As I’m sure I’ve written about here, I am one of the original members of The Janeway Collective. We built a little birthplace statue in honor of a Star Trek captain who will be born in my hometown in the future.
Over the past year, I have been the President, as voted by the board. While incredibly humbled by that, I’ve never been a large fan of leadership. I still feel that I’m at that point of life where I seek out the more adult people.
Life has handed me many blows in the past few months, I’m beginning to think that a Voodoo priestess placed a hex on me. The problems didn’t really start until I returned from what can only be called an amazing vacation in New Orleans.
I have come to find that I need to let go of anything that is keeping me from my mental focus, my professional focus, and the projects that I have that are piling up has become overwhelming. Our elections are taking place right now, and I did not want to continue the role of President. I took one step further however and also stepped down from the board. I will continue in an administrative role. I will stay a member for the rest of my natural life. If I feel that I want to join the board again, I will wait until the next election cycle and let the board know.
As my last act, I sent the following email to the board. I feel that it’s proper to share here, on my personal blog.
Hello to the greater collective!
I write this message as your outgoing president. As many of you know, I am not one who seeks leadership, to the point where I actually despise it. I am one who sees problems and finds the ways to resolve said problems. It’s what I make a living doing.
After the unveiling, I saw a lot of things I did not like. I saw hopes and dreams falling by the wayside due to ego and in many cases, greed. This is not a collective, and behaviors I hope to never see again in this ever growing group. This is why I formally incorporated us, this is why I pushed to get by laws in place and get us that coveted 501c3 status.
In many ways, this is why I was voted to be president. I will always be appreciative and humbled by it.
With that, came opportunity. I got us our own Google Workspace environment, which includes many things I have seen few use. We have Amazon Smile, Kroger Community Rewards and other resources that could be used more as well.
As Peter once again takes the helm, I have a few things I must say beforehand.
Effective this evening, I will be rescinding my nomination for a seat on the board. While this project, and this group helped me survive the pandemic, other things in my life have presented themselves that I must focus on. I will remain a member for life, and I may want to be on the board again at another date.
I will remain as an administrator, unless there comes a time when the board wants to replace me with another. I have no issue executing any and all requests for updates/changes to anything. I take the word “Collective” very seriously, and always have. Is something wrong with our email, website, PayPal, etc etc? Just get a hold of me. We will fix it! I am not the one who shall not be named.
I will remain our agent on record for both the federal government and state government. A large reminder, as the year draws to a close, there is paperwork that needs to be submitted to both entities in different time frames.
I have the bust mold, the Janeway Cutout and lots of official paperwork on the formation and our official 501c3 determination paperwork as well. If it is ever decided that it should be held by another party, they are not being held hostage. Many of you know many and varied ways to contact me.
I have 0 issue in continuing the meeting on IU’s Zoom instance housed on my personal IU account. However, I feel it would be best if we move away from IU’s list system for communications in favor of the Google Group system that could be utilized. The more we stand on our own feet, the better. Our yearly expenses are under $1000 a year, which encompasses insurance, all inclusive website costs, and Quickbooks Online.
I would like to see the collective make some strategic moves financially. For example, the creation of additional accounts for our known expenses, event funds, scholarship funds, etc. Then it’s just a matter of funding them and making the mark. I don’t know if non-profits can utilize investments – but that is also a good thing to look into.
It is my wish that upon the change of officer/titled positions, a peaceful transfer of email accounts occurs. This way each office will keep the information it needs and or works with. There should be an accumulation of information, not a lack of. I will be handing this account over to Peter after our meeting this evening.
I have uploaded all usernames/passwords that are not already available to the board to the drive, sans the president, lee and admin google accounts. I have also uploaded all of the documents I created in an attempt to create a membership card, including an excel spreadsheet with a current list of our members (we have 13 right now). I will also upload all of the files I have on my computer, for the collective to use as it pleases. Many of these files are probably duplicate/triplicate of ones we already have.
Our website has an issue that needs to be attended to in a few months, and is something I have been meaning to communicate to the collective but have not. At the time we created it, we had no actual business entity. Due to this, it was all placed upon my account within the provider Namecheap. I have since moved the domain to our business account with them, but the EasyWP service cannot be transferred. It will require a purchase of a new EasyWP iteration, with an export/import of data to it from our old one. This process is not complicated or hard – but will require our website be down for a period of time.
The QR code on the informational table still needs to be changed. My best suggestion is to have Anywhere Signs create a new one and install it using epoxy. There is a Donors page (what the original one links to) on our website.
This is not a goodbye. This is a see you later. I am extremely proud that these collective groups were able to come together and accomplish such a task. The owner of the Comedy Attic named me, “The Man Who Hates Bloomington the Most” one evening in the green room (which is really green btw). I am spending more and more time away from our fair city, and it is a disservice to all of you if I cannot provide the focus I used to have. I do not know when this focus will return. I will always be with the collective in spirit, and hope I have only helped build a foundation that lasts for perpetuity, and that the dreams of scholarships for STEAM, and ways to be a beacon of equality in this world become reality.
I could write and write and write, but will end this message for now. I will see you all this evening.
LLAP,
Lee Lawmaster
President