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Brain&Force
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Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist  | | Quote: Originally posted by zts16 | | Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist | But, really, the fact you have an account for rador labs is, well, kind-of stupid. Just make someone the head of Rador labs and have them post
announcements, or GET A WEBSITE for crying out loud!  |
There is a definite purpose for that account actually. Some of the future competitions that we will run involve more subjectively
judged entries than the one currently active that must be submitted anonymously, and thus, Rador Labs members who are not involved in the competition
may use that account to post those submissions in a neutral manner. That is the primary reason it was created, and we did discuss it in the Skype
group (which you are in). I was just saying in that earlier post that it could be used for other stuff too. Also... am I mistaken that you were one of
the two people, along with B&F, who originally suggested the creation of Rador Labs? I realize that you aren't super involved now, but why is it
that you all the sudden act like you have nothing to do with it? |
Ok, so I get the purpose for the account. My initial thought was that 'B&F doesn't need another account...', but I get it's purpose.
Haha, in regards to starting the Idea of Rador Labs....:
B&F noticed a while back that I had started a conglomerate between my own productions 'facade company', PTL (http://ptp.x10.mx) and a friend's. I joked about it being a sort of mad science organization, and B&F asked if he could join. It was actually
just a sort of joke allignment between PTL and 'Project K', my friend's website, for mutual funds sharing with our own personal and joint projects.
Thus I explained this to B&F. I suggested he start a similar group for chemistry mad scientists (non-profit, instead just a conglomerate). He,
within a day, had a name, and got started. Once I realized that Rador Labs was basically the same thing as my PTL (Standing for Peppertree Labs) PLUS
publicity and actual members, I got a bit jealous (Which is why I agree with forgottenpassword that personal glory could be a motivator for
such projects.
The reason I don't participate in Rador labs, and don't help much with the wiki is because I get upset thinking about my own attempts to start such
things, and their failures. In regards to the wiki, twice I tried to make a chemistry/chemicals wiki, without success. The first one I close down
because of a lack of (Any) usage (this was before I was a part of Sciencemadness forums), the second time because of too much spam, and no help.
I still hope my name will be among the many credits on your new site for who started this great idea (even if it wasn't original(obviously a few
people have tried such groups before, myself, the international order of nitrogen, etc.)).
In regards to publishing, My website is open to any who want to publish chemistry procedures under the producers 'Peppertree Labs' (But this is an honest offer).
-Nathan P., TVC
[Edited on 12-3-2014 by The Volatile Chemist] |
The only reason I think Peppertree never took off was because then wasn't enough promotion. I tend to promote things quite heavily. I didn't know you
wanted Peppertree Labs to be something more like Rador - I thought it was more of your own personal log.
Are you sure you don't want to consider a merger?  You do have some expertise with
software; you could be our dev wing!
[Edited on 3.12.2014 by Brain&Force]
At the end of the day, simulating atoms doesn't beat working with the real things...
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Brain&Force
Hazard to Lanthanides
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Prax sent me this nice, long U2U with plenty of ideas for getting ourselves in order. I plan to get more people in my area together so I can turn this
into more of a real-life organization.
| Quote: | Hey dude, I have some suggestions if you're looking for some org stuff for RL:
RL should get together on the drive and draft up an org chart, a charter, a regular skype call meeting schedule, define positions, expectations, and
responsibilities of those in power, etc.
I propose that we generate these positions and responsibilities first, and then allow people to sign up for them once the responsibilities of the
positions are defined. That way, people understand what expectations are and what they are getting into.
The charter could mandate that a vote is carried out every six months or so, to keep the positions fresh. Basically, anyone who wants to be a
candidate will write a small paragraph as to why they should have it, and these paragraphs are collected on the drive. Voters read these and vote
based on them.
Some hypothetical positions of power:
Treasury Leader (TL)
Maintains PayPal/Bitcoin accounts. Keeps public records in Drive of all financial transactions. Responsible for fundraisers/dues.
Expected to summarize budget in bi-weekly Skype call.
Challenge Organizaion Leader (COL)
Drafts, organizes, and runs challenges. Has final say in what goes into a challenge, but looks to members for ideas and feedback. Responsible for
creating all challenge documents and announcing current pot and winners.
Expected to report on current, past, and future challenges in bi-weekly skype call.
Public Relations/Media Leader (PR/M L)
Maintains Twitter, YouTube, SciMad, and other online forums and media accounts. Creates accounts/answers public questions as needed. Provides account
information to treasurer and challenge organizer when necessary for posting information. Responsible for promotion of the organization as a whole.
Responsible for creating media standards, such as YouTube intro/outtro footage and standard formats for synthesis writeups. Uploads and processes this
data.
Expected to summarize current publicity events in bi-weekly skype call, actively ask for and collect synthesis writeups, and brainstorm goals to
increase the visibility of RL and generate new membership in a positive way.
Organizational Leader (OL)
Responsible for all changes to the charter and bylaws (by hosting a vote for major changes, but also continuously polishing the document for
grammar/formatting/spelling issues). Maintains these documents on Drive. Responsible for holding elections, collecting candidate submission for all
positions, collecting votes, and maintaining a chart of all positions - leaders and sub-employees.
Expected to record minutes, report on election status, and announce important dates in bi-weekly skype call, as well as get organizational updates for
all current employees, including head count and org chart.
Director
Responsible for setting goals and defining direction for the organization as a whole. Facilitates future planning for organization direction with the
aid of the other leaders. Represents and is held accountable for the actions of all aspects of the organization. Serves as the spokesperson for the
organization.
Expected to create and maintain a list of goals, a list of open issues, and a list of tasks to assign to leaders in order to facilitate those goals,
and to review progress on these items in the bi-weekly Skype meeting.
Some basic charter contents to better define these positions:
-Each leader can assign lower positions to members at will; however, the leader is ultimately responsible for what his/her "employees" do, so strong
leadership skills and a high degree of accountability are recommended.
-To make a change to the charter, the 5 leaders can first vote that they themselves can make the change, negating the need for a public vote for minor
changes. This means that the 5 leaders first decide to either make the vote public or private, followed by the actual vote. The default (50% or less)
is public.
-?Leaders (and maybe employees?) are required to pay dues to maintian their positions. Nothing crazy - ($5/month = $30/term for leaders)? (for 4
leaders, this gives RL a minimum total income of $120 per six months, plus maybe some from employees?) We should look into registering as a 26 U.S.C.
ยง501(c)(3) nonprofit (tax-exempt) organization (USA) if we get big.?
-Electoral votes are necessarily always open to all members.
-The first 5 people to hold the leader positions are the "founding fathers."
-Spending treasury money requres a 5-leader vote.
-Leader attenance to skype meetings is mandatory. Attendance kept by the OL.
-Leaders can vote initiate an impeachment of other leaders at any time, but the final decision requires a public vote. Impeachment also occurs if the
maximum number of absences from leader meetings is reached.
-Impeached leaders are on probation for 3 terms (18 months) and cannot be elected for any leader positions during that time, regardless of public
vote. They can still hold positions as employees.
-Anyone impeached twice is banned from holding any leader position indefinitely.
-A leader can be re-elected indefinitely.
-Initial organizational goals are established by the charter. First Director is not to be elected until first term is complete (6 months after initial
organization startup) This allows leadership qualities over time to be displayed by candidates in leadership positions, to allow the best candidate to
be selected by members to be the director.
-The bi-weekly meeting can be attended by anyone, but only the leaders/director can speak freely. All other attendees are required to mute, and "raise
a hand" in the chat window if they have a concern or comment, and then will be given a chance to speak in a reasonable amount of time. This serves to
eliminate confusion and commotion.
All of this is really just a bare-bones outline of a real organization. I work as a PEL in real life (product engineering leader) and I am very
familiar with corporate organization and cross-functional team leadership. I just thought I'd drop my two cents into this, in case you need some
ideas.
Regards,
Prax |
A lot of my ideas are based off the Debian model, and I think we can merge them together. In order to do this, we need a Skype group meeting. When is
the best time for everyone?
At the end of the day, simulating atoms doesn't beat working with the real things...
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Brain&Force
Hazard to Lanthanides
Posts: 1302
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More ideas from Praxichys:
| Quote: | I apologize for typing another book to you but...
I do not currently have a position in mind, other than perhaps holding up the framework of the organization while in infancy. I can think more about
it later, when the structure is better defined.
I think the best way to go about setting this up is as follows:
If you are the principal organizer of RL (and I assume you are) we should sit down together and lay the framework without the intervention of others.
This will allow progress to be very rapid, and the bylaws will allow others to change rules as they see fit through the voting system once the
organization is officially started and the leadership positions filled.
To lay the groundwork, we first need to define explicitly the minimum tasks that each leader type is responsible for. We should create a private
folder in Drive for the new charter, as well as a folder for each leader to work from.
Each leader folder needs to be prepared for use by populating them with sample documents to be used by that particular leader. For instance, the OL's
folder will start off with a sample meeting minutes sheet, a blank org chart/head count, employee list, and a list of the minimum of topics in which
that Leader needs to report on in each Skype call, so they can prepare what they need to present. There will also be some basic instructions as well
as the offical job description as outlined in the charter, and instructions that clearly state that the leader has the authority to modify any process
in any way as long as the minimum requirements of the job (as outlined in the charter) are maintained, which will promote improvement to the likely
less-than-perfect setup documentation. However, no matter how basic, it is crucial that this documentation be provided as it will establish
cross-position congruency and direction to both the position and the organization. I.e., it makes it easier for people with no experience to
understand what their job actually is.
As it stands, the current draft charter contains specifics about YouTube stuff and challenges. Since these standards in particular would ultimately be
the responsibility of one of the leaders, and they need to be able to edit their standards, this necessitates their removal from the charter and
instead be included as standard documents in the respective leader folder. This reflects many corporate standard systems - most businesses have groups
which own subsets of standards, which together make the company standards as a whole.
The charter itself will contain no standards other than governmental policy standards (which is the literal definition of a charter), and will end up
being a "standard document" under the OL's care, with the exception that it is the only "standard" document where voting is required to make changes
to it. (Other than formatting/spelling/grammar)
Once this framework has been laid, we can then reveal it to the public (as view-only) and officially start accepting applications for the respective
positions. The "basic instruction/job description" document in each folder will allow prospective applicants to understand their duties and examine
the paperwork and reporting requirements before accepting them. A vote can be taken to assign positions, or you can just choose who goes where based
on the applications. At that point, the leader folders are unlocked to allow only that leader to edit his own folder, and everything else remains
view-only to the public.
During the official position assignment (which will undoubtedly be over Skype call), the first bi-weekly skype meeting can be scheduled, and the new
OL can start on the org charts, minutes, attendance, etc., which will now be relevant and in need of updating.
The first bi-weekly meeting will really test the salt of the organization, and all things considered will be an exciting and progressive development
for RL. As long as the system is designed to properly hold people accountable for little bits of progress on a regular basis, great leaps will be made
by the organization as a whole.
Lastly, there should be a document somewhere to define goals for the organization, (in lieu of a first-term director) designed to stoke the fire and
really give things momentum. This document should set first-term goals for all the leaders before kickoff, like "publish 3 new videos" or "get 20 new
RL members this term" for the PR/M L, "Organize 5 challenges in the first term" for the COL, etc. As long as everything is laid out in baby steps,
these large goals are easy to achieve, especially if everyone reports on them once every two weeks, and leaders can suggest to each other how to go
about meeting these targets. Goal progress is easily tracked by chart, and the Director will probably be responsible for presenting this data as well
as generating and quantifying these measurables into useful data, to track the progress of goals. In the meantime, someone will have to be a
"director" in this sense, but without the capacity to create new goals as the "full" director will be able to after the initial term.
I feel that we may need to reorganize some of these positions and their responsibilities. The harder we think about it, the better understanding we
will have of actual workload, which needs to be balanced about equally across all the leaders.
At any rate, this will take a while and a bunch of Skype calls to lay out, but I think the payoff will be big as long as we are willing to put in the
effort to make this bulletproof before launch.
If you would like to orgainze RL this way, I would gladly make the effort over the next few weeks to help design a goal-oriented structure that has
the potential to propel RL to unprecidented heights for an organization of this type, given the right people.
Best regards,
Prax
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The Volatile Chemist
International Hazard
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Registered: 22-3-2014
Location: 'Stil' in the lab...
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I super-agree. Organization sounds great!. I guess I'm back in! I'll U2U B&F about a 'merger' or something similar
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Brain&Force
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Cool! You should definitely Skype with us this Saturday afternoon, it's our official organization day.
At the end of the day, simulating atoms doesn't beat working with the real things...
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The Volatile Chemist
International Hazard
Posts: 1981
Registered: 22-3-2014
Location: 'Stil' in the lab...
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I'll certainly try! It may not be afternoon here, but we'll see. Glad to be back. Be sure to inform me of anything new that the members know that I
(being a 'new' member) need to know.
Peppertree Labs, it seems, is to be joined to Rador Labs as their programming and chem-informatics programmers.
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Brain&Force
Hazard to Lanthanides
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Ok everyone.
We NEED a general meeting. I know the Christmas gifts have distracted us  but we
need to get our feet on the ground and start getting out there.
Praxichys, I'm looking at you.  Where have you been?
When is the best time to do this for everyone? I can do Friday and Saturday.
[Edited on 31.12.2014 by Brain&Force]
At the end of the day, simulating atoms doesn't beat working with the real things...
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gardul
HAZARD TO TEH CATZ!
Posts: 256
Registered: 18-10-2014
Location: Under the Sun in a beaker
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I will be doing about 10 videos shortly one the use of Ammonium chloride, copper chloride and chloroform as anti bacterial and sterilizing methods as
a last resort.
The idea behind these videos is to think out side of the box if social decay ever did happen. All of us here know how easy these three things are to
make.
people wouldn't think to raid pool supplies for sources of making pure HCl.
While these studies aren't anything new, I think it could bring a new light into survival if needed.
Just a thought.
[Edited on 1-1-2015 by gardul]
I just made you read this very pointless signature. How does it feel?
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The Volatile Chemist
International Hazard
Posts: 1981
Registered: 22-3-2014
Location: 'Stil' in the lab...
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Mood: Copious
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| Quote: Originally posted by gardul | I will be doing about 10 videos shortly one the use of Ammonium chloride, copper chloride and chloraform as anti bacterial and sterilizing methods as
a last resort.
The idea behind these videos is to think out side of the box if social decay ever did happen. All of us here know how easy these three things are to
make.
people wouldn't think to raid pool supplies for sources of making pure HCl.
While these sudies arn't anything new, I think it could bring a new light into survival if needed.
Just a thought.
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It might help if you spelled chloroform right
No big deal, though.
B&F, haven't seen Dornier around :/
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gardul
HAZARD TO TEH CATZ!
Posts: 256
Registered: 18-10-2014
Location: Under the Sun in a beaker
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Mood: Vivified!
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| Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist | | Quote: Originally posted by gardul | I will be doing about 10 videos shortly one the use of Ammonium chloride, copper chloride and chloraform as anti bacterial and sterilizing methods as
a last resort.
The idea behind these videos is to think out side of the box if social decay ever did happen. All of us here know how easy these three things are to
make.
people wouldn't think to raid pool supplies for sources of making pure HCl.
While these sudies arn't anything new, I think it could bring a new light into survival if needed.
Just a thought.
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It might help if you spelled chloroform right
No big deal, though.
B&F, haven't seen Dornier around :/ |
or perhaps it is a typo and I just didn't catch it. Which I noticed there were a few more. Sorry my typing skills have gotten bad over the years.
I just made you read this very pointless signature. How does it feel?
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Texium
Administrator
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Location: Salt Lake City
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Mood: PhD candidate!
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The only problem (and an ironic one, too) with making YouTube videos that are how-tos in case of societal break-down, is that if that was indeed to
happen, there would be no way of accessing them, as the internet would have gone kaput in that scenario!
Edit: Yay, 1000th post! Didn't even realize I was getting up there until just now.
[Edited on 1-2-2015 by zts16]
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Brain&Force
Hazard to Lanthanides
Posts: 1302
Registered: 13-11-2013
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| Quote: Originally posted by zts16 | The only problem (and an ironic one, too) with making YouTube videos that are how-tos in case of societal break-down, is that if that was indeed to
happen, there would be no way of accessing them, as the internet would have gone kaput in that scenario!
Edit: Yay, 1000th post! Didn't even realize I was getting up there until just now.
[Edited on 1-2-2015 by zts16] |
Unless you're smart enough to archive Wikipedia. Apparently it's not hard to do.
And as I said earlier, happy 1000th post! (Saw it in the Austrian law thread)
So can we meet up on Saturday? I need to get some extra pen nibs tomorrow.
At the end of the day, simulating atoms doesn't beat working with the real things...
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The Volatile Chemist
International Hazard
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Location: 'Stil' in the lab...
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Happy 1,000th!
Good luck on 2,000!
Actually, It'd be smarter to archive SM and the SM Wiki, more useful
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gardul
HAZARD TO TEH CATZ!
Posts: 256
Registered: 18-10-2014
Location: Under the Sun in a beaker
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That is very true.
I'm no prepper by any means as I find it rather unrealistic. I could go on a rant about that but that is besides the point.
The idea is to have a least a common knowledge. The know how can be easily and safely practiced. The infomation could be put in a notebook as well.
Something that has less of a chance of being affected by social fall out.
I have choosen you tube as it has a broader audience that may stumble apoun it ; rather than writing an article in a science magizine.
[Edited on 3-1-2015 by gardul]
[Edited on 3-1-2015 by gardul]
I just made you read this very pointless signature. How does it feel?
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