[HCoop-Discuss] My hats [moved from hcoop-sysadmin]

[Nathan Kennedy]

This is a response to a thread filed under hcoop-sysadmin under the topic
of "adding more RAM to mire," that I think is more appropriately addressed
here, where it was suggested that I had abandoned HCoop through
nonresponsivity.

I'd just like to recap the four hats I wear at HCoop and the corresponding
duties.

1. HCoop member, like every other member.  I have the duty to pay my share
of dues and keep my account balance positive.

2. HCoop director/boardmember.  My duty consists of collaborating with the
rest of the board to monitor the overall health of HCoop and attend
scheduled meetings to set policy and appoint the appropriate persons to
execute these policies, for the benefit of the membership and the health
of the cooperative.  This also includes some responsibility to ensure that
legal requirements are met, and also introduces personal liability in the
event of gross negligence.

3. Secretary of the board.  My duty includes keeping and making available
the records of the board and the co-op's legal documents.

4. Hardware monkey/onsite gofer/"rapid" response commando.  This included
collecting the necessary hardware, storing it prior to installation,
single-handedly installing it all, and going and remaining onsite on
occasions too numerous for me to recall in order to install and maintain
the hardware in coordination with admins.

First, I would remind everyone that 2-4 are all volunteer positions which
I have undertaken to benefit everyone in the co-op with no additional
benefit to myself.  I would submit that in performance of my duties under
roles 1-3 I have met the requirements of each position and have taken a
great deal of initiative.  I was a candidate for the board position and
volunteered as secretary of the board because I was happy to serve in
these positions and believed that I had the ability and wherewithal to
perform.

I also volunteered for number 4, which is a uniquely burdensome and
thankless job, which I would not say I was reluctant to do, but that I
volunteered for simply because there was no one else to do it.  I would
emphasize that although this is also a volunteer, unpaid position of
responsibility, it has nothing to do with my position as a director on the
board.  There was simply no one else who was realistically in a position
to take this task and commit to it over an extended period of time.  As
for the other boardmembers, Adam did not want to do it (and still does
not) and in any event he moved from California to New York; Davor is in
central Europe.

Although I have now spent hundreds of (unpaid) hours in performing my
duties under 4, as well as having donated a good bit of my own money for
miscellaneous unreimbursed expenses, I will concede, that especially as of
late, my performance has been spotty, in terms of not reading every post
on hcoops-sysadmin and sometimes missing requests for a period of days. 
It is for (4) and (4) alone that it is important that I be rapidly
available to perform on maintenance to move things along and to avoid or
remedy downtime.

Having acknowledged my deficiencies (which I have from time to time made
efforts with various results to improve upon, and will continue to do so).
 I would be most happy to resign from (4) today, or yesterday, but there
is the little issue that I have no one to hand the baton to.  I would also
submit that this unpaid (and for the most part, unthanked) labor has saved
the co-op at least thousands of dollars.  Peer1 will do remote hands, swap
drives, reboot machines, maybe even install some RAM for $150-$200 an
hour, but as they've made clear, that does not extend to rebuilding or
otherwise maintaining machines.  We'd have to hire someone to do that,
which would be expensive.

Please, if we can find someone in New York City who is trustworthy, knows
their way around a rack, is willing to work for free and be available at
odd hours, and more reliable at responding than me, in exchange for an
insult and a kick in the ass, I'd be more than happy to resign.  I'd also
be happy to be fired from this role, but I'd vote against firing myself at
this point as hardware monkey in view of the above because I don't see how
that's going to IMPROVE our hardware situation.

Also, while I would also thank Adam for his ongoing involvement and
leadership and for setting a decent example in terms of availability, I
would also appreciate it if he would be a little less consistently
belittling about my performance of time-consuming, menial tasks which he
himself is unwilling to do.

I am particularly bewildered at the idea that I have totally abdicated all
my duties to HCoop, when as I mentioned I responded on Monday to a
(quickly mooted) request to reboot Mire, when this latest allegation came
about a single day into the thread about the memory request, and when my
email address and phone number are available to every member of the
cooperative.  Nobody called me and until today nobody directly emailed me
regarding these latest matters.

-ntk