create even more! For instance, on Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 1801, Paul Orwig posts the following on Open Source Matters, Inc. - Public Mailing list:

As we discussed in today's combined leadership meeting,  from: http://opensourcematters.org/policies/by-laws.html

                ARTICLE III - DIRECTORS
                2. ELECTION AND TERM OF DIRECTORS.
                Directors will be elected according to the procedure
                described in Article IV.  Each Director's term will last
                for the term specified in her or his election or, if no
                such term is specified, for two years.

I move that the above paragraph in Article III, Section 2 of the By-laws of Open Source Matters, Inc. be changed to:

                Directors will be elected according to the procedure
                described in Article IV.  Each Director's term will last
                for the term specified in her or his election or, if no
                such term is specified, for one year. This term may be
                renewed.

This motion needs a second, and then all board members may  vote by responding in this email thread with either a +1 if  you agree with the motion, or -1 if you do not agree with the motion. Email motion threads     remain open for seven days.

            Thanks,

            paul

Ooops sorry again, it wasn't you asking OSM Board, it was all the rest of us asking you! Still wondering when you as a board are going to honor your promises. Just like Winnie The Pooh said , it looks like you stopped to think and then just forgot to start again. So I  have taken the Pooh saying to mean either (a) a reminder that one should always remain critical of one's own decisions; or (b) a slander against old people, who in the middle of thinking about something, forget..about what..they..were..oh, look: there's a cob-web on my computer monitor. I really must dust in here some day... Sorry what were you asking about?

It's downright comical! On September 29th, Alice Grevet posted in the Open Source Matters, Inc. - Public Mailing list that the minutes from the September 18th OSM Board meeting were ready for approval. Only 11 days after the meeting. Almost a record considering it took almost two months to post the last two sets of minutes. But, wouldn't you know - the OSM Board, then took took 11 days to approve the minutes. Now I understand why they want one to two months to post minutes.

Of course, it takes even longer to get through a process to change the License, Trademark, and Copyright issues that have been under discussion for a lifetime. The board seems to be frustrated itself so I wonder who or what the holdup is:

 b. License, Trademark, and Copyright Committee 09/18/2012: It is time to think about a Plan B, perhaps including some of the new people who have shown an interest, in case this process gets stalled much longer.

Allison Fine, one of the authors of The Networked Nonprofit described an uninformed, disconnected, and disengaged non-profit board that resonated perfectly with what I have been seeing and writing about the Open Source Matters, Inc. board. She said in her blog:

Most of all, too many boards are sets for kabuki theater; set dramas where all the actors know their lines; the chair gives an opening, the chief executive provides a summary of all the recent successes, the treasurer talks about the growing deficit, and the committee chair report out on their laundry lists of activities and programs. The meeting adjourns two hours later with very little accomplished except for a sense by the participants that they have done what they’re supposed to do.!

hyp·o·crite noun \ˈhi-pə-ˌkrit\

1: a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion
2 : a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings

 Merriam-Webster

You know OSM, you can't keep saying one thing and either doing something else or doing nothing for long. People will learn not to believe what you say!

I hadn't planned on blogging again now that OSM is not overseen, can appoint its own board members and, in my opinion, is likely to go further downhill. But, as I have been pointing out all along, OSM's failure to be transparent is likely to result in some cover-ups that the community won't be aware of until it is too late to salvage the brand of Joomla. The failure to post monthly financial reports is one example of where things can go wrong quickly without, at least some public oversight. To my knowledge, the Audit Committee has never performed an audit so that only leaves the public to keep some eye on what is happening.  For example, it is 5 months into the year and we have only seen the January financial reports. How much longer till we see another? Who knows?

This blog will be short and sweet as I don't really want to go into another long haranguing blog spurt with this group again. But it is only appropriate that I let the community know what I discovered today. For some time I have been eying the New York Charities Bureau site wondering why they didn't post the 2011 CHAR500 and the 990 that OSM had obviously completed. After all they had a copy of the 2011 report posted on the OSM website. So, I figured they must be behind and waited and waited and checked and checked. Nothing. So, on May 12, 2013, I sent this email to the Charities Bureau not really expecting an answer:

I spent several weeks in the Caribbean towards the end of February and the beginning of March.  Temperatures were in the 80's and I missed several snowfalls at home. While at in Philipsburg, St. Maarten we had a great opportunity to crew a 12 meter racing yacht and re-create the America's Cup regatta. Dennis Conner's America's Cup winning Stars & Stripes, Canada II and True North compete in this regatta.  "Crew members" (about 11 of us and three regular crew) grind a winch… trim a sail… or punch a stop watch for the approximately three hours that the race takes. If you have never been sailing in a 12 meter racing yacht, this is definitely one of the BEST experiences ever. It is also a great life experience about cooperation and communication in business and life in general. You can't decide suddenly not to participate nor can you fail to communicate to the winch grinders or boom winch operator. By the way, I was in True North and came in second - Stars & Stripes first - Canada II third.

Hmmm, that would assume that OSM board members are actually capable of feeling shame for their many failures to keep the community informed and fulfill their fiduciary duty to the organization. So far there is no evidence of that at all.

Let's see, we are in the first week of February 2013 - what have the members of OSM's board failed to do so far?

• Publish the minutes of the last three board meetings on the OSM website (November, 2012, December, 2012, and January, 2013)
• Ensure that their treasurer timely filed all required tax returns (CHAR500 and IRS990 NY Charities Bureau and IRS1120 filed with the IRS)
• Questioned the Treasurer why there hasn't been a posting of the above on the OSM website and why the NY Charities Bureau hasn't been able to post their required returns on their website if they were filed on time.
• Questioned the Treasurer and the president of OSM why there hasn't been a completed financial report for the years 2010, 2011, and so far 2012 that has been attested to as correct by both the President and the Treasurer and made available to both the community and the NY Charities Bureau as required by both OSM Bylaws and NY Law.

 For the past two plus years transparency at OSM has been mentioned in passing but unfortunately missing in reality!

I first heard this phrase from Andrew Eddie. It seemed highly appropriate for the period after Thanksgiving and continuing on through  New Year's day that is certainly full of people acting out and doing silly foolish things.

Also according to this same Wikipedia article:

 In the United States, this phrase refers to the period lasting for a few summer months typified by the emergence of frivolous news stories in the media - the slow news season.

So, how does this connect with Open Source Matters, Inc.?

No matter how many times I point out the many opportunities for OSM, they just go out and create even more! For instance, on Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 1801, Paul Orwig posts the following on Open Source Matters, Inc. - Public Mailing list:

As we discussed in today's combined leadership meeting,  from: http://opensourcematters.org/policies/by-laws.html

                ARTICLE III - DIRECTORS
                2. ELECTION AND TERM OF DIRECTORS.
                Directors will be elected according to the procedure
                described in Article IV.  Each Director's term will last
                for the term specified in her or his election or, if no
                such term is specified, for two years.

I move that the above paragraph in Article III, Section 2 of the By-laws of Open Source Matters, Inc. be changed to:

                Directors will be elected according to the procedure
                described in Article IV.  Each Director's term will last
                for the term specified in her or his election or, if no
                such term is specified, for one year. This term may be
                renewed.

This motion needs a second, and then all board members may  vote by responding in this email thread with either a +1 if  you agree with the motion, or -1 if you do not agree with the motion. Email motion threads     remain open for seven days.

            Thanks,

            paul

Ooops sorry again, it wasn't you asking OSM Board, it was all the rest of us asking you! Still wondering when you as a board are going to honor your promises. Just like Winnie The Pooh said , it looks like you stopped to think and then just forgot to start again. So I  have taken the Pooh saying to mean either (a) a reminder that one should always remain critical of one's own decisions; or (b) a slander against old people, who in the middle of thinking about something, forget..about what..they..were..oh, look: there's a cob-web on my computer monitor. I really must dust in here some day... Sorry what were you asking about?

It's downright comical! On September 29th, Alice Grevet posted in the Open Source Matters, Inc. - Public Mailing list that the minutes from the September 18th OSM Board meeting were ready for approval. Only 11 days after the meeting. Almost a record considering it took almost two months to post the last two sets of minutes. But, wouldn't you know - the OSM Board, then took took 11 days to approve the minutes. Now I understand why they want one to two months to post minutes.

Of course, it takes even longer to get through a process to change the License, Trademark, and Copyright issues that have been under discussion for a lifetime. The board seems to be frustrated itself so I wonder who or what the holdup is:

 b. License, Trademark, and Copyright Committee 09/18/2012: It is time to think about a Plan B, perhaps including some of the new people who have shown an interest, in case this process gets stalled much longer.

Allison Fine, one of the authors of The Networked Nonprofit described an uninformed, disconnected, and disengaged non-profit board that resonated perfectly with what I have been seeing and writing about the Open Source Matters, Inc. board. She said in her blog:

Most of all, too many boards are sets for kabuki theater; set dramas where all the actors know their lines; the chair gives an opening, the chief executive provides a summary of all the recent successes, the treasurer talks about the growing deficit, and the committee chair report out on their laundry lists of activities and programs. The meeting adjourns two hours later with very little accomplished except for a sense by the participants that they have done what they’re supposed to do.!

hyp·o·crite noun \ˈhi-pə-ˌkrit\

1: a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion
2 : a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings

 Merriam-Webster

You know OSM, you can't keep saying one thing and either doing something else or doing nothing for long. People will learn not to believe what you say!

I hadn't planned on blogging again now that OSM is not overseen, can appoint its own board members and, in my opinion, is likely to go further downhill. But, as I have been pointing out all along, OSM's failure to be transparent is likely to result in some cover-ups that the community won't be aware of until it is too late to salvage the brand of Joomla. The failure to post monthly financial reports is one example of where things can go wrong quickly without, at least some public oversight. To my knowledge, the Audit Committee has never performed an audit so that only leaves the public to keep some eye on what is happening.  For example, it is 5 months into the year and we have only seen the January financial reports. How much longer till we see another? Who knows?

This blog will be short and sweet as I don't really want to go into another long haranguing blog spurt with this group again. But it is only appropriate that I let the community know what I discovered today. For some time I have been eying the New York Charities Bureau site wondering why they didn't post the 2011 CHAR500 and the 990 that OSM had obviously completed. After all they had a copy of the 2011 report posted on the OSM website. So, I figured they must be behind and waited and waited and checked and checked. Nothing. So, on May 12, 2013, I sent this email to the Charities Bureau not really expecting an answer:

I spent several weeks in the Caribbean towards the end of February and the beginning of March.  Temperatures were in the 80's and I missed several snowfalls at home. While at in Philipsburg, St. Maarten we had a great opportunity to crew a 12 meter racing yacht and re-create the America's Cup regatta. Dennis Conner's America's Cup winning Stars & Stripes, Canada II and True North compete in this regatta.  "Crew members" (about 11 of us and three regular crew) grind a winch… trim a sail… or punch a stop watch for the approximately three hours that the race takes. If you have never been sailing in a 12 meter racing yacht, this is definitely one of the BEST experiences ever. It is also a great life experience about cooperation and communication in business and life in general. You can't decide suddenly not to participate nor can you fail to communicate to the winch grinders or boom winch operator. By the way, I was in True North and came in second - Stars & Stripes first - Canada II third.

Hmmm, that would assume that OSM board members are actually capable of feeling shame for their many failures to keep the community informed and fulfill their fiduciary duty to the organization. So far there is no evidence of that at all.

Let's see, we are in the first week of February 2013 - what have the members of OSM's board failed to do so far?

• Publish the minutes of the last three board meetings on the OSM website (November, 2012, December, 2012, and January, 2013)
• Ensure that their treasurer timely filed all required tax returns (CHAR500 and IRS990 NY Charities Bureau and IRS1120 filed with the IRS)
• Questioned the Treasurer why there hasn't been a posting of the above on the OSM website and why the NY Charities Bureau hasn't been able to post their required returns on their website if they were filed on time.
• Questioned the Treasurer and the president of OSM why there hasn't been a completed financial report for the years 2010, 2011, and so far 2012 that has been attested to as correct by both the President and the Treasurer and made available to both the community and the NY Charities Bureau as required by both OSM Bylaws and NY Law.

 For the past two plus years transparency at OSM has been mentioned in passing but unfortunately missing in reality!

I first heard this phrase from Andrew Eddie. It seemed highly appropriate for the period after Thanksgiving and continuing on through  New Year's day that is certainly full of people acting out and doing silly foolish things.

Also according to this same Wikipedia article:

 In the United States, this phrase refers to the period lasting for a few summer months typified by the emergence of frivolous news stories in the media - the slow news season.

So, how does this connect with Open Source Matters, Inc.?

No matter how many times I point out the many opportunities for OSM, they just go out and create even more! For instance, on Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 1801, Paul Orwig posts the following on Open Source Matters, Inc. - Public Mailing list:

As we discussed in today's combined leadership meeting,  from: http://opensourcematters.org/policies/by-laws.html

                ARTICLE III - DIRECTORS
                2. ELECTION AND TERM OF DIRECTORS.
                Directors will be elected according to the procedure
                described in Article IV.  Each Director's term will last
                for the term specified in her or his election or, if no
                such term is specified, for two years.

I move that the above paragraph in Article III, Section 2 of the By-laws of Open Source Matters, Inc. be changed to:

                Directors will be elected according to the procedure
                described in Article IV.  Each Director's term will last
                for the term specified in her or his election or, if no
                such term is specified, for one year. This term may be
                renewed.

This motion needs a second, and then all board members may  vote by responding in this email thread with either a +1 if  you agree with the motion, or -1 if you do not agree with the motion. Email motion threads     remain open for seven days.

            Thanks,

            paul

Ooops sorry again, it wasn't you asking OSM Board, it was all the rest of us asking you! Still wondering when you as a board are going to honor your promises. Just like Winnie The Pooh said , it looks like you stopped to think and then just forgot to start again. So I  have taken the Pooh saying to mean either (a) a reminder that one should always remain critical of one's own decisions; or (b) a slander against old people, who in the middle of thinking about something, forget..about what..they..were..oh, look: there's a cob-web on my computer monitor. I really must dust in here some day... Sorry what were you asking about?

It's downright comical! On September 29th, Alice Grevet posted in the Open Source Matters, Inc. - Public Mailing list that the minutes from the September 18th OSM Board meeting were ready for approval. Only 11 days after the meeting. Almost a record considering it took almost two months to post the last two sets of minutes. But, wouldn't you know - the OSM Board, then took took 11 days to approve the minutes. Now I understand why they want one to two months to post minutes.

Of course, it takes even longer to get through a process to change the License, Trademark, and Copyright issues that have been under discussion for a lifetime. The board seems to be frustrated itself so I wonder who or what the holdup is:

 b. License, Trademark, and Copyright Committee 09/18/2012: It is time to think about a Plan B, perhaps including some of the new people who have shown an interest, in case this process gets stalled much longer.

Allison Fine, one of the authors of The Networked Nonprofit described an uninformed, disconnected, and disengaged non-profit board that resonated perfectly with what I have been seeing and writing about the Open Source Matters, Inc. board. She said in her blog:

Most of all, too many boards are sets for kabuki theater; set dramas where all the actors know their lines; the chair gives an opening, the chief executive provides a summary of all the recent successes, the treasurer talks about the growing deficit, and the committee chair report out on their laundry lists of activities and programs. The meeting adjourns two hours later with very little accomplished except for a sense by the participants that they have done what they’re supposed to do.!

hyp·o·crite noun \ˈhi-pə-ˌkrit\

1: a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion
2 : a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings

 Merriam-Webster

You know OSM, you can't keep saying one thing and either doing something else or doing nothing for long. People will learn not to believe what you say!