Mars Settlement: Phase I Summary

[spacester]

grooble, I wanted to thumbnail your excellent advice post. Very well said, 100% agreement here.<br /><br />These would be primary responsibilities of the Board of Directors:<br /><br />1. Don't get all weird on us.<br /><br />2. Visionaries lead, Scientists and Engineers lead, Administrative types support. Keep it that way forever.<br /><br />3. Professional conduct at all times by all people: maximize squeaky-clean operations and public relations.<br /><br />4. Treat everyone as adults, don't manipulate people, simply take advantage of what they are freely offering.<br /><br />5. Never let them accuse us of being a cult. <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[grooble]

Also like i said, i already have over $100 credit left with Enom, so it wont' cost anything other than i already paid to get some domains.

 

[arobie]

Check out this free domain offer.<br /><br />I'm a bit wary of it. There are still companies selling domains at $30 a year, and this is a free no comitment domain offer. What do you think?<br /><br />Hmm...agency, agency, another word for agency without it's connotation.<br /><br />Thesaurus search on "Agency"<br /><br />Anything jump out at you...other than all the highlighted 'agency's?

 

[grooble]

Better off paying than getting a free one, because then they have the rights to it, as they paid for it themselves i think. And then in a year they'll nail you with a $50 renewal fee <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /><br /><br />Is the name Access Space Foundation good to go do you think? <br /><br />

 

[spacester]

AccessSpaceFoundation.com .net .org is good to go.<br /><br />AccessSpaceJoes.com? <br /><br />Still just brainstorming here . . . <br /><br />edit:<br /><br />JoesAccessSpace.com ?<br /><br />edit: Yeah, make sure you get full unrestricted rights to the domain, as said, 20+ year project here. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[arobie]

AccessSpaceEnterprise??<br /><br />Enterprise: <br />1. An undertaking, especially one of some scope, complication, and risk. <br />2. A business organization. <br /><br />Probably too cliche.

 

[grooble]

Ok i bought AccessSpaceFoundation.com and .net

 

[spacester]

Sweet. Do the copy and paste thing, but just as a draft. We'll go thru some more formalities to set up our little, uh, space action cooperative before accepting the donation.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[spacester]

'Enterprise' might be cliche, but it works. It's what we're about: enterprising new ways of speeding up the space development timeline. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[grooble]

Well that particular org won't be dealing with the general public right? But with companies, universities, shools, other organisations and groups?<br /><br />So it doesn't need to sound perfect. How about initiative or executive or administration.<br /><br />What copy and paste thing did you mean, from the other page?

 

[grooble]

Also is it really neccessary to set up two orgs right from the start? It will double the basic paperwork and all of that.

 

[spacester]

Traditionally, the Foundation would be the quiet organization, staying out of the public eye. But this non-traditional way of using the foundation strategy might make the foundation more prominent.<br /><br />Typically, the Foundation would guard the treasure and give it in big chunks for the active business entity to administer. At least that's my impression of how it works. So the foundation urls you bought are for the organization chartered to guard the money against mis-appropriation of the contributions from Citizens everywhere.<br /><br />But like I say, this is out of the box stuff here, so I dunno about which org deals with the public. It's a good question though.<br /><br />Both orgs need to be set up by the lawyers. The Foundation needs to be squeaky clean ethical.<br /><br />The other org is the active business entity but we need the lawyers to set that up too.<br /><br />So we just need to get these domains locked up and develop our website over the next 6 months - just as you guys said. <br /><br />Our initial organization for the next six months can stay an informal unincorporated cooperative. I'm thinking we'll not want to ask for cash donations right away, just free services rendered.<br /><br />BTW I don't like Initiative because everything else ever named that in space development died on the vine. Call it superstiton, I <i>hate</i> 'initiative'. lol And I like arkady's point on it being non-bureaucratic sounding.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[grooble]

Anybody going to buy the .org one?

 

[spacester]

lol, I count 35 posts on this thread in the last 12 hours.<br /><br />I think we should let other folks catch up.<br /><br />Buying two of the six urls is enough for any one person, so yeah, it would be great if someone else steps forward and buys AccessSpaceFoundation.org<br /><br />Hey Arobie, could you start a poll asking about the other name we're trying to finalize?<br /><br />JoesAccessSpace ?<br />SpaceAccessEnterprise ?<br />SpaceAccess ?<br />Other ?<br /><br />Let's run the poll for, oh 8 to 10 hours today and see what happens. If somebody buys one of the good ones today just to mess with us, fine, we have other choices, so we can take a few hours to get the name right.<br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /> <img src="/images/icons/cool.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[spacester]

<font color="yellow">What copy and paste thing did you mean?</font><br /><br />I was thinking you could go back to the first post in the 'Ground Floor Opportunity' branch of this thread, copy starting at 'TERMS OF CONTRIBUTION . . ' and thru the signature, filling in the blanks. This would be a draft proposal, an offer to contribute the rights to use those domains. It could just stay there as an offer to contribute until we're organized enough to accept the contribution. Posted in a legal forum clearly indicating intent to provide services, it's just an offer on the table until you withdraw it. I think that'll work for the lawyers for now. <br /><br />edit: just for the heck of it, I'm going to note there are a bit less than 500 views on this thread right now. I wanna see how much interest is out there. Even if you're just lurking you can support this idea by checking in on the new posts, etc. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[grooble]

I keep my details private spacester but if you go here - <br /><br />http://www.enom.com/domains/Whois.asp?DomainName=accessspacefoundation.com<br /><br />And send an email using the registrant info, it will be forwarded to me. Send a number or something and i'll email you it back from my own email addy so you know i registered them.<br /><br />

 

[spacester]

That works, grooble . . . no huge rush, I'll send that info later today . . .<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[spacester]

The logic here is simple. <br /><br />How many space enthusiast groups will credibly attempt to achieve 20% market penetration and raise $3 Billion a year? Answer: exactly one.<br /><br />To achieve its goals, ACCESS needs to achieve that kind of cultural shift.<br /><br />To pursue this thing, we need to follow thru on the promise to work with everyone.<br /><br />The existing space enthusiast groups are great! They need our support! We will work with anyone not completely nuts.<br /><br />They're gonna love us! We will be bringing them new members and projects. And maybe some cash.<br /><br />If you go take a look at the website documenting the original Let's Design a Mission to Mars! thread, look at the Organizations and it's still pretty darn close to what I've been talking about here. The first part anyway . . . <br /><br /><font color="orange">A single entity formed an an umbrella organization eccompasing all the public and private organizations who participate. This umbrella organization would manage the money and be charged with the responsibility to stay true to the vision and the plan. </font><br /><br /><font color="yellow">The participating organizations would have to buy into the vision and plan up front and then, more or less, keep out of the way so as to avoid getting bogged down in disputes between disparate parties.</font><br /><br />The orange part is good. The yellow part needs an edit big time! Editing the yellow part has been a central subject of my efforts over the last two years.<br /><br />The buy-in part recognizes that the central enemy is disagreements between space keeners. But the proposed solution sucks.<br /><br />I don't have all the answers, but I'm confident we can forge a way to become the umbrella organization that lets us find out how we fare in space. I can't really explain why I'm sure this massive collaboration can work, but I've pondered it enough to be confident I'm right.<br></br> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[arkady]

Thats the spirit! <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /><br /><br /><br /><font color="yellow">But there would be a Foundation and 'Something' to take place of 'Agency' . . . </font><br /><br />Project ?<br />Initiative ?<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "<font color="#0000ff"><em>The choice is the Universe, or nothing</em> ... </font>" - H.G Wells </div>

 

[dan_casale]

How about one more ethic....All designs are public domain. That way the entire community is improved by our efforts.

 

[spacester]

'Initiative' sucks IMO, we settled on 'Enterprises'<br /><br />The open source ethic is added to the list of ethical codes, good one. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[spacester]

Yikes!<br /><br />We missed this one when naming our new organization.<br /><br />What do y'all think? Should we consider changing the name? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[arobie]

I'm not sure, but I don't <i>think</i> that that should be a problem.<br /><br />I honestly don't know. <br /><br />I don't know alot about legal matters and technicalities. <br /><br />Other more informed minds, What do you say?

 

[spacester]

Storming Forming Norming Performing<br /><br />That has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Has any one else heard of this way of looking at any organizational activity?<br /><br />It's the series of activities a group of people go thru when an organization of human beings gathers together for almost any reason. If you do it in the correct order, things go well. If you skip steps or do it too far out of order, chaos ensues.<br /><br />I'm not making this stuff up. I haven't even googled this, I learned this years ago and have been impressed with the theory's aptness.<br /><br />First, the group Storms, this could be brainstorming, or a traumatic event calling for action, or the result of years of experience coming together or other stuff.<br /><br />Then the group Forms. This can be at any level of formality and initial organizational principles. Somehow, the group forms up. This can also relate to actual forms from an existing bureaucracy, when you have one organization as the founding actor of another organization. Draft boards creating Armies for example.<br /><br />The first two can be switched in order with relatively little difference in ultimate success. The next two have to come in order or the organization is quite likely screwed.<br /><br />Thirdly, the group Norms. Behaviour is normalized, procedures are normalized, technology is normalized, all kinds of things have to be normalized for the organization to be viable in the long run. <br /><br />Communications, rules, objectives, resources all have to be examined and decisions made which establish the norms for those functions. Buy the license, get the permits, hire an accountant, all the normal stuff that might ordinarily be referred to as "forming" a business. IOW what most prople call forming, this theory calls norming.<br /><br />The group cannot Perform if it has not Normed. The degree of Norming the organization can afford to do before trying to Perform is directly correlated with ultimate success.<br /><br />The object <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[arobie]

spacester,<br /><br />Well I can't be on the founding board of directors or something, but I'm still going to help as much as I can. Everything depends on credibility and to be blunt with reality; having some teenage kid play such a big role does not lend to credibility.<br /><br />But like I said, I will still help in everyway that I can.<br /><br />So we need to review everything from the top. Absolutely, I agree.<br /><br />So where to begin? Well...er...I guess we begin at the top. Ok, new question: Where is the top?<br /><br /><font color="yellow">The other first big task is best done by people who are good at surfing the net checking out space stuff. Do you guys know where we can find people like that?</font><br /><br />Well yes, and it is begun. I'm hoping that my Space Links Thread continues on. I'll be doing research to find cool sites and space organizations to add them to the list. I'll also be surfing through the links posted. I hope to learn alot of 'stuff'. So, if you see any: "Help! Rocket Science" or "Help! Celestial Mechanics", don't be surprised.<img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />You say we will have a coming out party for ACCESS in six months. I recommend that we make that six months extendable if we need to. <br /><br />We have alot to do. Before we formally establish ourselves, we need to have a squeakier than squeaky clean plan. We need to know exactly how we will start and what we will focus on in the beginning and as we grow. We need to develop a marketing strategy, and we need to plan ways to get involved in schools.<br /><br />We will also need to have our Mars Settlement plan completed and finely polished. We are making good progess on that. Then we also need to have the Moon's activities' plans established and presentable. What about the asteroids? These are things we s