Talk:Board of Directors Meeting 20190318

Prepared Statement from Andrew LeCodey regarding Complaint filed against him, this should be included in the Minutes for the meeting

On Monday, March 4th the board voted unanimously to remove me from the space and from all online systems. This was done without notice, at a meeting that was ostensibly for the expansion project. I was at the space at the time, working on the Talk forums and was not approached until after the meeting, when I was told that I had been banned.

A day later, March 5th, I was emailed a notice of formal complaint, the entire complaint against me consists of a single sentence: Release of confidential email from Puretax Resolution resulting in damage to Dallas Makerspace.

On March 6th, in order to prepare an adequate defense and per the instructions in the complaint email, I sent a request to the board and asked that they define the supposed damage. I followed up again on the 9th, the 12th and the 15th. I still have not received any communication from the board.

During that same time period the board chose to publicly post on the forums that I had been banned, an action that directly goes against our rules for formal complaints which state that all complaints would be posted without identifying information.

It is clear to me that members of the board have already determined I am guilty of being a pain in the ass and that I should be removed from the space. However, I have decided that I will still lay out the facts of this matter so that the membership can be properly informed.

In late November, I asked Ken for QBO access and to join the Finance Group. My main goal at that time was to perform some basic auditing of the books and assist Ken and PureTax in getting things documented correctly. I forwarded a number of issues that I found to Ken, who worked to get them resolved.

During my time in the Finance Group I met with Ken and discussed various aspects of the finances and how we could improve. Ken expressed concern that progress was slow to non-existent on updating the financial policies/procedures and mentioned to me that PureTax had been pressuring the board since October to help craft new ones.

On February 12th, I asked Ken for a copy of the email sent in October so that I could bring this matter to the attention of the membership, as to our knowledge nothing had been done. Many of you have read this email already.

The board has said on the forums and in meetings that they were the only ones who would be handling updating the financial policies and procedures, but the Finance Group and Treasurer were specifically charged with that role and were continually left out of the loop by the board. These roles were enumerated by the board during the meeting on September 19th. The motion was proposed by Kris, seconded by Steve and the board voted unanimously in favor.

The board has said that the email in question should not have been shared due to the footer or because it is privileged communication. Both of these points are irrelevant, the footer, which you can read in full on the PDF I posted to Discord, clearly states that the warning is for anyone who is not the intended recipient. Ken was directly addressed in the email and it was sent to him, he was an intended recipient. As such, he is within his rights as Treasurer and the intended recipient to forward or copy that email as he sees fit, so long as it is inline with our Bylaws and Rules. There is nothing in our Bylaws or our rules that prohibit the Treasurer from sharing information or communication, other than Personally Identifying Information as outlined by our extensive privacy policy.

The board has also stated that the October email was outdated and did not represent the current state of our relationship with PureTax. This is false. On Feb 21st, the President and CEO of PureTax sent an email to the board. He again urged the board to develop and set financial policies, and that failure to do so would cause PureTax to end their relationship with the space. This was merely the tip of the iceberg for the email, as it outlined a number of extremely concerning actions the board and officers had taken, actions that Pure Tax warned must be corrected immediately. This warning was so dire that he flew down to meet with the board on Friday, March 1st.

I wish the membership of this amazing place the best of luck, and it is my sincere hope that the organization continues to grow and improve.