Sunday 18 October 2015

What would a completely transparent membership org look like..?

Leeds United is a membership org. Political parties are a membership org. Voluntary Actions are membership orgs - and all do things on behalf of other people supposedly in their best interests.

This is where the issue issue is confused between ends and means. A normally risk averse org would say (and I can feel myself doing it now) where is the impetus to put ourselves above the parapet.? Why open ourselves to criticism. People are inert in packs. Look at the responses to chugging, or charity CEO pay. Leadership means a lot to a lot of people, but it generally doesn't include taking a stand on any of this.

What could we do right now to turn these organisations completely inside out..?
  • Publish all our data by default (an open server) 
  • Externaliase all emails unless confidential
  • Use an intranet with all our members (eg Yammer)
  • use voting methods for everything
  • offer ourselves up as a platform anyone can use..
If this went well we could do it for the largest membership organisation we have - government..

everything and everyone could become a membership organisation by moving beyond the traditional transactional functional supply and demand model. id suggest we're doing this already, but by saying that "you are already a member" in many ways you're preempting that relationship. its where the third sector has always been, its where the private sector is increasingly operating, and its possible (i'm ever hopeful) it might be how we see the government of the future. its certainly more possible in the uk than in europe (with its 'state as provider' model, or in the US with its 'state as enemy' model).